On Friday PSFK is going to go to the BBC studios in New York to record a ‘Postcard From The Future’ for the BBC World Service show ‘Culture Shock’. Which is nice. The thing is we pitched this idea to the show and we need some help. From you guys.
OK, so when most people think about the future and personal information, we’re often filled with thoughts of Big Brother and constant monitoring by unruled corporations misusing our information
But what if the future was different? What if we were in control?
Technology is already shifting the power to the people – (we follow this trend here) – so why can’t it help us with our privacy and allow us to share, leverage and even sell our personal data on our terms?
How would that change the way the world reacts to us?
That’s the picture we want to paint. A positive future. We just need help painting it. Could you all leave thoughts in the Comments section. Would be a great brainstorm.
Hopefully, we’ll get invited back – and we’ll do this on a regular basis.
Some background reading:
Chartreuse (BETA) on how we must face up to the fact we have already lost privacy
Wired on the reaction of Facebookers to new features that harmed their ‘imagined’ privacy?
Noah Brier on the listening web
Max Kalehoff on making his life and wife private
Danah Boyd and invasion versus privacy
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Just to let you know: this is how I pitched the BBC:
Privacy
“The mass adoption of the internet stuck the final nail into the coffin of privacy – but how many regular people realise what kind and how much data is being gathered, analysed, shared and used by brands and authorities? As awareness grows, will we find ourselves in a situation where we take back control of our personal data – and even sell parts of it to companies we want to buy services from.”
September 26th, 2006 at 4:51 pm
watch the seth goodin talk on google video – its a talk he gave at google – where he suggests its a good thing that we let people know who we are and what we like as it means we’ll be targeted with better offers…
September 26th, 2006 at 5:16 pm
I just got a fancy new phone with all the bells and whistles on it. As I was setting it up last night, I came across an option that enables the network to identify my specific location. And while I didn’t hesitate to switch it on and receive all the new goodies that came along with it, like knowing the weather, receiving local news, and having 911 know exactly where I am, it did get me thinking about the greater implications of people willingly allowing themselves to be tracked. While I’m not concerned about “big brother” spying on me, I think this could be a point in the future where people look back and wonder if we really understood what we were giving up…not to be all 1984 or anything.
September 26th, 2006 at 5:26 pm
Seth Godin – google video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6909078385965257294&q=seth+godin+google
September 26th, 2006 at 5:29 pm
Since we’re on the subject of Seths, Seth *Goldstein* recently started up Root Markets, a web 2.0 platform designed to allow consumers profit off of their web data.
http://www.root.net
Also, check out the EFF (http://www.eff.com) has to say on the matter.
September 26th, 2006 at 5:46 pm
Loome (a little ahead of itself but)
http://www.livework.co.uk/home/projects/loome.html
Business Week on Loome.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2002/tc20021121_8723.htm
Turns the model of data on its head and puts the creator of data in control of it and turns it into a value for all. Has the potential to design out a lot of waste by addressing the assumptions business make about consumers… Put me in control of my data and I will tell you exactly who I am and what I want.
September 26th, 2006 at 6:07 pm
Privacy:
Bansky suggests we will all be looking for our 15 minutes of anonymity…and i think people in my generation who haven’t grown up w/ all this technology will be. That said, I believe that future generations will simply revel in technology as public culture and find creative ways to keep some parts of their real world as the private forum. Technology still hasn’t found a way to read minds right? As far as I can tell the brain is still a pretty clever piece of private technology. Right now, we’re all freaked because something is being taken away from us but for those who are growing up with it real time, it’s simply an amazing expansive shared world.
September 27th, 2006 at 11:51 am
Yeah, one is recommendation engines: Check out last.fm, they’re
letting us spy on ourselves and then using that data to make
recommendations.
Another is connectedness. Look at you and I, we wouldn’t know each
other if we didn’t believe in opening up our data/online identity to
the world. There are endless possibilities that can come out of these
relationships, but they won’t start if you are not willing to expose
yourself. Ultimately I believe that by knowing I have no privacy I’m
much better able to control it. There are lots of
companies/people/etc. spying on me, but I’m also spying on myself and
using that data for good.
September 27th, 2006 at 12:16 pm
here is a ramble I have had to present to the bbc to show that there is something more to it. It’s something I will work on but would love feedback:
Ok – the following is a stream of consciousness that needs to be refined but it runs like this:
In the future we’re going to sit in one of two groups – the paranoid and the socially evolved. The paranoid will spend their lives fearful of brands, companies and individuals who seem to be constantly keeping tabs on them. Everytime they remove a can of cola from their fridge, every time they carry their mobile phone, everytime they interface with the web – they know they’re being watched and analysed. Numbers will be crunched by speedy computers. Predictions about their shopping habits, their health, their politics, their attitudes will be created. The paranoid will make attempts to shield their identity – they will choose software that hides them, they will give false names and shop with certain companies they can trust.
This of course will be foolish because the computers will be able to track you down no matter how hidden you are, your name will match a database of all your other false names – and the stores and brands you trust are just like all the others – just branded to make you feel safer.
This networking of personal data could seem an Orwellian nightmare – but to the socially evolved, it’s will provide a playground of connections and creativity.
The socially evolved will take control of their profile. Just like we today dress in a certain way to reflect who we are, the occasion we’re attending – even how we feel, we will dress ourselves in the future – just in terms of information.
The socially evolved will have grown up as always-on. Instead of hiding from the limelight, they will revel in the opportunities the sharing of personal information will grant them. Evolution will take place through understanding and then manipulating of our data.
It all started with the popularisation of blogging and social networking. These developments allowed people to present themselves how they want to be seen. Of course, many people hid behind masks at first – until the online world started to impact their offline world.
Today in the future, by presenting information on who they are – by giving away what was once considered personal – they can find new friends, new jobs, new products and services, new lives.
Personal information was misundertood. Your school, age, post code was thought to be private – when in the end, it said very little about you. It was your niche interests, your quirks, your connections that said more about you than any demographic.
Using tools that were developed back then, we can monitor what people know about us. What websites learn from our browsing, where the phone companies think we are, what products brands think we’d be interested in. And because we know all this – we can do two things: we can change our behavior to make people know us better or not – and we can tell companies, brands and governments when they’re wrong.
But more importantly, the more we share about us, the more our lives will evolve – we’ll meet new people, we’ll be introduced to things we are introduced to, we’ll create new art, music, entertainment together, we’ll evolve our conversations with likeminded people. And alongside this, brands will understand us better – they’ll know what we like, what we want – and they’ll also get to know how to talk to us – whether we want an ad in our magazines, an disney-like experience. We will also trade our information with brands for cash or samples.
NEED GOOD, OUT THERE EXAMPLES.
September 27th, 2006 at 4:34 pm
One example in the automotive field: How much lower would your car insurance have to be to let your insurance company monitor the “blackbox” info that your car will collect on you and transmit via its own mobile phone?
In the end, a lot of these discussions will come down to regional / national / international standards on data collection & usage, and the economic incentives that will encourage us to let corporations use that data.
Me, I drive fast. So I’d have to get insurance that’s at least 65% cheaper … and buy the one marked for “fast drivers who’ve never had accidents but often speed”. Don’t laugh. Betcha it’s coming ….
(P.S. Who’s the “Johnny V”? Here I thought I was alone all these years ….
September 28th, 2006 at 9:53 am
This is my postcard from the future as of Thursday evening. It may change as I sleep. Any feedback?
Red Coat, Black Coat v.1
It’s about that time again and Steve grabs his black mac to go and meet his one and only real friend Jill. As he wraps it round him, he looks at the corners of his room, he looks out of his window then slips out of his front door without making a sound.
Wrapped in his black coat, to anyone who spots him, Steve looks paranoid – trying to hide. In fact, Steve doesn’t just look paranoid. He is paranoid. Paranoid everytime he swipes his card to get into work, everytime he has to carry a mobile phone, everytime he chats on the web, everytime he removes the last can of soda from his fridge. He’s being watched. He knows it. Unknown organisations are watching his movements, brands are watching his consumption, details of every action Steve takes is being crunched by speedy computers that predict. Computers that predict Steve’s shopping habits, health habits, voting habits, sexual habits. Steve tries to shield himself from what he calls an invasion of privacy. He uses software to mask his identity, he gives false names, he uses alternative underground brands.
Jill leaves her house in her red coat and as she strolls down the street everyone seems to know her even if they haven’t met him before
Unlike paranoid Steve, Jill is considered as the socially evolved. It’s not only her red coat that presents an image to the world of how she wants to be seen – Jill understands and manipiulates how the world sees her, how companies see her, how her friends see her. Using technology that was developed maybe twenty years ago, Jill knows nearly everything everybody else knows about her. And in the same way she uses his bright red coat to make a statement about himself, she manages the data about herself to present the image she wants.
Information is like fashion – to be use, shown off and even bartered with. Her friend Steve hates people even knowing about his name – but what does a name really say about Jill. Or the school she went to, the color of her skin or her date of birth. Jill is Jill. Or the Jill she wants you and the companies who want to sell to her think she is.
Of course people know about Jill through her blog where she talks about all the things she wants to talk about. And as she’s chatted to other bloggers, she’s found other likeminded souls. And that’s how she’s found new friends she’s never have met before – even been contacted by a company that may have a job for someone just like her.
At the bus station, Steve pays cash for his ticket in the machine. He doesn’t see the idling bus change its number and chug forward to the stop to take him on his way.
Meanwhile, at the subway Jill uses his frequent user reward to travel for free.
On the bus, Steve pulls the collars of his coat around his ears to try to stop the blare from the ads. Papered on the back of seats, the graphics try to sell him shampoo, cheap holidays and a magazine for retirees.
Jill’s subway ride is silent. It’s peaceful – with the ad panels temporarily turned down to let her enjoy the great tunes her music player has selected from a global jukebox. All this peace kindly brought to her by Target stores.
At the café, Jill’s drink, the coffee makers start her mocha just as she enters the store. Just in time – Jill’s heavy with shopping bags as she just saw the greatest clothes to match her Red Coat in the window of her favorite fashion store down the way.
By the time Steve makes it to the café, he’s a mess – harassed by the world around him. The staff behind the counter guess the fake name he was going to give but they wrongly guess the drink he was going to have. He’ll have to wait until they make the drink again.
“Don’t worry. Come over and meet my new friends,” she says as she waves to a table or people.
“How do you get to meet new people like you?” Steve says.
“I haven’t yet. I met them though the blog.”
“But they look like they know you well…”
“It’s the coat,” Jill replies pointing out their red coats too.
September 28th, 2006 at 11:00 pm