Hello, The BBC news articles below address privacy concerns over states' and corporations' use of personal data. I think you will find the links useful.
Thanks, Mashi The basic summary is the following: 1. States collect personal info by various methods (eg:CCTV/closed-circuit TV in roadways). Corporations collect personal info by various means (eg:credit card transactions). 2. The info collected by a single entity (state/corporation) is considered SEPERATELY BY ITSELF. The combination of data collected by different entities is NOT considered by many people. 3. Corporations are now building their businesses by DATA MINING on previous customer interactions with them. This is common practice. 4. If there are no safeguards to prevent corporations from **SHARING** personal info with other corporations/state, then IN THE FUTURE, an ECONOMY based on personal info will come up (eg: a business targets only rich customers based on info obtained from their bank records, insurance companies may turn down requests based on info obtained from health services etc). 5. If there are no safeguards to prevent state agencies from **SHARING** personal info with other state agencies/corporations, it could lead to SOCIAL DISCRIMINATION. (eg: Traffic police may stop cars to do checks based on info obtained from other state agencies regarding race of the driver of car. ie. linking number plate to name, name to race, and race to probability of person committing a crime). 6. Different ways outlined are CCTV(closed-circuit TV), number plate recognition, shop RFID, mobile phone triangulation, store loyalty cards, credit card transactions, electoral rolls, health service records, TV preferences recording, worker monitoring etc Although some of them apply to only DEVELOPED COUNTRIES (like CCTV), many could also apply to DEVELOPING COUNTRIES (like credit card transactions, mobile phones). 7. Concerns outlined are a. loss of privacy b. loss of choice/consent by consumers c. discrimination 8. IN THE FUTURE, when RFID (radio-frequence ID) tags become cheap, they could create 'AN INTERNET OF THINGS'. 9. There are great risks if the info contained in the databases are wrong/inaccurate or if it falls into wrong hands. *How we are being watched - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6110866.stm *Britain is 'surveillance society' - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6108496.stm *Q&A: Radio-frequency ID tags - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6055296.stm *Trust warning over personal data - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/5172890.stm *Is business the real Big Brother? - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5015826.stm Thanks, Mashi _______________________________________________ dev-tech-crypto mailing list dev-tech-crypto@lists.mozilla.org https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-tech-crypto