Posted: 2013-06-13 14:42:37
I am not sure what is the most surprising, the allegation that the USA is checking our emails with tacit (or explicit) permission from our own security services or the outrage from the media and public.
It just seems to have been so obvious that this stuff was happening for so long now I really just cannot be shocked by it.
The whole idea of personal privacy seems to be so heavily under threat and not just by the security services. Big business is out to get your information too and individuals themselves often willingly surrender far too much.
That is, people willingly surrender quite breathtaking detailed personal information on line about all kinds of things.
Each item may be in itself innocuous, but grouped together and salted with a couple of educated assumptions, then a very good picture can be established for far too many people about, not just what they do, but how they think.
There you are, I am revealing my thoughts right now. Big Data is currently a very hot topic. What this really means is loads of data about you and me - who we are, where we live and what we do.
Big business has this data now, probably much more than government in fact, and they are using it to make all kinds of assumptions about you, some of which might be wrong.
In fact it is not really the right stuff that is the problem, it's the wrong stuff that presents the real threat.
We have after all never been here before. The guys in charge have never had so much information on us. They are struggling to know what to do with it which is why Big Data is such a hot and sexy topic - the opportunities for government and big business alike are huge.
It is when they think they are fully in control of the information, but are in fact not quite 100% in control that the real problems can occur.
Politicians often come out in defence of the 'Snoopers Charter' using frightening phrases like: 'if you have done nothing wrong then there is nothing to be afraid of'. However, if they make a mistake with just 0.01% of the data (99.99% correct) then in a population of 65 million that puts 650,000 at risk.
This is pretty much the population of Sheffield and Rotherham combined.
Information Technology is immensely useful, there is no denying it, but systems and the data they contain can be as fallible as the people who make inputs, or design the software that run them.
If so much information about us can be taken and assembled without our permission, we should be very careful about adding to the problem by giving governments, of whatever political persuasion, permission to take even more.
In fact it is the very opposite of the politicians' claim: it is the most innocent of people who probably have the most to worry about.
By not being aware and not paying careful attention about the information you hand over you run the biggest risk by supplying the largest amount of information that could be misinterpreted.
It is right of course to ask questions of government and its agencies just to check once a while that they are public servants and not private masters.
However, we might consider once in a while the real price we pay for the myriad conveniences and entertainment that information technology now brings and our own personal responsibility to protect ourselves.