"Wolf K" wrote

| What's changed is that the data tied to us is being stored by people we
| don't know, in databases to which we ourselves have no access, which we
| can't change or expunge, and which are being used for purposes we
| haven't permitted.
|

I think that the more critical changes a

* Computerization of the records.
* Computers used in everyday activities.

In the old days your phone company
didn't know where you were at any given time and the
books/newspapers you read didn't report your reading
habits to an advertising company. Your car didn't know
your driving habits. Your frig didn't know your shopping
habits. There was no Amazon supermarket that would
offer you $1 off the product whose price they just
jacked up by $2 in exchange for allowing them to follow
you around and spy on you.

But what's made all of this such a problem is the ease
of access and cross-referencing. Because it's all
computerized. Like you say, your grocer knew your
likes and dislikes before. But that was between you
and him. It was all personal relationships, and records,
if they existed, were kept on paper in file cabinets.

Google's cookies would mean nothing if they
were stored in file cabinets. They'd only serve what they
were meant for: To carry forward data from one page
when you go to the next. Instead, with interconnected
databases, their cookies become part of a vast and
highly efficient spyware system.

| It's possible to change this regime, but it will take regulation of big
| business, as the EU has begun to do with its data protection laws. But
| big business will do everything it can to prevent America from following
| suit. After all, our purpose in life is to serve business, to provide
| profits. It's the American Way!
|
I think you're right. But even the EU is being
mamby pamby about it. And it's not just big businesses.
Gov't beancounters also don't want you to have privacy.

3rd-party content needs to be illegal to begin with.
They need to be stopped from even collecting the data.
It needs to be illegal for your TV or your car to collect
data. They're doing it now only because they can and
you don't see it happening.

There was an interesting article awhile back about
Estonia:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...gital-republic

Your data is accessible to anyone who needs it. There's
a general rule that anything needs to be entered only once.
Once you've typed in your birthday, you never have to do
it again. It's all centralized. At the same time, anyone who
accesses your data is recorded and they'd better have a
damned good reason or face criminal charges.

It seems like a solution for the future, but I wonder
whether it can really work. If people can access your credit
card and passport info, job history, daily schedule, etc
then how can it be made non-exploitable? Maybe Estonians
just don't have anything that anybody wants? I don't know.