First Steps from the Shadows

Remember the days when big brother tried to pretend that he didn't exist, for fear that there would be a public uprising? With all the sharing of personal information that people do through the 500+ social media channels, it seems that people don't care, so why should anyone try to hide what they are doing. With the Google Dashboard coming out, it shows something that everyone should have implicitly known. If you have to sign in, somebody knows who you are and what you are doing. The dashboard makes available your Google related activities.

I've heard it said in office conversations that the magnitude of the information collected would make it impossible for any entity to build a profile with actionable data. Don't believe it. In a post today on GigaOM, it is pretty clear that crunching capacity is not going to be a constraint. While browsing history certainly is innocuous enough, I have to imagine that additional information is stored and indexed in an actionable format. Like any other tool, the positive or negative outcome is largely determined by the intent and proficiency of the individual with the access to the tool.

The fly of the day is provided by the Redneck Peacock Nymph, created by Jay Zimmerman, and posted by Larry Jurgens.

Tight Lines,

Dave