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On Sharing Information

February 15th, 2010
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Every day we visit sites, exchange email, post comments or status updates, and otherwise exchange data with lots of servers on the Internet. Much of the time we know and voluntarily offer our information, such as typing search terms to learn something, or offering our name, address and credit card to make a purchase. Our exchanges also transfer information about us that we may not be aware of, such as our IP address, our browser, and the type of operating system we’re using.

Despite our “agreeing” to various sites’ Terms of Service when we sign up for an account, we do not generally “volunteer” to be tracked, our habits quantified, categorized and sold. That raises the question: what if we could control more of what we exchanged? Would we? What would it take?

Obviously stores want to know if we are a serious customer: if we’re looking for the purpose of actually buying, if we can afford the items we’re looking at, and if they should use those items to suggest additional items we might be interested in (or if it was a gift to someone else and we have no personal interest in that item). For example, car dealers would save billions of dollars each year if they could identify serious and qualified buyers without having to create advertisements for television, magazines and newspapers, and billboards everywhere. In fact, it would probably be worth something to us as a serious shopper if we could identify ourselves as such ahead of time and especially during sales negotiations.

Like the car buying story above, scenarios are stories that we tell to help us understand complex environments. Chris Carfi did four nice overview examples in his Social Customer Manifesto’s VRM scenarios. The world of information sharing is complex in many ways: personally (what do I want to share?), politically/regulatorily, in commerce, technologically, and more.

Digital ID Coach is organizing a day-long workshop to look at this subject. We will be engaged in Rapid Scenario Development (a process that usually takes days or weeks). If you’re in the San Francisco bay area on May 16, you’re invited to join us. If not, stay tuned; we’ll be posting notes from that workshop.

Coaching moment: It’s worth thinking about how we use technology, and how it helps us do what we want to do. Technology such as computers, phones, and even programmable devices like thermostats and switches, have obvious benefits like aiding communications or saving energy. Technology also has a cost, like learning to use it or controlling things you don’t want it to do.

In the case of information technology, you’re empowered to connect to friends and resources but you also trade information about your location and other details. Since this will never be a case of only responding to your needs and never exchanging (which technically doesn’t work since the info needs to know where you are to respond to your request), we need to think about that exchange. What would help us the most? What would you be comfortable telling others about?

This is complex because it probably depends on each exchange. However, we can determine policies for general use in categories like “collect but don’t distribute without my express permission,” or “forward at will, this is something I want.” What categories or practices would you suggest?

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On Data and Disclosure

December 15th, 2009
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I like to think about ways to customize my world, and the digital world writ large, in ways that support and help us explore our unique selves. It is in our very diversity that individual strengths can play out to become our personal best, to help each other grow, and create fertile new worlds.

However, under the guise of “increased security,” we are increasingly surrounded by tools and technologies that minimize and standardize us, including video surveillance and data storage and analysis. About that last link to Google, CEO Eric Schmidt recently said “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”

This indiscriminate personal data hoarding is both an individual and a societal problem. Schmidt’s argument that we shouldn’t have anything to hide is specious (not to mention a double standard: it doesn’t apply to Schmidt). In a 2007 paper called ‘I’ve Got Nothing to Hide’ and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy, George Washington University Law School’s Daniel J. Solove convincingly critiques that argument. Indeed we have many things to hide, like our passwords and credit card numbers, certain personal habits and preferences, things that contribute to human dignity and respect. As noted security expert Bruce Schneier writes in his essay The Eternal Value of Privacy, “Too many wrongly characterize the debate as “security versus privacy.” The real choice is liberty versus control.”

Ironically, Gary Wolf and Kevin Kelly host a blog called The Quantified Self where they report about people exploring ways to keep track of themselves. It’s a significant difference between curiosity, personal need, and voluntary disclosure that’s driving data sets, and corporate ventures like Facebook (nod to jerking you around again with recent privacy policy changes), Google (Schneier’s response to Schmidt’s quote above), and damned near every corporate site you make an account with and that tracks your every move these days.

I’m looking for examples of sites that encourage liberty and demonstrate some respect for its users/clients. I will be reporting on what I find. If you have suggestions, I welcome them.

Coaching moment: Here’s a little thought exercise. Think about a typical day in your life.

What kind of things do you do in private? These might be taking a shower, brushing your teeth, thinking about the day. Some things might be really private as in just you by yourself, and other things may be private in some context, like thinking about your day out loud with your spouse or partner. Once you get a good list, which of those things would make you uncomfortable if they were made public in some way?

Now think of the kind of things you do in public, like driving to work or the store, walking around, having a conversation over lunch. Think about stories that might be told about you from the perspective of not knowing what you were really doing. You might take clues from signs that you walk by, or maybe other people (posture, groupings, facial expressions). Can you think of any stories that are not only wrong but might hurt you?

Finally, think about your online tools. Have you actually looked at the Terms of Service or Privacy Policies that you’re agreeing to? If you knew they were disrespectful to you or even abusive of your personal self and liberty, would you stop using them? Since the answer is “probably not,” what would you suggest these companies change?

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The Right to be Yourself

October 18th, 2009
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Sentient Developments has a thought provoking post called Cognitive liberty and right to one’s mind that talks about cognitive liberty, neurodiversity, and the right to control one’s own mind. Author George Dvorsky states that, while there may be compelling reasons why treatment might be appropriate (like for people engaged in criminally harmful behavior), it may be undesirable to “cure” those who are neurologically different (because of Aspergers or autism, for example). From the article:

Cognitive liberty is not just about the right to modify one’s mind, emotional balance and psychological framework (for example, through anti-depressants, cognitive enhancers, psychotropic substances, etc.), it’s also very much about the right to not have one’s mind altered against their will. In this sense, cognitive liberty is very closely tied to freedom of speech. A strong argument can be made that we have an equal right to freedom of thought and the sustained integrity of our subjective experiences.

Coaching moment: Your mind is a big part of what makes you unique in the world. You may choose to alter your mind by learning, drugs, television, or many other means. This is your choice. However, I doubt that many people would be supportive of a nationwide drug program to make us all the same (as if that were possible, which I also doubt).

This reminds me of a short story by Kurt Vonnegut called Harrison Bergeron. It starts out:

THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. …

The future will not be so kind as Vonnegut. We will need all forms of our diversity to tackle some of our own global problems and creations. We are better served by learning how to listen and learn from each other. Each of us is unique. Together we are still different. That is our strength if we allow for it.

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Getting to know you

August 20th, 2009
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National ID cards and programs are problematic at best, and an ongoing nightmare for citizens and visitors alike when the programs are poorly designed. The U.S. government has made earlier attempts at developing such a program, which have failed. However, the dream lives on in the minds of certain government officials and representatives.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has been following these efforts for years. EFF’s Richard Esguerra has a post, PASS ID: REAL ID Reanimated that offers an informed look at the latest effort to create the next version of a national identity card.

The PASS ID Act (S. 1261) seeks to make many of the same ineffectual, dangerous changes the REAL ID Act attempted to impose. Fundamentally, PASS ID operates on the same flawed premise of REAL ID — that requiring various “identity documents” (and storing that information in databases for later access) will magically make state drivers’ licenses more legitimate, which will in turn improve national security.

An ID card is only a small part of the picture. The government program that supports the card is where the devils live. I recommend to you Bruce Schneier’s testimony to the Senate on why this whole idea is seriously flawed.

Coaching moment: Have you ever filled out a form for a new service, at a web site or store, where the form asked for information that they might not have needed for the transaction you were seeking? Long forms that ask a lot of questions about you, your preferences, your income, and other personal information, are unnecessary. If you’re just buying something, why might the vendor need your income, your birthdate, or any information about other family members?

The fact is that they often don’t need it. They’re collecting information about you because they can, and because you might volunteer it. Even when certain information is marked as “required,” it might be in your best interest to think twice about doing business with companies that would be so invasive and demanding.

Treat your personal information on a “need to know” basis. What that means is don’t give out more information about yourself than you think the companies need to know in order to carry out the transaction. If the company or form require more information than you’re comfortable giving, think hard about your future well-being as a trade-off for today’s discount. Your mindfulness is a low-cost insurance on your future.

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Getting Tested

August 14th, 2009
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CNN has an article about families in China whose children are “participating in a new program that uses DNA testing to identify genetic gifts and predict the future.” The article, In China, DNA tests on kids ID genetic gifts, careers, states that the reason for these tests is to help give children an advantage by determining what the children’s genetic profile reveals.

The test is conducted by the Shanghai Biochip Corporation. Scientists claim a simple saliva swab collects as many as 10,000 cells that enable them to isolate eleven different genes. By taking a closer look at the genetic codes, they say they can extract information about a child’s IQ, emotional control, focus, memory, athletic ability and more. …

For about $880, Chinese parents can sign their kids up for the test and five days of summer camp in Chongqing, where the children will be evaluated in various settings from sports to art. The scientific results, combined with observations by experts throughout the week, will be used to make recommendations to parents about what their child should pursue.

Coaching moment: Your DNA is the instruction book to how your body develops and works. Scientists are studying the combinations and locations of various genes to try and figure out where our health problems begin or end. In this article, the scientists are using certain tests to “determine a child’s future.” The children’s DNA map becomes part of their digital health records.

Of more interest to me was this sentence: “Examining one child’s results, he told CNN: ‘This child is very thoughtful and focused, so I suggest she go into management.’” Being thoughtful and focused might also represent the creativity of an artist, the clarity of a physicist, or the drive of a programmer. However, the notion of casting a child’s future as a manager is much more problematic because it assumes that the Chinese scientists studying these children believe that they know what “management” as a line of work will be like in the future.

Will there be a great ongoing need for managers? Will “management” add value to the world in 20-30 years? We don’t know. We do know that technology will change the way we work and communicate, which is central to “management” today.

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