[LINK] location/opt in/out [was: Indonesia Overtaking Australia with Wireless Internet

[Jan Whitaker]

At 09:23 AM 8/06/2011, Richard Chirgwin wrote:
> > Also the location
> > and current activity of the person can be derived automatically and used
> > to filter information offered.
>
>Which I argue is a good reason *not* to use such services. But that's a
>view confined to an apparent minority of people who (a) don't like being
>advertised to, and (b) don't like the privacy invasions implicit in such
>services.

What bugs me is the way those who don't like those objections frame 
the ones who do as 'minority'. I'm not saying you, Richard, but those 
who want more and more control and manipulation of the general 
populace. Do they bother to actual find out what people feel is 
intrusive and abhorrent? No. They don't think through what they are 
doing and just make assertions -- much like many current govt IT 
projects in eHealth.

If programs are sustainable from an opt-in model, go for it. That is 
a business case decision. But c'mon, commercial and government orgs, 
please stop intruding without asking.

Jan



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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