I may have plenty to hide for fair reasons. Former classmates who I don’t want to know where I live, criminals who I don’t want to know when I’m out, men who I don’t want to know that I cry at Disney movies, children who I don’t want to see porn channel ads when the wife cuddles up, mother-in-laws…, ‘nuff said. Some privacy is just a matter of decency.

I think the problem isn’t whether you’re being watched, but what people are doing with it. So far the worst I’ve had from having my personal data collected is harrassing advertising and phone calls trying to lure me into money-draining schemes. Countermeasures can be taken, but I know plenty of people who are not of a mind equipped to handle -or want to handle- things they didn’t ask for. You are basically relinquishing control, and whether you’re comfortable with that is a personal choice.

But personalised advertising is going to stick. If you look past the theoretical “my rights!” issue for a moment, you might find like me, that if you’re going to be spammed with products anyway, you’d rather be spammed with products that you’re actually looking out for. Want to save money? Tell your profiler you’re interested in the local supermarket bargains.

Sorry, I was under the impression that it was only the government who would have access to this data. I agree that if it is available for the general public to view and monitor other people for their own personal amusement, yes I disagree with it.

if you’re going to be spammed with products anyway, you’d rather be spammed with products that you’re actually looking out for.

Spot on. That’s what I was trying to get at in my previous post.

Don Patrick - Dec 30, 2013:

I think the problem isn’t whether you’re being watched, but what people are doing with it.

Ditto to that, and to your reasons listed above.

The argument you often hear in favor of these various forms of “surveillance” goes something like, “I’m not doing anything wrong so it doesn’t matter who’s watching, listening, or reading.”

While that may be true at the moment, it may not be true forever.  We all know how people (governments) are good at adding things, but not very good at removing them.  Once rules or programs, or information are added to a system, they’re seldom removed… or it takes such a great deal if effort to remove them that it’s easier to just forget about it and move on.

Laws, preferences, and governments are constantly changing, and what’s permissible now may not be acceptable in the future.  As for spam, I’d just rather not be bothered with it.

No worries Steve, I exaggerated a bit to make the general point. And I was trying to stick more to the product and its immediate use, if this thing is going to auto-suggest all sorts of media and ads while your mother-in-law or friends are visiting. Just like my Playstation prominently displays SingStar when I want to play TankWar with my mates.

With regards to government access, if they would be looking out for emotionally brooding profiles with an interest in both politics and ‘violent’ action movies, I think I should be arrested every other tuesday

Don Patrick - Dec 30, 2013:

Just like my Playstation prominently displays SingStar when I want to play TankWar with my mates.

Thunder Walk - Dec 30, 2013:

Laws, preferences, and governments are constantly changing, and what’s permissible now may not be acceptable in the future.

I’m still looking for a specific example.

Thunder Walk - Dec 30, 2013:

As for spam, I’d just rather not be bothered with it.

Nobody wants spam but it is here to stay and so wouldn’t it be better to at least have adverts you were possibly interested in?

Steve Worswick - Dec 30, 2013:

Sorry, I was under the impression that it was only the government who would have access to this data. I agree that if it is available for the general public to view and monitor other people for their own personal amusement, yes I disagree with it.

if you’re going to be spammed with products anyway, you’d rather be spammed with products that you’re actually looking out for.

Spot on. That’s what I was trying to get at in my previous post.

Government? You’re comfortable with the Government knowing everything about you including your whereabouts every moment of every day?

Ever read or hear of the book by George Orwell, ‘1984’?  OK…I know the date is long past but the premise behind it still stands. Much like Farenheit 451 where the Government ruled against owning & reading books. Or the satire behind ‘Animal Farm’.

Personally, what I do in the comfort of my home and my auto is my business. While I know that cameras abound in cities and across some countrysides, I don’t like them.
I’m not saying that they might not be of use in catching some criminal element of such, just that I don’t particularly care for them. In public places, there is NO expectation of privacy.

Here in the USA, at least for the time, we still allow gun ownership under certain conditions (mentally fit, no prior criminal records - felony convictions, etc.).  There have been attempts in recent past by…our Governments (state and National) to take away our right to keep and bear arms much like they did in England, Australia and other countries.

How about this from George Washington - “A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government.”

Now our Government is legislating / mandating Health Care for everyone. Socalism works great until you run out of other people’s money!

Invasive? it’s not only cameras to fear…it’s the government and what they’re doing with the data that’s collected. The Government hit on Microsoft and Apple to allow their code to be inserted into the computers to “watch and obtain certain tidbits of info without the end user being aware of it. Neat huh?! As long as it’s only the Government doing it it must be OK.

How about this, ‘A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will lose both, and deserve neither.’ - Thomas Jefferson

Yes Art. I am perfectly fine with the government knowing my every movement or monitoring my phone calls, internet activity and suchlike. Cameras in the countryside or even in people’s homes is a great idea. Imagine the emergency services being able to respond to trapped driver in a car in a river rather than hoping a passing motorist informs someone? Or stopping terrorist gangs from plotting their deeds, kidnappers, robbers etc. Anything that helps society in this way is surely a good idea?

We had a news story a few months ago about some women who had been held captive for something like twenty years! Ask these women if they would have liked to have been monitored. Heaven forbids your child goes missing. Wouldn’t you like to know their whereabouts?

I think we are maybe wandering off topic with the healthcare part. We in the UK have had free healthcare for decades and it’s great! As for taking guns away, I would fully support such a move and perhaps this would stop all the crazy school shootings, armed robberies and so on that we here about on our news all the time.

As for the George Washington quote, does this mean that if I don’t agree with the law, I am able to use weapons to force my independence??!!

Again, I see quotes but not one single example of what people are fearing despite me giving many advantages. So what if the government are watching us? Please someone give me an example of what we are supposed to be fearing instead of throwing quote after quote at me.

Steve Worswick - Dec 30, 2013:

Thunder Walk - Dec 30, 2013:

Laws, preferences, and governments are constantly changing, and what’s permissible now may not be acceptable in the future.

I’m still looking for a specific example.

 

Perhaps to use security resources more efficiently, drunks walking home from the bar, are filtered as spam by the monitoring system and blocked from surveillance.

Thanks 8man but personally, I would think street crime (or crime in general) would be one of the major reasons for implementing such a project. If the powers that be want to monitor a suspected terrorist’s movements instead of my own drunken wanderings, that would be perfectly acceptable to me.

Of course, all this is for healthy discussion purposes only and I don’t mean to upset anyone.

*EDIT* I’m just thinking about it. Your objection to being monitored is that you may not be monitored?!

Personally, I like my privacy, and don’t want Uncle Sam (or anyone else, for that matter) to intrude upon it, thank you very much. Like a great many folks, I ~DO~ have things “to hide”, and while they aren’t necessarily illegal activities (or, if they were, I certainly wouldn’t admit to such here! ), they’re not something that I want to share with the general public, so I confine such things to the privacy of my own home. I agree that spam is simply a fact of life these days, but that doesn’t mean that I should have to put up with it.

This sort of monitoring has something to hide.

Steve Worswick - Dec 28, 2013:

From my experience, only those with something to hide seem to be against this sort of monitoring.

That something to hide, is this sort of monitoring.

I too have things I wouldn’t want the general public to know about me, as does everyone I would think. I assume the people doing the monitoring know the difference between someone jaywalking and a bank robbery though.

Dave - if you find a cure for spam, you will become a very rich man!

Without getting too political here, I don’t necessarily trust the government to have all that much in the way of altruism when it comes to the best interests of the population in general, or myself specifically. At present, the U.S. government is going a long way toward proving the Second Law of Thermodynamics, as applied to Humanity. In other words, it’s (not so) slowly decaying, and the ability to monitor the general populace (with an eye toward staying in power) isn’t really a good thing, I think. And when you toss in the notion that “smart devices” (current tech televisions, cell phones, tablets, etc.) have the POTENTIAL to monitor us wherever we are (via GPS tracking, or even direct video, as some people are saying the new xBox already does), with this possible survielance being carried out by God knows who, my trust levels are understandably at an all time low.

Granted, some of the articles I’ve linked to, above, may be the products of “conspiracy whackos”, but the scenarios are extremely plausible. Think about it.

Dave Morton - Dec 30, 2013:

and the ability to monitor the general populace (with an eye toward staying in power) isn’t really a good thing, I think.

But why? Sorry to keep labouring the point but can someone, anyone give me a concrete example of why they don’t want to be monitored by a government agency?