Rethinking Privacy in an Era of Big Data
Posted in: Legal, Privacy & Security at 06/06/2012 14:31
Some years ago an engineer at Google told me why Google wasn't collecting information linked to people's names. "We don't want the name. The name is noise." There was enough information in Google's large database of search queries, location, and online behavior, he said, that you could tell a lot about somebody through indirect means.
The point was that actually finding out people's names isn't necessary for sending them targeted ads. It can probably lead to trouble, as Google's own adventures in Wi-Fi snooping show. Even without knowing your name, increasingly, everything about you is out there. Whether and how you guard your privacy in an online world we are building up every day has become increasingly urgent.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/04/rethinking-privacy-in-an-era-of-big-data/
