If private data is being reaped from our mobile phones, how come it has never been put to good use?
For example, when someone goes missing, all the authorities seem to be able to do is determine when the last call or text was and give a very rough approximation of the person's location (based on the cell towers). Surely, if "they" had access to more detailed information, they'd be able to use it in such situations, even if the source of such information had to be obfuscated?
It's the same with privacy concerns over CCTV cameras "monitoring our every move". We've all seen how useless CCTV footage is most of the time and the struggle that the authorities often have to identify people who have been caught on camera. If the technology is so good, so penetrative, so intrusive, how come it has never been put to good use?
I'm not trying to justify any invasions of privacy, I'm just (perhaps naively) sceptical of how detailed the information really is.
Correct me if I'm wrong, Jaowon, but you say that like innovation is a bad thing! "Nintendo will just keep releasing novelty Wii products to keep the Wii's shipping" - as opposed to doing what? Sure, they could actually develop some more games, or at least use each Wii product for more than one game, but it seems a shame to stifle the development of products that can make use of such an innovative method of interaction purely because they may be perceived as a "novelty" or fad. What do you think they should be doing?
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5 posts • joined Monday 6th August 2007 12:20 GMT
Naive Scepticism
If private data is being reaped from our mobile phones, how come it has never been put to good use?
For example, when someone goes missing, all the authorities seem to be able to do is determine when the last call or text was and give a very rough approximation of the person's location (based on the cell towers). Surely, if "they" had access to more detailed information, they'd be able to use it in such situations, even if the source of such information had to be obfuscated?
It's the same with privacy concerns over CCTV cameras "monitoring our every move". We've all seen how useless CCTV footage is most of the time and the struggle that the authorities often have to identify people who have been caught on camera. If the technology is so good, so penetrative, so intrusive, how come it has never been put to good use?
I'm not trying to justify any invasions of privacy, I'm just (perhaps naively) sceptical of how detailed the information really is.
Hat?
Thought he was wearing a giant pink wizard's hat in the first photo...
@Jaowon
Correct me if I'm wrong, Jaowon, but you say that like innovation is a bad thing! "Nintendo will just keep releasing novelty Wii products to keep the Wii's shipping" - as opposed to doing what? Sure, they could actually develop some more games, or at least use each Wii product for more than one game, but it seems a shame to stifle the development of products that can make use of such an innovative method of interaction purely because they may be perceived as a "novelty" or fad. What do you think they should be doing?
Alright Already
I think we get the message - how many people are going to inform us about this ridiculous "drunk in charge of a vehicle" law?
Don't you read the previous comments?
Good One
"It was a Freudian slip"
A great, but strangely inevitable, comeback.