Savage Popcorn

Victor Rozek highlights the dangers of uncontrolled and unmonitored gathering of personal data.

The result of massive data gathering efforts will be a form of behavioral redlining. Redlining is the practice of denying or increasing the cost of services based on race, religion, gender, family size, disability, or ethnic origin. In those forms, it is illegal. But behavioral redlining is not, and data collection provides the foundation for a nosy new world in which all activity is recorded, and business transactions are reduced to computerized evaluations of risk and reward.

Of course, Rozek’s article is focussed on the privacy implications of a lack of control of the data falling into corporate hands. When the same data ends up in state databases with even less oversight, things become very disturbing indeed.

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