It’s what decisions are made with that data that’s the concern. A lot of “privacy advocates” believe that society can exist with the government not knowing anything about their population. I can’t think how:
a transport service can operate without knowing where people go and when
consumer advocacy can work without knowing what people will buy
what needs to be addressed in society without knowing what the issues are
what to educate people on unless you find out what they don’t know
a health service can adapt to the needs of aging populations without good fertility data
You’re right, all this data can be used against someone for malicious reasons and like in the China example it’s easier to locate dissonance by listening. But evil can be done without data collection, it’s impossible to do good without it.
You don’t need personalized data to do those things. You can just count how many people use the bus instead of checking for every person where they are going when and why.
I agree that aggregate data is the best way to improve things for the most number of people, you can’t help every single person, but also knowing the edge cases helps you find out things you don’t know.
It’s what decisions are made with that data that’s the concern. A lot of “privacy advocates” believe that society can exist with the government not knowing anything about their population. I can’t think how:
You’re right, all this data can be used against someone for malicious reasons and like in the China example it’s easier to locate dissonance by listening. But evil can be done without data collection, it’s impossible to do good without it.
You don’t need personalized data to do those things. You can just count how many people use the bus instead of checking for every person where they are going when and why.
I agree that aggregate data is the best way to improve things for the most number of people, you can’t help every single person, but also knowing the edge cases helps you find out things you don’t know.