Your Permanent Record

My school years were an amazing era, the enforcement of personal responsibility in my earliest of years was first upheld by teachers delivering a quick, but public, swatting on the butt when you were misbehaving.  In later years your compliance was enforced by threats of negative entries in 'your permanent record'.

The legendary permanent record was advertised as this global report of what a good (or bad) kid you were, perhaps a series of characteristics each with a score (1-10)...we'd really never know.  Denial of future job prospects, college admissions,...all lie in the wake of a negative record.  As we grew, we later found that no such record existed.  Mind blown; all the bad things we did would be left behind when we left school, a blank slate at our new school/company/fellowship.

Who would have thought that the concept of a permanent record would one-day exist, the concept was simply ahead of it's time.  Today, it takes the form as a Social Credit System.

The social credit system has privacy advocates up in arms for good reason, as it attempts to apply a grade to individuals based on their trustworthiness.  Its financial goal is to better assess whether a person is financially responsible, its social goal...to reward good behavior and punish bad behavior.  Personally, I'm torn; while I value privacy, I also observe (and conduct) bad behaviors on a daily basis.  Unless you believe in karma or the ever-after, you infrequently see dick-heads get their just desserts. Perhaps a social credit system would serve up justice and an ever-watching judge would reduce bad behaviors. /shrug

Dangerous slope, potential to be misused, and who's to judge...I'm not embracing the idea, but I can see how one could get there.

I struggle with this idea, and am drawn to one of it's heaviest criticisms; the ?right? to personal privacy.  But what is privacy?  What should be private, and what is public?  Where is the line?

For you, personally; have you ever thought about where the line for privacy should be?  Is the desire to preserve privacy a defensive action to hide stuff you're embarrassed about or more of an ideal concept.  If you privately donated $10,000 to a Red Cross bucket only to later be identified, would you have the same response to being identified as a drunk pedestrian who puked in the same bucket?  The line to privacy is likely personal and I'm not sure I myself have a clear line in my head.  Perhaps this post will help me reconcile my own privacy boundary.

Let's first look at the motivation for a Social Credit System, or peeking into one's privacy.

Let's say you're set up on a blind date.  Do you observe your dates privacy 100%, or do you challenge it somewhat?  Given the opportunity, would you ask their friends what they were like?  Would you ask their exes how they were treated?  Would you want to know if they were a good employee, have held a stable job?  Would you want to know if they were financially stable, in good standing with their landlord, have a criminal record?  Would you want to know how they treat their servers when out dining?  Would you want to know if they had an STD?...  Would you want to know any of these things, some of them, or none of them?  The world is full of dating advise that suggests knowing these things to avoid a relationship that is doomed to failure.  Each inquiry into your date could be considered an invasion of their privacy.

What if you are a parent looking for a day-care provider?  Would you want to know if they were a reckless driver, hot-headed, or an anti-vaxer?  Would you want to know if they frequently screamed at their own kids, had a criminal record, was an occultist, or their preferred pastime was doing lines in the nightclub stalls?  What if they have pedo-tendencies, but have never been charged/convicted?

How about as an employer; would you want to know if your perspective employee has a history of flipping-the-bird to fellow travelers, treats shouting obscenities in an open stadium as their main hobby, is an founding member of the alt-left, alt-right, local nazi party or any other form of extremist?

As a consumer of such privacy info, would you pry?  Or, perhaps you are in the fleeting minority of believing that people are inherently good.  The consequences are mostly yours to bear; it'll be you that needs to pry a blind-date deadbeat from your memory and potentially off your couch.  It'll be you that will deal with any consequences of leaving your kid with a psycho.  And, it'll be you that needs to publicly apologize for an employee that brings Internet-worthy shame to your business.  Most people I know would dig at least a little beforehand _if_ the information was readily available.

But where is the line separating private from public?  As an individual, where would you draw the privacy line?  What is private, what is public....if you, and you alone could define the boundary?  Forget current conventions, forget legal definitions,...forget it all for now, with a clean slate....where would you draw the line?

• A drunken melt-down on a commercial airline -- private/public?
• Public participation in an extremist rally (alt-left, alt-right, nazi, KKK...) -- private/public?
• Privately tutoring underprivileged kids in STEM -- private/public?
• Aggressively driving while flipping the bird to other drivers -- private/public?
• Volunteering to foster abandoned pets -- private/public?
• Sharing your personal opinion on a topic on the Internet while using your real name-- private/public?
• Sharing opinions (perhaps hostile) on the Internet while using an anonymous name -- private/public?
• Beating your mate/kids behind closed doors while avoiding criminal charges -- private/public?
• Obsessing with executing physical harm on others -- private/public?
• Private participation in an extremist group -- private/public?
• Personal nude selfies -- private/public?
• .... (I will avoid going darker)

If you're like me, you want to define clear boundaries.  Some distinctions are easier, others are extremely hard.  Equally, if you're like me, you'll find it nearly difficult to do so.  We criticize public figures and the legal profession for drawing these boundaries, perhaps we even trust their judgement.  More than likely though, we will simply ignore it....put it in the box of way too hard problems to solve along with countless math problems from the past, never to be returned to.

So, I continue to be torn on the topic.  I continue to wish dick-ish people would be punished for dick-ish behavior and good people are rewarded.  I don't want people prying into my personal life, yet understand the motivations for doing so.  I want to define an line that distinguishes between private/public but it continues to elude me.

I only wish that your journey to do so is found to be easier.  Good luck!

A Better User Experience -- The Reason The Internet Is Spying On You

Open a newspaper, turn on the news, open nearly any social media application or listen to radio or podcasts...it's nearly impossible to avoid someone, somewhere touting the sinister collection and usage of user data.  The latest boogieman of modern society, the worlds master of ceremony drags this villain on stage to be pelted with tomatoes by an enthusiastic crowd of participants.  Politicians, seeing an opportunity capitalize on outrage, often overlooking the hypocrisy of mandating the participation of surveys officiated by the Census Bureau.

User privacy is an incredibly complicated topic, far too complicated to even touch on.  Rather, I'd submit to the 2+ possible readers of this post who stumbled upon this during a particularly boring company meeting, insomnia-fueled browsing, or particularly long bowel movement, that privacy is an individual choice and should be an informed decision.  Focused on those who may not consider themselves tech-savvy, the remainder of the post will attempt to focus on 'why your phone/computer knows so much about you', the likely motivations from a technical perspective.

Money

Despite the popular 'evil corporation trope' I personally don't feel there is a legion of business leaders tenting their fingers around Hitler's well-preserved French-inspired boardroom conference table and plotting how they can pillage the remaining ounces of user data from the peons.  Instead, you have companies ranging from start-ups to billion-dollar organizations trying to figure out how to fund their operations.  For example; Google's Alphabet reported $39.3 billion in 2018 revenue, $9.19 billion in net revenue which leave ~$30 billion in annual operating expenses.  Droves of engineers, scientists, marketing personnel and others require salaries.  Multi-million dollar server farms require equipment.  Monthly utility costs alone are likely beyond the capacity of understanding for folks like you and me.  Big Daddy's gotta eat and companies like this found a way to create revenue from something seemingly worthless at the time.  With approximately 2 billion active devices, do a little simple math; that's $15 / device to cover Google's annual expenses.  Now, count the number of devices (phones, tablets, computers,...) you have in your family and tally it up.  Would you consider cutting an annual check to Google for that amount?  Yes....cool, calculate the same for all the other providers you use; Reddit, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook....inventory your phone.....I'll wait.
User data is obviously big business, perform some mental gymnastics and consider alternatives to funding such technical powerhouses.  Personally, Google alone provides me more benefits that local and federal government on a daily basis but I wouldn't tolerate an equivalently sized tax expense to retain such tech and out-of-pocket expenses would likely be comparable.  Alternatively, we could return to the days of physical maps, encyclopedias, pre-web and newspapers. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

My apologies, I got a bit long-winded and certainly preachy.  Please focus on my intended point; these revolutionary technologies cost money to build and maintain, people have demonstrated a reluctance to pay market value and user data has stepped in to fill that void.  If user data currency were to leave, the tech would follow or the monthly expenses would somehow make their way to the consumer, anyone who says otherwise is living in an alternative reality.

Language

Let's start light, your computer and Internet applications know your preferred language?  The reason is likely apparent, but pretend for a moment it didn't.  With 1.2 Billion population in China compared to a mere 300 million in the US, how useful would it be if the majority of your web content was provided in Mandarin?  I've personally witnessed folks throwing a hissy-fit when an ATM requests preferred language on the primary screen.  Selecting a language is an additional stumbling block in accomplishing your goal, getting relevant information.  When web applications know your preferred language and the language of the content it can even offer to automatically translate the content to your preferred language, auto-magically.

Location

But why does the Internet need to know my current location?  For those of you that didn't live through the era of the floppy disk you may not have lived through the birth of the Internet.  In the pre-Cambrian era of technology, the Internet was primitive and small.  You could navigate it in the same way you conducted a search in your local library....dig through a card catalog and find information local to your community library.  As this virtual library (our Internet metaphor) scaled to a massive level a better way to peruse it became not only desired....but essential.  Location could easily be viewed as a primary descriptor of finding relevant content for users.  When searching for the Department of Commerce information you're likely interested in the one related to the state in which you currently reside.  Searching for 'hospital' likely wouldn't satisfy your true goals if it returned results on the other end of the country.  If you're inquiring about the 'business hours of Applebees', you're likely interested in whether you have time to grab a late-night cocktail, not the hours from another state and time-zone.  During the pre-Cambrian Era of tech you had to constrain ALL your searches with location when it was relevant.
But just for fun, try doing without; if you have access to a VPN, select a site on the other side of the country (or world) so it's best guess to your location is not representative of where you really are.  Next, open an incognito window to avoid location awareness.  Do that for a day, quantifying all searches with your current city/state and measure your frustration.  Without location you're Internet life/searches becomes much, much less user friendly; functional, but far less convenient.
Exploring local dining and event options without your current location pushes a good deal of complexity onto the user.  Suppose you're visiting a new city, rife with suburbs and are looking for a quiet coffee house.  Perhaps you're a well-equipped traveler with knowledge of the surrounding suburbs and prepared for conducting a series of searches for coffee shops in each so you can select the best suit to your particular taste.
I'm intentionally going to leave out vehicle and walking navigation as I feel that is a pretty apparent need for location and I haven't met anyone who would be enthusiastic to returning to the days of paper maps.

Search/Watch/Navigation History

I'll sprint to the table for a conversation about how much I hate unsolicited advertising.  Today's USPS mail-box equivalent, bursting with personalized 'offers' and ads while still prominent has been augmented with shotgun-style advertising via e-mail and other web presences.  Big Daddy's still got to eat, and I'm significantly more tolerant to advertisements for products I may actually use.  Call it targeted advertising, tattoo it with maliciousness, but honestly....would you rather have advertised products that align with your interests or one's of day's past....2-for-1 diaper deals (infant or adult) when you're childless, window installer fliers to renters,... I'll gladly exchange irrelevant ads for one's that are applicable to things I want or need.  Still hate ads, but hate targeted ones less.

Intelligence baked into navigation history provides benefits, how else would you know from the bazillions of Internet cat videos which one(s) you'd like to watch?  Watch 'Corner Gas', let me recommend 'Letterkenny'; exposing you to series that you otherwise may never have seen.  Just bought a Toro 24" mower, what if next season you're prompted with the filter/plug replacement parts rather than have to remember and look up the parts?  Suggestions provided by 'the algorithm' sounds ominous, but just try to recall what it was like before Barnes and Nobles suggested authors you may like based on your previous readings, what it was like that every news outlet published a generalized bundle of the masses.  Advertising and knowledge distribution today views you more as an individual than ever before, recognize the blessings of this.

Device Info

Capturing device information and usage provides the holy grail of support and market-based business decisions.  Consider the US Census again; why does it exist?  Is it a plot to expose all our individual secrets?  Or is it an essential metric to understand where the nation can/should invest?  Businesses armed with a key understanding of how users are using their products, what they use, what they don't is an essential part of determining where to continue investing.  Prior to user-based metrics business leaders took the word of third-party personnel (sales folk, politicians, and product domain mentalists) or sub-sampling users with surveys and extrapolating the results to make business decisions.  Or, worse, they simply just guessed.  Every button you click, every scroll pane you see, every screen and graphic costs money to build and maintain.  Every release, countless features are exhaustively tested by an army of testers.  Identifying obsolete features is essential in discontinuing unneeded/unwanted features, without which you indiscriminately spend on unneeded products (e.g. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/fda-used-have-people-whose-job-was-taste-tea-180967545/)

Today, leaders are armed with data to make data-driven decisions; exponential growth...better invest in personnel and equipment 'cause the flood of users is coming, exponential shrinkage means the feature/product may be on a dying path.

Birthdate

With exception to a mere handful of family members, I generally don't remember birthdays and consider it a blessing that my phone reminds me when my amazing neices/nephews have a birthday due.  Despite the cesspool that the Internet can be, it has the ability of bringing us together.  Recognizing and celebrating a single day to show someone how you feel is a worthwhile step in the right direction.  The interests of a 20-something and a 60-something dramatically differ, that knowledge allows providing relevant info to you.

Contacts

Verbal commands have introduced a new element in how we interact with systems.  Pop-quiz; what's the telephone number of your sister/brother/buddy?  Chances are, you're more likely to remember the capital of North Dakota over that phone number.  Without associating a name and phone number, the purpose of your contacts, you'd be left with 'Ok Google, call 952-555-1212' or doing without verbal command conveniences.  Ditto for e-mail, sms and such.  Third-party applications request access to your contacts to allow sharing via SMS, e-mail and such.

Closing

User privacy is certainly complex subject and like your social security and bank accounts you should protect them accordingly.  A good deal of attention has been paid on why/how to protect user privacy but seldom speak to why the information is being gathered and/or used.  Fear sells, so a good chunk of media attention is on the potential malicious use of the information.  Having spent going on 3 decades in the software engineering industry I can speak with some confidence that there exists no droves of shady software engineers hiding in the shadows writing applications with the sole intention of stealing your semi-sensitive information with sole purpose of mischief.  Instead, many conveniences and good user experiences are build upon this information, making things more convenient and usable.  The primary goal of the Internet is (or should be) to get relevant information as easily and quickly as possible.  Searching for the closing hours for that boutique French bakery down the street which name has currently escaped you shouldn't require "french bakery english language st paul mn united states", instead 'french bakery' simply returns Trung Nam French Bakery in the key return list.  Less typing, more croissants.

Finally, I'm not advocating simply hammering on the 'accept' button and freely give away user privacy to any Tom, Dick and Harry.  I value my data privacy as much as probably most, but not understanding why or how it's being used is part of an informed decision.

Now, go find something cool.