Is Privacy an Over-Rated Legacy of the Past?

The concept of privacy is a tricky one, to say the least.  Most people, when asked for a quick response would likely tell you that privacy is very important to them and that they are concerned about who has access to what they consider “private” data about them.

However, these very same people will create Facebook accounts, wander the web without using any sort of anonymous IP cloaking, send emails without encryption and speak loudly on their cell phones at crowded restaurants.  Many people are surprised to learn that things like your home address, phone number, email and endless other data is already freely (or at least) easily accessible to anyone handy with a few search engines and a database or two.

As we willingly share more and more information about our day-to-day lives via Twitter or Facebook status updates one has to wonder if we might not be better served giving up on this false sense of privacy and just open the floodgates.

As Matt Asay at CNet says:

Think about it. My in-box already knows where I’m traveling, what I buy, etc. because my receipts go there. If someone were to merge this data with my phone records (easily had for the price of my AT&T login credentials), my e-mail log, and my Twitter, IM, and social network data, they’d know exactly who I know and where I’m likely to bump into them…I’d love to automatically be told that my good friend Mike is in London at the same time as I am, and have a service suggest a reservation at a favorite restaurant (which it would know through my past OpenTable reservations). I’d “pay” for that by giving up a lot of data.        LINK

At first glance, this sounds crazy to a lot of people but the question is whether it is more valuable to you to keep your travel plans secret or to make them widely available as a potential way to add value to your travel.  We are already targeted by advertisers for our social behavior and choices made both online and offline, so it’s not especially new, at least in concept, that our personal data could and should be used in this manner.

The larger question is whether or not the whole concept of “privacy” is really just a social concept that is undergoing a major shift.  I am sure that the views on privacy from a sixty-year-old are radically different from those of a twelve-year-old.

4Chan Versus AT&T Highlights the Perils of the Digital Age

According to a number of sources, AT&T’s DSL internet service is blocking access to the very popular 4Chan forums.

Users of AT&T’s DSL internet access across many states in the US are reporting that they are being blocked from the infamous /b/ message board in what appears to be an act of internet censorship by the phone company. This started today Sunday and no one has yet been able to get any official confirmation out of AT&T as to why. Moot, the founder of 4chan, has confirmed AT&T is filtering/blocking the site.        LINK

Now, aside from the sort of “big question” of why would AT&T block a website in what seems to be a pretty clear violation of the FCC’s net neutrality rules, there is something much more interesting happening.

There is the very real danger, as shown in the snips below, that the 4Chan community will exact some sort of revenge on AT&T.  Not only that, but the general consensus seems to be that, were the global telecommunications giant that is AT&T actually go to battle with 4Chan, the money would be on 4Chan to win handily:

Predictably, the 4chan crowd is already mobilizing both inside and outside of their online community. AT&T didn’t just open a can worms, they dove headfirst into a den of vipers, and this will be very interesting to watch play out.       LINK

Not coming out with a clear and concise explanation just looks bad, and seems to be stirring up 4chan folks to make a statement — something AT&T almost certainly does not want. AT&T may be able to tap your phones, but getting on the wrong side of 4chan seems like a bad, bad idea.     LINK

One wonders if anyone over at AT&T even considered the potential threat of a counter-response from the 4Chan community.  In fact, one has to wonder if any of these corporate giants realize how much the power has shifted to the consumer.  Look at what happened to United Airlines after they refused to fix a broken guitar.  Many are blaming the very popular YouTube video “United Breaks Guitars” for a rather substantial drop in share-price.

Time Warner Cable Forced to Abandon Caps (for now…)

It turns out that if enough people express enough outrage than even a company as stubborn and unresponsive as Time Warner Cable is forced to respond.

Such is the case with TWC’s misguided plans to do a test rollout of metered bandwidth pricing.  Once everyone from top bloggers to major politicians weighed in on the myriad problems with the plan, TWC has be forced to reconsider and will not proceed with their current test programs in Texas and upstate New York.

Still, it isn’t all good news:

Not that the company believes anything about the plan was fundamentally misguided; as CEO Glenn Britt put it today, “There is a great deal of misunderstanding about our plans to roll out additional tests on consumption based billing.”

Sadly, Britt did not go into detail on just what we all misunderstood about a plan that could force users to pay up $20 just to download and view TWILIGHT in HD.

LINK

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iJustine and AT&T Get Lost On the Internets

Image via Wikipedia

Hey, have you been watching that new webseries, “Lost in America” starring YouTube sensation iJustine? Well, neither has anybody else.

“After two weeks, the series had generated just 31,000 views across YouTube, MySpace and four other sites, according to web video distribution firm Tubemogul. The only reason they racked up that many is that iJustine posted episodes one and six on her blog, bringing in 20,000 of that total.” (via)

There are plenty of reasons why their numbers could be so low but, after watching just one episode, it becomes pretty clear the reason is that the series is a not very entertaining infomercial:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plvTrcZa7P4&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

Switch to AT&T Or Die In a Fiery Explosion!

Image by Aaron Landry via Flickr

So, here I am watching a bit of the Giants/Cardinals game and on comes the latest in a series of AT&T mobile ads that demonstrates the consequences of not using AT&T wireless.

In one, a guy misses out on concert tickets because he doesn’t get service in a bar.  In another, a guy is stuck with two techno-ravers in a crappy youth hostel because his phone doesn’t work in a foreign country.  Inconvenient?  Sure.  Maybe even unfortunate.

But I guess it wasn’t convincing enough.

Now comes their latest ad, in which a local news reporter is BLOWN UP AND KILLED due to his use of an inferior wireless service!  Oh, and his cameraperson dies, too, just for good measure.

I can’t wait to see what they do when this doesn’t move the dial.

AT&T’s Blue Room – Too Subtle?

I was taken by a post on Adverganza about a site run by AT&T called The Blue Room that features interviews with very big names in music like Madonna and Mariah Carey (ok, I said big, not cool). There is no way to know how many views the site is getting (that I know of) but I certainly haven’t been hearing anything about it…

The videos are syndicated to YouTube but as Adverganza points out:

“…it’s surprising how little play they get on YouTube. It’s not as though the interviews are that fabulous, but as one example, a Mariah Carey video put up a week ago has less than 400 views. I’m not sitting on pins and needles waiting to hear about her creative inspiration, but I was under the impression a few other people were.”

Here’s the question: Are people just not all that interested in yet another interview with these people or is it that AT&T has simple not done enough to promote their promotion.  Promoting a promotion raises all sorts of issues – like what the hell is the point of a promo if you need to advertize it…

Sony Doing Some Cool…Oh, Wait. Nevermind

For just a second there is sounded like something vaguely cool coming out of Sony – full-length movies available over your cell phone.  Sure, tiny screen but nice to have the option.  Except, that as Engadget points out:

“It’s more the prospect of sitting in front of that tiny mobile screen to watch a full-length film without the ability to pause, fast forward or rewind. This is live broadcast folks.”

That’s right.  Like HBO or Showtime, movies will just be playing whether or are watching or not.  No control for the viewer.  Oh, and it will only be available to AT&T customers.

Not that anyone will ever watch.

One More Reason to Like Apple

I should start by saying I am a total Apple/Mac/iPod fan.  I stop short of fanboy because I certainly have my issues with the company from time to time and have had my problems with everything from a constantly overheating iBook to a constantly freezing iPod.

Still, they just rock design and user-interface and have always had about a sense of being “one of the good guys.”  Make has a great example of why:

“Jonathan Zdziarski, the author of O’Reilly’s iPhone Open Application Development, spoke about writing applications for the iPhone–both on jailbroken phones and via the official Apple SDK–at the Cambridge, MA Apple Store!”

That’s right, one of the key people responsible for allowing people to jail-break their iPhones and sever ties with AT&T, probably costing Apple a bunch of money, was welcomed into the store and given a podium and a microphone.

That’s how you tell your customers about values.