Jason Schroeder's Blog

I have to tell you that I find the topic of consumer privacy fascinating, and a little entertaining.  After all, I am an entertaining consumer and it just so happens that I work for a technology company.  Surprise for those who missed the memo. 

Well, I seem to get into these conversations with neighbors, family members, grandmas, etc every time some article appears talking about RFID embedded in clothing, some nitwit forgetting to renew their SSL cert <uh, never happend to us, right caz?> for DMV auto registration renewal or heaven forbid - some <gasp> targeted marketing conspiracy from the diaper company who somehow figured out that we have a five month old.  Heck, I didn't even know <just kidding, honey....>  "Well, you work for one of those Internet companies," grandma says, "be careful what you tell them."

So, let me boil it down for you.  Not only do I believe that consumer privacy doesn't exist today - it never has.  Get over it.  Don't believe me, bear with me for some examples.

• My grandma used to live in a small Nebraska town that my sister and I would visit in our younger years for weeks at a time over the summer.  One of our absolute favorite stops was at the Five and Dime store on main street.  We would walk down, open the door and look through all of the toy aisles while the soda jerk / owner, without a word being spoken, would whip up the best chocolate coke you have ever tasted and have it waiting for us at the counter.  My grandma would swing by and pick us up, <didn't have to pay - went on grandpa's tab> and as we walked home past the grocery store, the baker would often rush out with a fresh loaf of bread my family loved.
• My county launched a website about a year ago that lets anyone type in a street address.  Up pops a nice summary of information detailing the currently assessed tax value, the price I paid for the home and even some really cool zoomable aerial pictures. 
  
• Want my address?
  
• I absolutely hate random telemarketer calls.  I absolutely love the do not call list.  Frankly, I prefer to receive (e)mail concerning products and/or services in which I am keenly interested {ie: those diaper coupons were great by the way, thanks}.
• I have an aunt-in-law that absolutely refuses to email photos.  "Who knows who is going to see them..."
  

Ok, so?

• I would absolutely love to sit down with the soda jerk / owner and baker for an interview to find out just how much they have come to know about my Grandma, Grandpa and all their family over the years....  What a wealth of information they must have - what a great business opportunity to really know and understand their client base, deliver known desirable products, distinguish premium customers, uplevel the value of their targeted service. 
• How many people know what kind of home information is a part of public record?  I used to have to spend days at the government office searching through files to find out what my neighbors paid for their house <kidding>  now I can do it from the wireless coffee shop.
• How many people with some type of Internet access still opt to have a stack of phone books gathering dust in the garage?  Waisting valuable resources for an outdated service.
  
• Face it, we are consumers.  We want people to deliver us consumables.  It is desirable for me to only deal with consumables that I am interested in, or are applicable to my situation.  It is cheaper for creators of consumables to target those consumers whom are most likely to purchase, or add value to those who have already purchased. 
  
• My aunt-in-law never blinks an eye to drop off her film at any number of photo labs depending on the coupon she has to an attendant she doesn't know to be developed at some outsourced processing center.
  

So - what is fueling all of the increasing privacy debates?  Certainly not the type of information available.  Come on, say it with me volume, memory and access.  There is this amazingly incorrect sense of anonymity proliferated throughout our society.  Now, I would offer that each and every one of us would be able to sit down and have some opinion and sense of what pieces of data we would like to distribute.  Information is a business.  The more information I distribute, the increased potential of a correctly targeted service.  Today, we choose to interact in public, to walk around wearing certain types of clothing, in certain types of vehicles, at certain times of the day, to certain various places, looking at or purchasing certain types of things, with certain methods of payment, we visit certain websites, we communicate certain interests,...  Everything we do is a bit of this voluminous information that in some way, shape or form is a small piece of who we are.  Yesterday, the capacity to store this information was limited to the oft forgotten brain technology of keen observers.  Today, inevitable technology advances fueled by consumer and creator desire alike are increasingly making this readily available, already public volume of information accessible to those who seek it.

What is missing?  Fight technology with technology....  We have to come to grips with the fact that no-one, no-thing, no-opinion and no-action is anonymous.  The limit to which this information can be collected and acted upon is simply bound by the technology available to track and make use of it.  With this realization, we have to understand that responsibility for protection, classification and distribution of consumer data also falls in the hands of the very beings who create it.  The creation of an identity is absolutely critical to assigning, tracking and providing a platform for authorizing our very own bits of information.  A national identity card is a great start, Scott.  Quite frankly, I would prefer just one - I'd be happy to trade in the 20 or so off the top of my head that we have now {national vehicle privilege card, national tax number card, several national grocery preferred customer cards, national airline mile tracking card, national expense tab card, etc, etc, etc,}  but I guess that is another blog topic....

/jason