Forum Archive Index - September 2001

["Jeremy" <jeremy@electrosilk.net>]

> > And if someone who doesnt know me from a bar of soap gets his thrills
> > by knowing I had lunch at McDonalds then good luck to him.
> > Somehow I dont think it will go that far though, conspiracy theorists
> > seem to think that everyone cares what they are doing? They dont.

It is not a matter of someone who doesn't know you from a bar of soap.  It
is a matter of what they do with the information.

As a not trivial example, suppose you live in a marginal electorate.  The
incumbent Government presently takes a keen interest in what you do, where
you spend your money, what papers you read, what shops you use and who you
talk to.  They target Government feel-good advertising and largess towards
the people who will make a difference in the electorate. This is a fact of
life today in Australia and New Zealand.  Nothing hypothetical about it at
all.

Remote biometric monitoring would make this ever so much easier.  It avoids
any unpleasantness with getting bank details, phone records or shopping
information. It adds immeasurably to the 'degrees of separation' data.  It
provides real-time information to direct the advertising and government
handouts so as to press your buttons precisely.

I probably hear sigh of disbelief here, but you can make your own
observations.  If you are Australian based you may well have noticed a lot
of Government TV advertising of late about Natural Heritage projects,
CentreLink job opportunities etc etc.  These are feel-good ads designed to
attract marginal voters prior to the coming election.

As another example of using information perhaps inappropriately.  When I
worked for an 'un-named Australasian Telco' I was tasked to implement a
degrees of separation project on customers and their friends.  The idea was
that anyone a big spending customer talked to often, who was also a
customer, would automatically get answered immediately they called customer
service - no waiting in queues for them - .  They would get specially
trained operators and would always have only good things to say about the
Telco when they talked to their big spending mate.  This was a simple
example of customer manipulation using automatically collected information
to achieve a result.

Anyway, enough of my whingeing.  Just remember this next time you are on
hold for 10 minutes to the insurance company that someone much more
important than you has just been answered on the first ring.

Enjoy.

Jeremy



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