Source: www.onlinelearningtips.com
Monty Python. I'm not as old as Ian, however I have vivid memories of friends who were obsessed by the program. It certainly has grown in popularity to cult status amongst the Gen X demographic. I just messaged a friend to say I was watching Monty Python as homework for Uni. All I had to do was write Spam and he quickly started singing the song, hehe
Spam aside, Security and privacy is a fairly serious issue, at the forefront of most peoples minds. Whether it is concern of your passwords or pin numbers being stolen or your pesky friend who infiltrates your Facebook status when your not looking, the opportunities are on the increase.
There are privacy breaches recorded both internationally and locally on a daily basis through the media. As recently as last month, Telstra was fined a mere $10'200 when over 15000 of their customers details were made available online (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2014) To access the information was as easy as a Google search. The question I have is, Is $10'200 a large enough punishment for an organisation who recorded a profit in 2013 of $3.81 billion?
A slightly more controversial breach was that by Immigration department of details in relation to 10'000 asylum seekers. The details were made available on their website. Details including; full names, nationalities, locations, arrival dates, and boat arrival information, including children, detained in a mainland or Christmas Island detention facility (Ducket, 2014). The ramifications are many and varied. In particular the risk of safety of not only the asylum seekers but any family members left in the home country. It is not uncommon for some countries to track and pursue people linked to individuals that attempt to flee persecution.
All details online have since been removed and KPMG have been engaged to conduct a full and thorough investigation. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).
A Dark Scenario
I need to start by being honest and saying I struggled with a lot of the terms in this article, so there will be some dummies guide references to terms in this part of my blog post today.
Ambient intelligence - Pretty much defined as electronic environments that are impacted by people and responsive to people
Data Mining is an important role that brings with it huge responsibility
From my understanding some examples of such intelligence listed in the reading includes The following:
1. Surveillance systems
2. Mobile phones
3.Location implants (I'm hoping these aren't invented yet, they sound both scary and controlling, although the same location device in mobile phones does the same job)
4. Sensor networks
The National Security Agency stores all data from the US and most recently there has been debate as to whether it is legal to collect every phone call made in the USA for the purposes of tracking possible terrorists. It was suggested that collecting such data violates the legal restrictions of the statute cited to authorise it, section 215 of the Patriot Act (Ackerman, Roberts, 2014)
Without financial support from developed nations, I think prohibiting immigrants from states with no AMI could not be a realistic option. I don't doubt for a second that many governments including our own current government would entertain the proposition if it were real.
By dividing the planet based on AMI technology, we would be straining international relations and in turn be playing with the stability and safety of our nation.
The consequences of such leaked information include an opportunity for Spamming and spoofing, identity theft, purchases on credit cards that had not been purchased by the individual.
A dark scenario is a scary prospect and one that is not terribly far from reality. What the future holds, who knows!
References
www.onlinelearningtips.com
http://www.abc.net.au
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2013/s3820908.htm
www.znet.com.au
www.sbs.com.au
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/23/nsa-barack-obama-phone-data-collection-illegal-privacy-board
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