The internet. It’s a morass of stolen personal data and security weaknesses, forever being circled by governments which desperately want to access your information in the name of security.
And just in case you thought that was new, be advised that this was exactly what early adopters were concerned about in 1996.
Pictured: the internet in 1996.
Yes, 22 years ago the Wall Street Journal ran an article which has been getting a lot of Twitter love recently because the internet never, ever forgets. And it is chillingly prophetic:
Sara Fitzgerald, spokeswoman for Interactive Services Association, a Silver Spring, Md., trade association that serves the on-line industry [said] “I think there is a concern about large databases posted where people can have access, and that provide data to a wide number of people.”
[M]any on-line users remain ill-informed about exactly what personal information is available on the Internet, and attach greater significance to the fact that such data is available on-line than they do to the fact that it resides on the mainframes of numerous data-collection entities — from publishers to credit-card companies.
And then there’s this bit, which sounds a wee bit Peter Dutton (emphasis ours)…
In October, Vice President Al Gore announced the administration would permit the export of 56-bit key encryption software if companies agreed to provide law-enforcement agencies with a built-in key to monitor suspicious e-mail, if given court approval to do so. That announcement appeared to mark an compromise brokered by the federal government and a handful of powerful computer companies, but in recent weeks the deal has shown signs of unraveling amid charges by the industry that the government is trying to change the agreement’s terms.
Of course, those that ignore history are doomed to repeat it – a quote which, the internet claims, was made in 1854 by Albert Einstein.
Thanks, Gandhi!
But it’s fairly depressing that all these problems which have been the subject of months of “gee whiz! Data harvesting? Why, we’d never have guessed!” mea culpas from industry and “b-but how could we possibly have suspected all these personal records would be available online?” responses from government were perhaps a smidge more predictable than they would have us think.
Anyway, we should definitely all be cool about the upcoming My Health Record digital system, which will contain all your personal medical details – and out of which which you can still choose to opt, by the way.