The future of digital privacy and Constitutional rights

Doesn't look good: http://www.npr.org/2011/11/30/142714568/interpreting-the-constitution-in-the-digital-era

And clearly this professor isn't a paranoid and alarmist Chicken Little, when major mobile companies are not only monitoring your location 24/7, but recording ALL YOUR KEYSTROKES ALL THE TIME:

http://news.yahoo.com/smartphone-spying-204933867.html

When an external party tries to do this to us on our PCs, they call it malware (possibly illegal). When our mobile providers do it without our knowledge, they call it "enhancing the user experience."  I'm tired of these big data firms just telling us to "trust them" that they'll use all this info responsibly. And of course we can't expect the gov't to look after our interests on this issue, because they are way behind the tech curve, and the courts tend to side with the corporations and free speech argument. With data mining methods and tech tools only getting smarter and more ubiquitous, where are we headed?

"The Great Tech War of 2012"

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/160/tech-wars-2012-amazon-apple-google-facebook

I liked this article about the rivalries between Facebook-Apple-Google-Amazon in the "post-PC world", since these giants are invading each other's traditional territories to capture more customers and revenue. All 4 firms seem to really be leaning on their IT and data mining resources in order to personalize their offerings, understand/predict preferences, and reach more consumers. They are using data to increase usage/consumption, which leads to more customer data being generated, which leads to more insight on how to boost future consumption, and on it goes.

But I think TV is the final frontier that these firms still haven't been able to crack. It's such a big market with entrenched players, different rules, and so many viewers/dollars at stake. We'll see which of them (if any) can best integrate their products with the new web-enabled TV future that they claim is supposed to come soon. And there will also be competition and interference from banks, cable, and telcos, whose infrastructure enables all this online activity and consumption, and who are probably tired of seeing the riches and glory go to Silicon Valley. It will also be interesting to see what disruptive upstarts can put these former startups on the defensive.

I didn't realize that Google bought Android, and didn't develop it in-house. What posers! :)

Who knew that bankers, statisticians, and programmers would eventually rule the world? If you told that to Rockefeller and Carnegie back in the day, they would have choked on their Cuban cigars. And the day is not far off when the Si Valley giants are going to get into defense (probably software, but possibly hardware too!).