I was a little put off by the last update from apple where the main focus was installing an application on the phone, obviously that thinking has changed now and instead they are putting together a framework for countries and local authorities to tap into.
quicklink | https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53987928 - article that inspired me to write this one today.
Don’t get me wrong here, the idea of contact-trace is a good one, after all, if we have bene around someone that finds out they have covid (or anything else moving forward) then it’s good to have some data and be alerted so you can make measured decisions about your interaction with the outside world and reduce the spread, keeping that R0 number below one = less spreading and infection (although seems the death rate has dropped massively since the peak)
Photo by Michał Kubalczyk on Unsplash
Anything that is rushed when it comes to technology always get’s hacked or broken from poor design, it’s a new attack vector or surface for people to aim their sights on, some would prefer chaos over progress. An application like this is a red flag to a digital hacker bull for them to break or disrupt in some way — there is not a day that goes by that some local authority/school or country is being tested like a firesale as the underground get’s more buoyant with crypto funding.
Don’t get me wrong I love crypto, I’ve just waited nearly TEN days to get hold of some money through a SWIFT transaction, that shit is broken yo! — (but I guess that was the point right)
Anyway, I pose this question, is this companies going too far with the latest silicon that they bring to us? Do we want to be able for companies to determine if they can use the hardware inside what is supposed our owned mobile phones, I mean I paid for it right, but do I really own it if the tech can do what it wants by talking to other phones in a mesh like environment — am I simply the R&D mobile user building a bigger data set?
What about security of that data set, my movements, the pings, the updates, the messages, how does this effect my engagement with the overall internet grid of connected things? Will my insurance companies that I use start to tap into this data, can they, should they, will they go years unchecked before we get a resolution to the fact that our policy suddenly doubled in size? Am I paranoid, are you, should we be?
I certainly see a new era of mobile connected phones and devices, similar to the ones that purism are creating that will flood the market, crypto companies getting into becoming mobile operators, mesh networks for towns and villages, spilling into cities but held back by existing WISP corporate entities and gov policy baked in.
While the pandemic massively changed us and the supply chain that feeds us, are we about to hit another junction in the road towards what digital privacy looks like while being lightly veiled as helping us survive?
There is no doubt in my mind that being pro-active about future infections, future bio weapons and unknown pandemics is a must after covid disabled the global economy as it did but at what cost to the connectedness of our humanity — are we destined to just be an area code, a grid reference, a segmented meat sack with people digitally disconnecting from us because we got flagged as the infected ones?
Fuck knows, what do you think?
This was a meerkat wendesday — don’t forget to look back to understand going forward.
Peace and Love
Humble me Along XxX
