SF Author Bruce Sterling on "The Data Shadow"

[Guest]

Bruce Sterling co-wrote "The Difference Engine" with cyberpunk author William Gibson. Sterling also wrote "The Hacker Crackdown", a nonfiction account of the Treasury Department's "Operation Sun Devil" (run by the Secret Service in 1990). His remarks in this ZDNet piece are most chilling.

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I noticed that people are doing a lot of "googling" before a first date nowadays--this represents the real trend. Poindexter's doing this and DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) allowed him to do it for the propaganda that someone's serious about cyberwar someplace. Googling is international. It's not just restricted to cranky Republicans who couldn't erase e-mail in their PROFS (Professional Office System). That's going to have more of an effect. It's difficult to escape a tragedy in your life that's not your own fault.

Years ago, if your husband died in a house fire, you could get a covered wagon and go to Oregon. Now, as soon as you arrive in Oregon, someone could google you. "Oh, well, widow Simpson. Really sorry to hear about the house fire."

You don't get to cut that chain of evidence and start over. You're always going to be pursued by your data shadow, which is forming from thousands and thousands of little leaks and tributaries of information. [my emphasis]
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In other words, people (prospective employers, for example) can simply Google you to look for dirt in your past that has somehow made its way online. Ever had personal problems that you talked about online? Ever had a disagreement with someone? Ever had any financial problem? If there is an electronic record of any of it, it's available for the whole wide world to see.

The damned Internet is making voyeurs of everyone now.

"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

[riggerrob 643]

Scary, but true!

[TitaniumLegs 8]

This one time, at band camp...

(>o|-<

If you don't believe me, ask me.