Lift09

I’m lucky enough to be in Geneva today at the simply wonderful Lift09, where I’ve met lots of great people – old and new friends – and been stimulated, entertained and surprised.

I gave a short talk at lunchtime, and the video is here.  It was intended as a provocation – my own ‘Modest Proposal’, as someone said – so don’t hold me to all of it…

You can see all of the videos too.

Ties that bind

[As ever, you can read this on the BBC News website]

One of the throwaway remarks I sometimes make at conferences is that “Google knows you’re pregnant before you do”.

I can say this because the things you search for will change as your life changes, and search engine providers may well be able to spot the significance of these changes because they aggregate data from millions of people.

Now Google’s philanthropic arm, google.org, has shown just what it can do with the data it gathers from us all by offering to predict where ‘flu outbreaks will take place in the USA.

It has found that “certain search terms are good indicators of flu activity”, in that they correlate well with reports from the official Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Continue reading “Ties that bind”

Is Privacy Dead?

I’m in the bar at FACT in Liverpool having just had an excellent time debating privacy with Jeffrey Rosen, Jonathan Sawday and Sonia Livingstone, expertly chaired by Philip Dodd. It’s part of Radio 3’s Free Thinking festival and will be broadcast on Monday’s Night Waves on Radio 3.

FACT is a fabulous building, and there’s  a real buzz in the atmosphere. And since there’s free wifi I’ve been Qiking:

and

Of course, it’s all a great breach of privacy… 🙂

I saw this…

Here’s what I’ve tagged on del.icio.us:

My del.icio.us bookmarks for July 11th through July 12th

Here’s what I tagged on del.icio.us between July 11th and July 12th:

My del.icio.us bookmarks for July 10th through July 11th

Here’s what I tagged on del.icio.us between July 10th and July 11th:

My del.icio.us bookmarks for July 5th through July 7th

Here’s what I tagged on del.icio.us between July 5th and July 7th:

My del.icio.us bookmarks for July 1st through July 4th

Here’s what I tagged on del.icio.us between July 1st and July 4th:

My del.icio.us bookmarks for June 25th through June 28th

Here’s what I tagged on del.icio.us between June 25th and June 28th:

FYI: The new politics of personal information

I was pleased to be asked to speak at the launch of Demos’ new report on personal information on Friday.  The report’s authors, Peter Bradwell and Niamh Gallagher, gave a solid introduction to the issues and then Information Commissioner Richard Thomas, comedian Natalie Haynes and I got to respond.  You can download the report from the Demos website, and it’s well worth reading the whole thing.

These are the notes I spoke from, slightly tidied up.

Continue reading “FYI: The new politics of personal information”