Perhaps I'm old fashioned, but I think psychological profiling of users based online habits is a tad more problematic than just "somewhat" of an ethical minefield. Microsoft recently announced their hopes to do something similar: http://michaelzimmer.org/2007/05/23/msft-wants-to-identify-all-web- surfers-based-on-surfing-habits/ One wonders if any part of one's earthly existence will remain untouched by those wanting to track, capture, aggregate, and profile... -mz ----- Michael Zimmer, PhD Microsoft Fellow, Information Society Project, Yale Law School e: michael.zimmer@nyu.edu w: http://michaelzimmer.org On Jul 9, 2007, at 9:31 AM, Tom Shelley wrote:
This is such a pertinent area of discussion. On Project Red Stripe (the Economist's internet innovation unit) we were looking at many different areas where we could develop services, and the magic really happens when you start aggregating the data of individuals. The psychological profiling of users will happen in the not too different future, I believe. It will be able to serve you exactly the content/people/job opportunities you like (think Last.fm but for everything) but it is also *somewhat* of an ethical minefield.
On 7/8/07, Jeremy Hunsinger <jhuns@vt.edu> wrote:
oh... it could be worse Spock.com is a search engine that is predicated somewhat on the unity of identity of people. It ties in as much of your publicly available info as it can into a profile:)
On Jul 8, 2007, at 5:59 PM, Barry Wellman wrote:
When Google aggregates different social software types, how is it going to handle the different amounts/kinds of disclosure that the different softwares now permit/forbid. Will it encompass Business software such as Visible Path, Linked In or (cursed be its name), Plaxo.
Barry Wellman
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S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax: +1-416-978-7162 wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/ ~wellman For fun -- updating songs, movies and history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php Elvis wouldn't be singing Return to Sender these days
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Jeremy Hunsinger Information Ethics Fellow, Center for Information Policy Research, School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (www.cipr.uwm.edu)
Words are things; and a small drop of ink, falling like dew upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think. --Byron
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-- Tom Shelley
Project Red Stripe Tel : + 44 (0) 782 441 5491
team blog : www.projectredstripe.com/blog personal blog : www.fedoralreserve.wordpress.com _______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http:// listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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