Industry still puzzling over consumer reaction to tracking

Industry is still wondering what went wrong with tracking.

Industry is still wondering what went wrong with tracking.

Frank Hayes over at Storefront Backtalk asks “When Is Data Collection Creepy?”  That’s a really good question now that ordinary people are waking up to the possibility that anyone and everyone can track them online and in real life.  The post touches on but doesn’t quite illuminate that the biggest difference is one of atoms versus bits. When surveillance was physical Newtonian physics limited what could be done. We didn’t need laws or policies stating that you couldn’t surveil all of the people all of the time because to do so wasn’t physically possible. Because we have never had that capability before, we do not have any experience with it from a policy-making standpoint.

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Escaping advertising’s uncanny valley

You can't get there from here!

You can’t get there from here!

One of the major themes that I see driving Internet of People and Things, and commerce in general, is ultra-personalization.   Although not recognized widely as such, one of the “killer apps” that has emerged beginning with graphical OS’s is “themes” or “skins.”  Simply put, the OS exposes not merely the knobs and dials, but the size, shape and texture of the knobs and dials.  Not just audible and visual event notifications, but the sound, look and behavior of those notifications.  This was never recognized for the significance it has had in shaping customer expectations about responsiveness of products.  In fact though, as things get smarter and computing recedes invisibly into the fabric of life, there is no single killer app.  Ultra-personalization is the killer app.

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Swedes: Closet VRM activists?

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A recent post by Mary Hodder on the VRM list discussed the news of the Swedish Data Inspection Board banning Google cloud services such as Docs, calendar and email over privacy concerns.  Mary writes:

It’s going to be a PR struggle to convince regular people that “personal” or personally directed services (VRM) style are different than general cloud services.. because I bet that Google would argue that Google apps are personally directed.. nothing happens unless the individual uses the services, from Google’s perspective. But the individual’s data  isn’t controlled by the individual, VRM style.

So I think this will be the pivot point.. convincing the public, as well as the companies and governments, that it’s not “personal” unless the individual controls their own data, not just the use of the product.

What is interesting to me about the privacy issues unfolding of late, especially in the wake of the PRISM revelations, is that VRM-y cloud apps already exist that address the issues raised by the Swedes and for privacy in general.  If Cole Sear were here he’d tell you the same thing:  “I see VRM apps. Floating around the cloud like regular apps.  They’re VRM except, they don’t see each other.  And they don’t say they are VRM.  They don’t even know they’re VRM.”

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