Data Crunching.
“If you’re hearing a lot of “Once this is over, I’m going to change this”, then imagine what Google is seeing.”
A lovely article I read on Boomerang about the power of Google, the article doesn’t seem to exist anymore. The following is my opinion cheering the article, a summary, or an overview of what has been presented.
We can perceive Google as a negative, or a positive but in all things, you need a balance of both, and yes, Google has enormous data access but what do we do with that information?
Each time you swipe your debit or credit card you have bought in, way before Google even came around.
Generally, there is a fear, people are always worried about what Google knows about them, and they are also worried about the government using Covid-19 as an opportunity to implement what they will deem better management for safety reasons, but may or may not have underlying motives, and these assumptions could very well be correct. Access to data is a powerful component, and by default, the government like many organizations will leverage this ‘tragic comedy’ of an opportunity.
It all will most likely start off with health aids, and beneficial offers to make the world right and functional, it is a natural occurrence to identify benefits and opportunities during a crisis, and a lot of noble ideas and motives will emerge. Technology will be used to counter the crisis but also reveal a lot of potential for other applications.
A simple plausibility would be centred around how to detect viruses faster and decrease the threat, this would then lead to doing the same to other threats, or even as we see happening in China with how people shop and use services. All their data is accessible to medical services and government agencies on the premise of health and security. Naturally, that’s a noble initiative but then in order to do this health and security management, more information about you would be required, also your day to day activities.
The fear of 5G, for example, stems from many things, and conspiracy theorists have been on top of it for some time now. The problem with conspiracies, even if they are based on facts, is they are mudded with agendas and fantastic realities, mixed up information, and the overall presentation is uncomfortably dodgy. However, the fear is mainly centred around data and access to that data, but when we think about our daily activities 5G would only be an extension of what we already give for free, 5G only allows for faster and a lot more heavy processing, plus more access.
The importance of data — Data never lies.
Google and other algorithms and AIs, can predict or already has enough about us just by our daily routines, turning off location settings are useless, it’s just a comforting thought that you can do that. The simple act of buying, or visiting somewhere creates enough data to generate an overview of habits.
Personalization is what we craved, we wanted the latest technology tailored to us, but now in some ways, it’s working against us, it now tells us what we may like, that itself induces a certain level of paranoia about whether we are being listened to…
In my opinion: Always assume, you’re being listened to, but if you’re not a person of interest, then it's probably nothing to worry about.
You do not have to worry about being listened to for information access, you are giving tons of data by simply having a mobile phone. The time to make a decision as to whether you’re buying in or not to a modern utopia has passed. You either have to accept it or give up all your comforts and even then, living in an open field somewhere without tech does not mean you’re off the grid…but no one of particular status has an interest in you, for now, you’re left alone.
With personalization, it does have to breach some privacy bits, but I guess we did not think that all the way through. Tech advancements come with a lot of power, and that power comes with a lot of responsibility, but in order to advance, some breaches have to take place for an ultimate goal of a ‘Smart World’. Naturally, with the arrival of Covid-19, Google would be the first to see results based on disruptions in the physical space or habits being disrupted. A savvy marketing company can leverage this if they feel so inclined with access, having access to this data can mean a creeping reality but also, a response can be generated through a circular feedback loop by changing the previous action.
I advocate for circular feedback loops if used responsibly, this can be beneficial for both service and consumer. An action is made, a response is received, that response is observed and analyzed, then the action is changed to get a different result.
Digital transformation is about mass data processing. Knowledge is power, anyone who can process the most data will be able to respond swiftly and appropriately — or negatively depending on intent. The devices are irrelevant, they will always change.
Read Habitual Relialities — Digital Transformation
We live in a tangible world but the physical is merging with the digital and everything is organically functional and impact each other. The icon for being online is no longer a cursor, or a wifi symbol it’s your profile photo.
