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There are manny among us who sense the arrival of the Borg

I just read a post on the Oxford University Press Blog which is typically non-committal on privacy.Privacy in Peril?
Then I clicked to the author page for James B. Rule and saw that he also wrote �Bait and Switch� (on the alleged WMDs in Iraq), Dissent, Spring 2004.

So why the title of this post. Well, I am one of those who feel a connection and (maybe some are making it more intellectually than I) between the illegal warrantless wiretaps Ad networks and the credit rating agencies. TRW etc. As James Rule points out, it is not that any specific step in the tracking is so objectionable it is that the tracking is so pervasive and systematic.

I had this vision as I read of an 18 year old at the shoe store glancing at a screen on the cash register to find out a bit about me before coming to offer me help. And I though well that migh be good. Then I saw some things wrong with that picture. First the word 'Cash' attached machine for paying. Second training an 18 year old to be curious. Third, why have an employee at all. The machine probably knows my size already. Finally I thought for a moment about the screen on the register. When I worked retail the screen was a green dot matrix sort of display. I'm seeing the beginnings of real technology that eliminates the need for screens between people and information. Brain-computer interface for Second Life

My world is changing fast and I'm not sure that my imagination is sufficient to guess what the world will be like for two children.
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