High-tech hazards - #edcmooc

In viewing the new world of big data and the power to use and abuse information technology some experiences are giving rise to a great deal of wariness. Dan Yakir, the chief legal counsel of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, has said that government power to keep secret or to to disregard personal rights can be a dangerous matter: "Without a doubt, the power is disproportionately on the side of the state and there is a fear that they can take advantage of this power."
The issue of abuse of power by state or corporation when it comes to collecting information about people or controlling the flow of information available to them has also been highlighted by the information that Raytheon has developed software to mine social network use to track their behavior and contacts. The software is available not only to governments but businesses.
The Guardian in Britain has done a service by revealing the nature of how technology, developed by a "defence" company, might be used for nefarious purposes. In the accompanying video, copied here, we see how little remains "private" in the age of social networks.

Though social networks also benefit social groups by breaking down barriers that prevent the openness vital for a healthy society, a factor cited in the Israeli secrecy case referred to above, the risks are great that a distracted population will be manipulated by a government or business, the setting for the Homeland TV series from the United States.
In a second piece, a Guardian commentator says that it's not okay to accept the invasion of privacy because the information is being sifted to catch the "bad guys":

Any [tracking software] algorithm will generate hundreds if not thousands of false positives (innocent people who hit a red flag). Given how rare, say, terrorism is, the vast majority of people bothered by these systems will be ordinary people facing previously unbelievable intrusion.

Second, these systems and techniques are just as useful to draconian governments around the world – as demonstrated in the Middle East uprisings, and time and again with China's internet monitoring and censorship.

The commentary concludes by sounding alarm at the dire prospects for us even now, but more definitely in the decades ahead when the software becomes more sophisticated and therefore less respectful of human rights:

 Surveillance is getting cheaper and easier by the day, which in turn proves almost irresistible – for those with good and bad intentions – to make more use of it.

The only way to prevent such a shift is to group together, raise funds, and lobby hard for real legal safeguards, fast, before the culture shift is irreversible. Anything less is acquiescence.