Companies called out for bad behavior often misdirect the conversation by saying – “Yes, but we do good things too!” The worst defense of bad behavior ventured by any company, in my opinion, is “Yes we are loathsome, but we create jobs.” Jobs are good, don’t get me […]
Electronic technology is protecting us from COVID-19, but is it violating our privacy? Individuals and institutions are taking drastic measures to flatten the curve of COVID-19 infections, and these measures, while important, may threaten our recently recognized privacy rights. This article examines the efforts taken to protect our […]
What is the next big technology that will change our lives? Quantum computing? General AI? Programmable pets? Bartending robots? Flying cars? Personal rocket backpacks? I have one point of reference for evaluating technology predictions: how much money are big companies and governments spending to bring this technology into […]
Upon hearing that his obituary had been published in the States while he was abroad, Mark Twain wrote “The new of my death was an exaggeration.” I was reminded of decades of such exaggerated news about the murder of old media content – news reporting, music, television, movies […]
Privacy has never been fashionable in this country. The Europeans and Canadians seem to care so much about it, and, as well documented in my earlier Heydatadata posts this month, Americans by the millions are sending their DNA to private companies or weight loss factories without any concern […]
William Buckley famously described a conservative as a person who “stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.” While I am not sure that I classify as “conservatives” the […]
If you believe there are important reasons to test your DNA, then ask your doctor to run the tests and explain the results. Maybe your health insurance will pay for the test. Maybe the doctor agrees that DNA testing is a good idea. In any case you have […]
This is a particularly good time to think about our Constitutional rights to protect our DNA from government capture and analysis. If we don’t consider it soon, we may lose all rights to protect the most intimate details of our lives and bodies, leaving us with virtually no […]
So you want to know how much Neanderthal is in your genes. You are curious about the percentage of Serbo-Croatian, Hmong, Sephardim or Ashanti blood that runs through your veins. Or maybe you hope to find a rich great-aunt near death, seeking an heir. How much is this […]
The GDPR has been in force for less than two years, but we are already observing its effect on data subjects, data controllers/processors, and data privacy regulators. A huge, complex set of societal regulations is bound to have problematic passages and unintended consequences. So it seems time to […]
