Speaking of surveillance: While I’m certainly not in favor of government snooping, I don’t think legislation will seriously alter the practice. There are too many tools to spy with, and they’ll only get better. And corporations, even more than the government, want to know everything about us. It’s like a focus group we’ll hardly even notice, conducted in real time. We won’t only live in public, but our lives will be measured, quantified. There will be no going off the grid because everything will be the grid. It will be utopia and dystopia all at once. The opening of “Invasion of the Data Snatchers,” a new article at Real Clear Technology by Catherine Crump and Matthew Harwood:

“Estimates vary, but by 2020 there could be over 30 billion devices connected to the Internet. Once dumb, they will have smartened up thanks to sensors and other technologies embedded in them and, thanks to your machines, your life will quite literally have gone online.

The implications are revolutionary. Your smart refrigerator will keep an inventory of food items, noting when they go bad. Your smart thermostat will learn your habits and adjust the temperature to your liking. Smart lights will illuminate dangerous parking garages, even as they keep an ‘eye’ out for suspicious activity.

Techno-evangelists have a nice catchphrase for this future utopia of machines and the never-ending stream of information, known as Big Data, it produces: the Internet of Things. So abstract. So inoffensive. Ultimately, so meaningless.

A future Internet of Things does have the potential to offer real benefits, but the dark side of that seemingly shiny coin is this: companies will increasingly know all there is to know about you.”