29.Jan

January 29, 2018

Apps and data are still a brave new world

EDITOR:

The idea that we're on an unstoppable path to progress is a pretty old one. Old, but persistent. Hegel may have thought it two hundred years ago, but it's still embodied in the likes of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg – even if it has become pretty fashionable in the last few months to express doubts about technology. Smartphones, apps, data – all of it is leading us to a brave new utopia of sharing, caring and mutual understanding. 

Well, you hardly need to look at Twitter to know this isn't exactly true. Not only has public discourse been poisoned by the vitriol and hatred online, governments have been increasingly turning to intrusive spying techniques to keep tabs on everyone in their societies. And I haven't even mentioned anything about Russian bots yet. 

There is an entire set of problems that is yet to be fully thought out and discussed; and that is the unintended consequences of using this technology. So, that means, not talking about deliberate data collection, or doxxing, or spying or anything like that, but for example, what happened when US soldiers used the app Strava in their bases abroad. The app is typically used to create a heat map of running and exercising routes – they used it, and in doing so, gave away the positions of their bases, which are meant to be secret. 

Now, this is obviously a problem for the army, but relatively speaking, one they can take care of. Those at greater risk will be people in conflict zones who aren't military personnel: ordinary people. Smartphone penetration is deep, even in developing countries, and so depending on where people are based, and their circumstances, technology may be more of a danger to them than a help. Consider the Rohingya, for example – what if this was them?