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Walt Mossberg's Last Column Calls For Privacy and Security Laws (recode.net)
70-year-old Walt Mossberg wrote his last weekly column Thursday, looking back on how "we've all had a hell of a ride for the last few decades" and revisiting his famous 1991 pronouncement that "Personal computers are just too hard to use, and it isn't your fault."
Not only were the interfaces confusing, but most tech products demanded frequent tweaking and fixing of a type that required more technical skill than most people had, or cared to acquire. The whole field was new, and engineers weren't designing products for normal people who had other talents and interests. But, over time, the products have gotten more reliable and easier to use, and the users more sophisticated... So, now, I'd say: "Personal technology is usually pretty easy to use, and, if it's not, it's not your fault." The devices we've come to rely on, like PCs and phones, aren't new anymore. They're refined, built with regular users in mind, and they get better each year. Anything really new is still too close to the engineers to be simple or reliable.
He argues we're now in a strange lull before entering an unrecognizable world where major new breakthroughs in areas like A.I., robotics, smart homes, and augmented reality lead to "ambient computing", where technology itself fades into the background. And he uses his final weekly column to warn that "if we are really going to turn over our homes, our cars, our health and more to private tech companies, on a scale never imagined, we need much, much stronger standards for security and privacy than now exist. Especially in the U.S., it's time to stop dancing around the privacy and security issues and pass real, binding laws."
He argues we're now in a strange lull before entering an unrecognizable world where major new breakthroughs in areas like A.I., robotics, smart homes, and augmented reality lead to "ambient computing", where technology itself fades into the background. And he uses his final weekly column to warn that "if we are really going to turn over our homes, our cars, our health and more to private tech companies, on a scale never imagined, we need much, much stronger standards for security and privacy than now exist. Especially in the U.S., it's time to stop dancing around the privacy and security issues and pass real, binding laws."
People willing turn over their data to these companies for use of "free" products.
That being said, private companies will always protect data better than the government. There are real ramifications if a public company loses data.
Dup?
See, a standing rock gathers moss, and Mossberg is a rock with moss. And this is why computers are easy for me.
Followed him for years, always thought he was my age (58). He was right more than he was wrong, but he was always interesting.
These days most kids are used to apps tracking them all of the time. Just look at Waze that now requires you do enable location services all of the time instead of just when you're using that app. Young people just don't care about privacy since they've never really had it.
Yeah, I know that's not a nice thing to say, but you're not going to get anywhere with privacy laws while 76% of the country lives paycheck to paycheck. You just won't be able to get the kinds of people in office that'll bother. The crooks will actively oppose it and anyone decent will be too busy with more pressing matters.
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"Personal computers are just too hard to use
Here's the thing though. Since computers were harder to use in the 1970's and 80's, you had two kinds of people: those with no involvement whatsoever with technology, and those who more or less were technically literate.
Now, they have become easier to perform some common "canned" tasks, but that means there are two kinds of people: and both are now computer users: technically literate people, and technically illiterate. Whereas before the technically illiterate had no impact on the evolution of technology, they now dominate the story because they are the vast majority and it is it their purchasing choices and user choices that determine where things go.
When they insist on things being "simpler than they are", or when they decide in mass to give all their data to sad companies like Google and Facebook, that harms everyone in the end.
I'm not so certain that making computers too easy to use has been for the better. Sure, it has allowed more people to have access, but most of them are making terrible choices.
Democrats think only Google and Facebook have rights to unlimited and unimpeded access to online user data. That's because these near monopolies pay them off, of course. Republicans are just trying to level the field by giving those rights to whoever pays them off.
Of course, neither party has any serious global privacy rule to propose.
He was still being paid a living wage to write... that's getting to be a difficult gig to find.
So long, Walt, and thanks for all the fish^W columns. I always enjoyed your work.
#DeleteChrome
Never heard of the guy and never heard of his supposedly famous pronouncement.
just like we do spam. Spam fines are so massive that only criminals still do it. The criminals who get big enough get caught and get jail time. Privacy violating is easier to enforce since it's only profitable to do when you've got a legit business backing it up. Either that or the government, but you can keep the gov't from violating privacy by banning people who commit violations from public office and lobbying roles.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
As far as I care, society, or my life, is ruined.
The police state is already here I am sure of it, which is why I call it the "looming police state". It seems so obvious that what by naive or tools like technologists are called "survaillance state" is just the police state.
Also, if society ultimately isn't run by civilians, you can forget about democracy I think. I have nothing against democracy, but this doesn't seem to work, wars everywhere so to speak, nations just doing what they want.
Having past 40, I am now entertaining the idea that USA is simply evil, or the government/state that is. Ofc, I am not religious, so I think of "evil" as meaning pretty much the same thing as "vile".
I just heard some sad news on talk radio - tech journalist Walt Mossberg was found dead in his Rhode Island home this morning. There weren't any details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss him - even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying his contributions to popular culture. Truly an American icon.
"...giant companies that make up today’s tech oligopoly — Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft. But, as tectonic shifts like this occur in technology, oligopolies get shaken up. For instance: today, Apple is the biggest of the group. By all reports, it’s working seriously on AR, self-driving cars and health initiatives. But its strict and admirable privacy policies make it harder for it to gather the vast amounts of data required for the best machine learning...."
In otherwords, we all want what apple is selling-- high tech with respect for privacy and restraint from exploiting the consumer. But were not willing to pay for it so we sell our souls to the dark encroaching shadow of google and facebook.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Hey thanks Walt for being the harbinger of an era where everything is easy and the only thing that matters is a good soundbite. Who gives a shit about developing skills and talent when it is so much easier to accept social media "likes" as the only meaningful currency?
What did they mean by 'last'?
Have gnu, will travel.
RTFA. When the aurhor writes it's his last column you kind of have to rely on the source. And since it's in the first line of the column, I can't fathom how you could miss it. Unless your just being a troll.
... we need much, much stronger standards for security and privacy than now exist.
Yes we do - but standards are meaningless without consistent, effective, swift, and powerful enforcement. We now live in an era where it's increasingly difficult for the average citizen to persuade authorities to enforce even laws when it comes to offenses committed by corporations. In that kind of climate, the only useful standard is "take your 'ambient computing' and shove it up your ass". Unfortunately, as a species we seem hopelessly addicted to convenience and shininess, even at the cost of various yokes around our necks - so here we go yet again, surrendering autonomy for comfort.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
and documenting those with the ability and the skillsets necessary to hack into critical systems.
Ref: the movie Brazil by Terry Gilliam. When I first saw it in the early 90's parts of it were too close to reality. If Walt is right, the rest of the movie will become real, too.