We’re protected against this kind of database correlation by deep incompatibilities between different computer systems … I suspect Big Brother won’t have an easy time tracing us. Many important computers will forever be off-net. Most have such weird data structures that it’s just not worth the effort to correlate with other databases. And untrustworthy information pervades the system. Our privacy will be protected, as it always has been, by simple obscurity and the high cost of uncovering information about us.
Predictor: Stoll, Clifford
Prediction, in context:In his 1995 book “Silicon Snake Oil,” writer Clifford Stoll shares his take on the Internet’s future implications regarding privacy issues: ”The Internet certainly will let different computers compare their data faster and will bring more databases online. Special programs can traverse the networks, ferreting out public information about any of us. A chilling discomfort. I’m not so worried. Today we’re protected against this kind of database correlation by deep incompatibilities between different computer systems … I suspect Big Brother won’t have an easy time tracing us. Many important computers will forever be off-net. Most have such weird data structures that it’s just not worth the effort to correlate with other databases. And untrustworthy information pervades the system. Our privacy will be protected, as it always has been, by simple obscurity and the high cost of uncovering information about us.”
Biography:Clifford Stoll was an astrophysicist who also wrote the influential books “Silicon Snake Oil” (1995) and “The Cuckoo’s Egg.” A long-time network user, Stoll made “Silicon Snake Oil” his platform for finding fault with the Internet hype of the early 1990s. He pointed out the pitfalls of a completely networked society and offered arguments in opposition to the hype. (Author/Editor/Journalist.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Privacy/Surveillance
Name of publication: Silicon Snake Oil
Title, headline, chapter name: An Amalgam of Popular Fictions About the Internet, Including Brief Trips to China and The City of No Illusions
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 36
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Tencer, Elizabeth L.