Medical records, driving records, library records, school records, court records, credit histories, tax records, financial records, employment reviews, and charge-card bills all profile you … Information about us is routinely compiled into direct-marketing mailing lists and credit reports … The scattered nature of information protects your privacy in an informal way, but when the repositories are all connected together on the highway, it will be possible to use computers to correlate it. Credit data could be linked to employment records and sales transactions records to construct an intrusively accurate picture of your personal activities. As more business is transacted using the highway and the amount of information stored there accrues, governments will consciously set policies regarding privacy and access to information. The network itself will administer those policies.
Predictor: Gates, Bill
Prediction, in context:In his 1995 book “The Road Ahead,” Microsoft CEO Bill Gates writes: ”Loss of privacy is another major concern about the highway … Medical records, driving records, library records, school records, court records, credit histories, tax records, financial records, employment reviews, and charge-card bills all profile you … Information about us is routinely compiled into direct-marketing mailing lists and credit reports. Errors and abuses have already fostered legislation regulating the use of these databases … The scattered nature of information protects your privacy in an informal way, but when the repositories are all connected together on the highway, it will be possible to use computers to correlate it. Credit data could be linked to employment records and sales transactions records to construct an intrusively accurate picture of your personal activities. As more business is transacted using the highway and the amount of information stored there accrues, governments will consciously set policies regarding privacy and access to information. The network itself will administer those policies.”
Biography:Bill Gates, the most influential technology entrepreneur of the late 20th century, was the primary author of the prediction-packed 1995 book “The Road Ahead” and is the founder and CEO of Microsoft Corporation. (Entrepreneur/Business Leader.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Privacy/Surveillance
Name of publication: The Road Ahead (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Chapter 12: Critical Issues
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 266
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne