Security quote of the week

Computerization has long allowed data collectors to track our locations, collect lists of whom we communicate with, and monitor our spending habits – unless we use cash. What's new is an unprecedented fusion of each of these mechanisms, persistent and unrelenting. AI brings an analytical ability to spy on the contents of our communications, and to answer sophisticated questions about our whereabouts and activities: actions that previously required human analysts are now automated. The result will be a kind of supercharged societal level of chilling effects where fear, self-censorship and groupthink reign, and dissent, creativity and innovation become increasingly rare.

In this atmosphere of fear and conformity, risky ideas, social activism and self-reinvention – especially by disfavored groups and targeted populations – are also chilled. This will have long-term effects on social progress.