102
5 Genie Out of the Bottle
For such reasons, the constitutions of many countries consider it of fundamental
importance to protect privacy, informational self-determination, private communication, and the principle of assumed innocence without proof of guilt. These principles are also considered to be essential preconditions for human dignity and for
democracies to function well.
36
However, today the Internet lacks good mechanisms for forgetting, forgiveness,
and re-integration. There are also concerns that the increasing use of Big Data could
lead to greater discrimination, which in turn could promote increasing fragmentation
of our society into subcultures.
37 For example, it is believed that the spread of social
media and personalized information has promoted the polarization of US society and
politics.
38
5.11.5 Political Risks
It is often pointed out that leaking confidential communication can undermine the
success of sensitive political negotiations. This is probably true, but there are other
political problems, too, which aren’t less serious. For example, if incumbent governments have better access to Big Data applications than opposition parties, this can
result in unfair competition, biased election outcomes and non-representative governments. This could seriously undermine democracies. The greatest danger to society,
however, is the likelihood that powerful information systems will attract malicious
agents and sooner or later get into the hands of criminals, terrorists or extremists.
Unfortunately, this scenario has a high likelihood, given that the information systems
of almost all companies and institutions have been hacked, including the military,
Pentagon, White House, and German Parliament. Therefore, collecting huge masses
of personal and other sensitive data in one (or few) place(s) could eventually turn
democracies into totalitarian regimes, even if everyone had good intentions.
5.12 Appendix 2: Why Privacy Is Still Needed
Should we still care about privacy, even though many people don’t mind to give a lot of
personal data away? I believe, we do need to care. The feeling of being exposed scares
many people, particularly minorities. The success of our society depends a lot on
vulnerable minorities (be it critical intellectuals or artists, billionaires or politicians,
teachers or judges, religious or other minorities, which should be protected). As
36 See the Census Act by the German Constitutional Court, https://freiheitsfoo.de/census-act/.
37 Helbing [16] https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-15078-9_10, see also http://
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2501356.
38 Andris et al. [17].
5 Genie Out of the Bottle
For such reasons, the constitutions of many countries consider it of fundamental
importance to protect privacy, informational self-determination, private communication, and the principle of assumed innocence without proof of guilt. These principles are also considered to be essential preconditions for human dignity and for
democracies to function well.
36
However, today the Internet lacks good mechanisms for forgetting, forgiveness,
and re-integration. There are also concerns that the increasing use of Big Data could
lead to greater discrimination, which in turn could promote increasing fragmentation
of our society into subcultures.
37 For example, it is believed that the spread of social
media and personalized information has promoted the polarization of US society and
politics.
38
5.11.5 Political Risks
It is often pointed out that leaking confidential communication can undermine the
success of sensitive political negotiations. This is probably true, but there are other
political problems, too, which aren’t less serious. For example, if incumbent governments have better access to Big Data applications than opposition parties, this can
result in unfair competition, biased election outcomes and non-representative governments. This could seriously undermine democracies. The greatest danger to society,
however, is the likelihood that powerful information systems will attract malicious
agents and sooner or later get into the hands of criminals, terrorists or extremists.
Unfortunately, this scenario has a high likelihood, given that the information systems
of almost all companies and institutions have been hacked, including the military,
Pentagon, White House, and German Parliament. Therefore, collecting huge masses
of personal and other sensitive data in one (or few) place(s) could eventually turn
democracies into totalitarian regimes, even if everyone had good intentions.
5.12 Appendix 2: Why Privacy Is Still Needed
Should we still care about privacy, even though many people don’t mind to give a lot of
personal data away? I believe, we do need to care. The feeling of being exposed scares
many people, particularly minorities. The success of our society depends a lot on
vulnerable minorities (be it critical intellectuals or artists, billionaires or politicians,
teachers or judges, religious or other minorities, which should be protected). As
36 See the Census Act by the German Constitutional Court, https://freiheitsfoo.de/census-act/.
37 Helbing [16] https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-15078-9_10, see also http://
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2501356.
38 Andris et al. [17].