Will nanotechnology and other ambient technologies make privacy protection obsolete?

December 10, 2007

Last week, Forbes magazine ran a commentary by Robert Ellis Smith, publisher of the Privacy Journal newsletter, titled “Scary Stuff”. Smith argues that a new environment of ambient technologies may render obsolete the three decades’ old regime for protecting privacy, which merely gives certain rights of access to citizens. What good is checking the accuracy of your own information in a system if the essence of the system is to keep track of where you are? What good is notification about a new system if it’s quite simply everywhere? (Nanowerk News)