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Who knew Disney was such a control freak? I do have to say it is scary to think that everything we do is being tallied and put on some sort of spreadsheet. Even scarier is the fact that we are willing to give our information away or rather give it away cheaply. Target stores recent problems don't have anything on the geotagging that goes on with push notifications, etc. on our smartphones.

It'll be interesting to see companies' approach to big data as more and more businesses invest their money, people and time into analytics. How they collect it, their product design and marketing strategies will all determine whether or not people find their invasion helpful or inappropriate. For example, IBM tells me that their data is eliminating crime from certain areas, so whatever data they've collected from me, they've collected it from criminals too. Facebook allows me to see only adds that reflect my interests and search history, so then I don't have to see ads that don't apply to me. And now Disney wants to give me a better experience and a band I can keep to always remember my time there. Win. Win. Win. The NSA has some stiff competition and maybe if they had a strong marketing department that could flip their message and give customers the rewards they are constantly seeking, I bet people would come around. Maybe it would look something like this Parks and Rec campaign (just kidding): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNCaZT94mg8

There are a lot of interesting and moving parts here. I think this is a smart tool for Disney to use. It sounds like the perfect marriage between finance (getting sales figures in a more organized fashion) and marketing (what people are buying/swiping) that will feed into the best consumer insights information possible. As the article suggests, I do believe this is a more sophisticated (and invasive) form of consumer data gathering like the typical grocery store rewards card. One of the burning questions I have from this though, is will children really be able to swipe everything in sight for purchase? If so, that could mean smiles for Disney and frowns and frustration for parents. The design looks very similar to the Nike Fuelband, and is appealing to the eye. I can see the pros and cons for this one, but overall I wonder what the profit to spend margins would actually be for these MagicBands.

This article relates directly to some of the readings we had this week about infrastructure, protocol, and net neutrality. North Korea has strict control over what its citizens can access, but it does allow the tiniest trickle of real internet into the country... will that inevitably lead to raising citizens' awareness? "Still, some experts believe that as more North Koreans become familiar with the benefits of going online - a trend that would seem inevitable if North Korea is to keep afloat in the information age - it will become increasingly difficult for the ruling regime to keep the IT dam from bursting."

This NYTimes analysis discusses social media in criminal investigations and courtroom trials.

Subscription e-reader services, such as Scribd, Oyster and Entitle, are tracking users reading behavior to make recommendations. Now the government has to obtain a warrant to get a list of what you check out at the public library, does this legal requirements change for private e-reader services?

Every side places the game.... Sigh

Google Gmail in lawsuit over Electronic Communicatoins Privacy Act

Mesh networking

Useful in upcoming discussion on privacy.....