What will a future without secrets look like? | Alessandro Acquisti 

Superb presentation. If only healthcare providers, medical doctors, nurses and hospital staff could view this to realize how careful they must be in protecting patient privacy! My step-father's example on my RU-vid channel should be a warning to everyone as his two 'before and after' photos (taken by his surgeon at the hospital) ended up on more than 100 websites around the world, in more than ten different languages and in more than 20 countries and more than 20 states in the USA! Have a look and see how it can happen in this digital age of ours! Imagine how the advanced face-recognition technology increases the dangers! Thanks Mr. Acquisti for an amazing presentation; I enjoyed every minute of it! All the best from Thailand!

Before this TED Talk I found myself in a predicament: I found myself believing that privacy matters BUT also found myself lacking justification to assert that claim, so I rejected that notion. "I don't do anything bad, and in fact it may be beneficial for police reasons." I thought. But now I am reevaluating that statement. Privacy matters.

Yes.The young especially but also some adults have not developed filters to realize when to speak and when to keep quiet. We are all human so we all say stuff we later regret but when that kind of stuff can be transmitted world wide then we really might benefit from a rethink of our actions in relation to the environment we find ourselves in.

Great talk van Alessandro Acquisti die ongetwijfeld velen die m.b.t. privacy roepen "ik heb toch niets te verbergen" aan het denken zet.

A very interesting talk. Thank you Mr. Acquisti.

I think it is also a generational thing. Social sites like Facebook didn't exist until a few years before I graduated college, and was raised to be mindful of what I put in writing because it can always come back to bite you. But now there are kids as young as 9 spending time on line with games and chat rooms and they have no filters cause they are still young and growing.

There is also this element of disconnect from people. I work in customer service and often times people are/seem much ruder over the phone then in person. When you aren't face to face with the person or people you are conversing with then the vocabulary can be or seem more abrasive and thoughtless. There is also perception and context. If you have to post a novel to explain a comment, then it was better left unsaid/posted.

Really good, unnerving, dystopian talk... As it should I guess about this topic... Weird how it hasn't gotten more views

Great talk. Disturbing that fewer than 69,000 people have seen this. Thought I was up to date, but just watched a TED talks on how the NSA can decrypt anything from a US manufacturer and the only option lies with open sourced programs.

I'm seriously thinking about taking my FB account off!!!! You might say, "you'll lose contact with your friends and family" - well, pick up the phone and call me, or let's meet up for coffee and actually have a proper conversation. We know everything about each other's lives, so when we do see each other, there is NOTHING to talk about - we would rather chat with friends on FB but we won't make an effort to meet up!!!

If we use technology moderately, it will help us. If we over-use, it will affect us. That is the subject matter of this video. How we are slowly losing our privacy is the need-of-the-hour subject and it is told very succinctly here.

I think you just written the greatest come back in the history of mankind!!!!!

Enlightening.

This is a good talk.

About time!!!

Amazing talk! Really interesting!

I`m getting Black Mirror vibes from this presentation.

Al fin alguien expone la realidad del Big data , me gusto mucho !

The escalation of the conflict between people seeking privacy & those wishing to spy upon such private information reminds me a bit of the "arms race" one sees in the evolution of predators' teeth, claws & hunting techniques vs the horns, armor, & other evasive means & techniques of prey animals.

becoming more and more tempted to go off the grid

Great Video, thank you

This guy has a great accent and a great vocabulary.

Very ironic indeed, however suggested TED talks don't breach the same moral issues. Stumbling upon ideas naturally is more exciting & there’s a whole world of information I would have missed if it wasn’t suggested. Our brains are shaped by the information we receive & a new moral argument arises when we begin to rely on algorithms to predict what we like. Ironically, if we wire computers to think for themselves, this gives them control of wiring our brains & the way we think. Skynet/Matrix! ☮

Its a sense of false security. And just because someone is really well educated doesn't mean they can't do something stupid, since we all have those moments of "what was I thinking?" The younger generations are raised now with the access to instantly tweet or post what they are thinking, when I was a kid/teen you just told the people near you. Which means anything stupid or embarrassing was only heard ( and maybe told to) your peers and some neighbors, depending. Now it reaches thousands.

Do not confuse intelligence with education. They are vastly different things.

i agree that for the moment people do not care about internet privacy. even if the digital footprint is there to stay forever.

Was this not published quite a while ago. I was expecting an update from the notification yesterday, but it was the same video? Good video though, lots of interesting ideas that show all this technology is not going to help anyone to be happier or more human. The thing is that a future without secrets is not really true, it's a future in which reality will be manipulated to an extremely fine tuned, political and economic way.

Viewers of this video should find "Gary Kovacs: Tracking the trackers" the other TED video from 2012 very interesting also.

Great!

some random notes: -in future, ads will be like Minority Report…except it’ll be a composite of our 2 best friends (why? because we won’t recognize the face, but we will like it due to its familiarity) -study asked students if they’ve ever cheated on an exam; in one group they were told their response would only be shared with other students; in the second group they were told their response would be shared with faculty as well -there was a lower response rate in the second group. but if there was a 15-second delay between notification (of who will see the response) and asking the question (have you cheated?), then the response rates were the same! more if you're bored: www.kevinhabits.com/ted/

HW is this possible that in every TED comments you can find many spam and rude or negative comments like racist and fascist ones. This suppose to be constructive. But a thec/social/political research about freedom and privacy become insults based in religion and racism. Nice touch.

11:40 !!!

hes right, humanity started in Africa.

I couldnt understand the SSN part. How did they guess first 4 digit just by public information?

what would be interesting is to add the actual tests carried out... the 15second delay test took my attention but I can't see the results for myself, even if I may not have the required knowledge to explain such results. I would rather have the results and search for myself.

lol. keep following the herd. the world needs people like you.

TELL THEM TRUTH MY BRATHA!! Good job:)

I got close. I guessed ten seconds of a delay.

I think this guys first name is awesome

correct

Heavy stuff.

It's true that environmental influence plays a role, but research indicates a genetic component to intelligence

People have a tendency to disclose information about themselves and often it is inappropriate information.Perhaps we could regulate ourselves a little more and start minding our own business before someone else starts minding it for us.

Well well well.

...So...privacy is important because an absence of it leads to employment discrimination and targeted ads? The former has been a problem as long as people have worked for one another, and the latter isn't a problem if you are critical about evaluating what that you need to buy, or just generally introspective. This was an interesting talk, but not a convincing one.

So.. On topic: Great talk. Eye-opening, but terrifying

Lol, immediately at the end of the video, captions appear saying: You may also like... Now that's irony for you :)

I was also confused by that. The first 3 digits are based on area. The next two are based on a "group number". I'm not sure what that means, but if it's based on the time of issue then it can be guessed. He said they correctly guessed the first 5 digits of people's SSN numbers 27% of the time with 4 attempts. That doesn't seem very accurate. I doubt it's much of a problem. He just wanted to scare people. I don't think he can get more accurate guesses. Apparently since 2011 SSNs are random.

Isn't it interesting how many of those historical paintings are similar to the cartoons which depict humans living side by side with dinosaurs?

Thank you for the answer. It seems like he is trying to use the same manipulation/marketing that he is speaking against :) . I guess that's the only way to get your point across in our times. I think we will adapt to all these privacy changes and it seems the system is starting to adapt too.

He forgot to mention what politicians and people or organizations of power could do as well to predict behavior and presume guilt of crimes, (stock) market "insider" level information and market manipulation, target dissidents and opposition. They ignore how people can be victimized and controlled even more when we allow programs to be used by companies colluding with others and government, especially the monopolized ones the government loves to promote by help of regulations.

That was the same idea I had. From the "Out of Africa" human migration idea.

I had no idea that occurred.

Those are the disposable one-use phones right? Yeah, maybe I should get on that.

How ironic that this video was uploaded onto a site that, in order to have an account, you are also simultaneously signing up for a social media site. Great talk though!

kinda sounds like watch dogs, with the whole identify someone by a photo

they adapted to the environment of africa and there skin absorbed so much heat over the 1000s of years that their skin turned to help deal with the amount of heat

wish there is cc i am not a native speaker of english and i really had a hard time understanding his accent…

I'm curious how they find an american SSN using data from a facebook profile. In my country the first digits of, I guess our equivalent of the SSN is the sex and DOB which IMO is way to trivial to even mention, but the next numbers I think can only be found by using a public SSN database which officially does not exist or a SSN database that is stolen/copied & posted on the internet which unfortunately exists, only using the name and ( DOB or partial home address ) .

This Italian guy Allessandro Acquisti is a whistle blower of sorts... letting people know what is possible and may be possible. The amplification of power which technology gives to man is something we should always be monitoring.. Hiroshima taught us that. Ed Snowden and the Guardian attempts to teach us again. Software is the new Manhattan project now that Big Data collection and storage is here, and much like with the Trinity Test, nobody knows what's going to happen.

it's just for arguments sake, I don't really do that shit but I think it brings up questions we should be asking now, before the government gets even more control over this technology. again for arguments sake, what if someone wanted to send a photo of their haemorrhoid to a doctor?

The content of the messages may be of interest, but the date, time, duration, place and frequency between communicators will do. We do profile enemies by multiple variables. Persons with the profile of a known enemy should be looked at. We already have an Artificial Intelligence (AI) program that reads "call detail reports" (CDR) from all communication companies. From passenger manifests and passports we also know place of birth, places visited, frequency, and duration of the visits. From the reports of overseas intelligence liaisons we know the whereabouts of travelers, associates, and family connections. From credit bureaus and banks we have much more. We are already collecting the information. Because of privacy concerns, we may be doing it from third party proxies. As long as there is a common data element, we may use a relational database system that does not need a gigantic flat file. We probably now have an AI program that accesses multiple databases and performs link analyses on an incredible amount of data for subsequent validation by human analysts. However, the effectiveness of the system may be degraded by political demagogy and concernes for the career preservation of a few who do not understand patriotism. Let's not worry about privacy. In today's world it does not exist. We have smart CCTV systems, etc. We may even have DNA databases that tell us what two persons met at a given place.

I would be ok with not having privacy but there's just one little thing, I don't trust the people to whom my information goes to.

True. And even before nourishment plays any role, there's genetics. Read the other answers to my comment.

I did not say that we should hide from each other.Perhaps if people listened to what others say rather than mindlessly twisting their words to suit their limited world views democracy would have stood a chance.

Can't wait to play mirror's edge 2

i agree this opinion, because i had that the same felt about private. but nowadays nobody care about this. think you share your speech.

Actually, that stimuli "can occasionally" come from other sources is wrong. That stimuli is most likely from any other sources besides school. School only teaches reading, writing, and math. Great thinkers including those who are creative, passionate, innovative, and leaders, often comes from external drives. Study anyone who's shaped history and often times they are called stupid, dropouts, socially awkward, or different. Often oppose by the academically "smart."

@Sam Hyde That H. sapiens and Neanderthals are techically the same species is very much technically wrong. To say they are is like saying a Coyote and Dog is the same species. Coyote and dogs both belong to the Canidae family but they are NOT the same species, and H. Sapiens and Neanderthals both belong to the Hominidae family but are NOT the same species.

What would future look like without secrets ? Internet privacy policy is to be defined more in detail.

Well I didn't say that nobody has better preconditions than someone else, what I said (in a hyperbolic manner) was that any human could become a great thinker. What I meant was that intrinsically dumb people are more rare than one might think.

Exactly. "Humanity" started in Africa and nobody really knows what color it was. It damn sure wasn't black or white because there are no humans of either color.

Just a parenthesis: There is actually new evidence from not that long ago that suggests that our origin isn't Africa at all. Though I don't think they had enough proof to call it yet. If interested, you can probably google it easily. Another parenthesis: even Christian scholars acknowledge that "Adam and Eve" wasn't white (light skin/blue eyes/etc). It's just a common (and quite ignorant, especially 2013) misconception.

Actually I am not implying anything about religion at all, although I do think all current creation myths are BS. What I was implying was the fact we all started as black and white people came from the lack of sunlight when we moved north and out of africa.

MARKETING... amiright?

He looks like Hugh Jackman with less/no hair......

The caption is horrible in this one

OK, maybe I homed in on the wrong thing....... Eve must have been on steroids :-)

Tor is pretty much useless now, governments own so many exit nodes and websites know when you're using it >.>.

Ezio Auditore

Did you watch and actually understand the video?

You do realize his statement is backed up by tons of research done by scientists/archaeologists/etc across the world? Seriously, you can google "ancient humans in Africa" and find MANY, MANY different articles and reports on the topic by tons of different people, with the dug-up bones to prove it. It isn't a flat-out "lie", it's a valid claim and a valid possibility.

No matter where you go online to "be yourself", your personal data is sold and used; a clutter of uninteresting content is shoved in your face; and trolls force you to share less open than you would like to. If you want to be on a social network but you don't want to be sold and used to the highest bidder. Join #Topishare's sharing economy; earn money with your content being protected. How protected: We do not use, collect, sell and share your information and content. You can also be anonymous or a guest. topishare.com/ And there is much more. You can read our business model in pages at the footer of the site if you don’t believe me. I used to be a social media users and a social media marketer. I know how people are being used and manipulated by companies that control the content and our information. Topishare is transforming the social media world. We bring back the control to the users. The only reasons social networks are powerful is you and it's time to take the control back. Take a look and let me know if you have any questions!

Random

You are broadcasting this talk on Google, correct? This is your first mistake.

Modern Homo sapiens split from other hominids in Sudan.

Just don't publish your face on any social network folks.

ならリプ

The answer to both questions seems to be Africa.

no it doesn't. way to judge a persons entire life off of 2 sentences. no it doesn't. right or wrong there will always be people who side with you. yeah, thanks for the heads up.

So, always wear a mask and never use FB.

#StopDataRetention

We shouldn't post our whole life online, for the whole world to see every little detail of our life!! Our childrens faces are WHO knows on what sick sites. Why does everyone need to know what we ate, or where did we party last Saturday!!

"Did I ever telL you the story about cowboys and Indians? Wroom wroom! And Frontier psychiatrist!"

NSA's next target. How dare he educate the public of government wrong doing!

Interesting reply, but this bloody phone app! This could b used... By frontierpsychiatrist. Bit the deputy wwould come revenge the sheriff,.. As that story goes... N we'd have no use of any applyance on what we learned. Coz...

Snow. oO

Why don't you point to the historical evidence then? Did Adam and Eve write about their lives in any book? What evidence did they leave about their existence? Or was this information transferred by word of mouth?

Wen I heard Adam and Eve I knew this guy wasint to be trusted

not unless you are an ancient abrahamic priest.