The Nation: Google's Wi-Fi Privacy Ploy
Jeff Chester writes on The Nation:
The digital gold rush is on across America, as cities scramble to develop free or low-cost Wi-Fi zones. These public on-ramps to the Internet are designed to provide every citizen with a form of always-on, high-speed Internet access--at the playground, in the office or at home--at low or no cost.More here.
Dozens of communities large and small, in red states and blue, are either planning or currently constructing Wi-Fi systems. Community leaders--from Philadelphia; Houston; Columbia, South Carolina; and San Francisco, to name a few--recognize that creating a citywide Wi-Fi zone is not only vital for economic development and public safety but helps insure that Americans who can't now afford digital communications on their own can also tap in to the riches and convenience of the Internet. But there is no such thing as a free digital lunch.
posted by Fergie @ 3/24/2006 12:45:00 PM
2 Comments:
The strange part is 'The Nation' is sending out cookies, what up
Your concern of compromising local residents’ rights of privacy for free or cheap municipal WiFi is more important than you may think. Two Florida based not for profits, ProjectSafety™ and St. Pete SmarTown™ have clear alternatives to the intrusive data-mining of Google and “google like” services, while still offering specific location and information services in emergencies. These two organizations early on viewed the importance of public safety primary access in shared public/private municipal networks while recognizing revenue sources through unobtrusive location based information and advertising. Florida networks also required the indestructible nature of decentralized low powered WiFi radios that have already survived catastrophic events such as hurricanes.
Our organizational studies agree with your concerns with the Google/Earthlink models and offer alternatives as to how the public and private sector can work together in deploying needed WiFi enabled technologies and services. Our concerns with the Google/Earthlink models are as follows: First, where have they addressed public safety primary interoperable access in these proposals? Should we wait until another catastrophic event to add this FCC licensed requirement to municipal and/or commercial RFP’s? Secondly, the private sector side not only has privacy issues, you need to look at how many dollars centralized “google like” services would suck out of your local advertising and tax revenues. Third, our studies clearly indicate that there are ways of making life saving location and information services available while keeping local and personal information personal.
It’s about the community and how public/private partnerships must work together in addressing day to day and emergency community needs. I am not saying that municipals shouldn’t work together following technology standards and rules that will allow them national interoperability and security. I am saying we should “vote locally and think globally” and we will gain the important benefits that WiFi community networks will bring to our cities and nation.
Post a Comment
<< Home