Wow, it’s been busy – Jaron Lanier wasn’t the only big IT name passing through Singapore lately.
O’Reilly Radar blogger Nat Torkington has been here to talk to the IDA about how to foster tech startups. Don’t know whether he gave any public talks, but anyway it’s good that Singapore is talking to people like this.
On the other hand… also visiting has been Iran-Contra conspirator John Poindexter, who has been unveiling a local version of the Orwellian Total Information Awareness program. Naturally, as someone who believes in privacy and data protection, this deeply worried me when I first saw his name.
However, the Wired piece does cover how Singapore has good and valid reasons for doing this (extreme vulnerability to epidemics and terrorism) and – importantly – that they have taken care to safeguard privacy. That’s good to know. Also reassuring is the involvement of Dave Snowden, fellow Welshman and luminary in the Knowledge Management world. I’ve admired his work for several years, and saw him once in the staff club of NTU, where he’s based. I really must make an effort to get over there and meet him some time.
Thanks for the comment – it is appreciated
Just for the record the Singapore system does not replicate TIA (as wired were told) but another programme Genoa II. There is no intrusion, but then that would not have made a good story ….
Hi Dave, thanks for leaving a comment! Yes: the Wired article got me really worried when I started reading it, and I mean very worried. Later on in the article, it does make clear that the system here in Singapore is not the same as the original TIA, and has been careful to protect privacy. I guess it was written that way to make maximum impact.
I wrote this blog post in a bit of a hurry before going out, and had decided to revise it, to perhaps make it clearer that privacy is most definitely respected.
Unfortunately, I managed to lock myself out last night, and have just managed to get a locksmith to let me back in this morning. Bah. Since you’ve already commented, I’ll leave the original article as it is, but yes, it’s not the original TIA, and our data is protected.
[...] further to my recent post on John Poindexter, the TIA, and Singapore, Dave Snowden has posted a response to, and [...]