Perfect Data in an Imperfect World

It is no secret that we are at the dawn of the digital age—our parents (and, for some of us, even our grandparents) have computers, digital cameras, MP3 players, etc. We each have more computing power in our cell phones than the mainframes of 35 years ago had, and everywhere we find data acquisition and tracking systems. Privacy has never been more zealously guarded nor more freely abandoned, and with the proliferation of digital data collection and dissemination have come new worries.

What is being recorded, why, and by whom? With literally billions of computers around us, how can we keep our data (and ourselves) safe? How can we prevent misappropriation or misuse of information about ourselves? How can we ever expunge flawed records, urban legends, or embarrassing facts? We have become the elephant who never forgets, but what are we remembering?

This talk will take a look at what our world is becoming, and perhaps suggest what we can do to make it a little less imperfect.

Dan Klein began his life of crime in 2nd grade, when he was caught with a pack of firecrackers. Since then his brushes with authority have been sporadic but relentless, but have not managed to deny him a security clearance, a job, or his well-deserved reputation as an off-the-wall maverick. His computer experience has included simulation and process control, the internals of almost every UNIX kernel released in the past 28 years, and graphical user interface management systems.