Data is the defining feature of the information age. The internet, data storage and processing, and software-driven automation are having a major impact on the global economy and human society. As our daily lives and social organization have been changed by information technology, and will probably continue to radically change in the coming decades, comparisons to the Industrial Revolution come to mind.
The Industrial Revolution came about through major technological and agricultural advances, and it brought sustained economic growth and significantly improved living standards in the long run—yet it also came with major problems. Pollution of the air (due to smoke and chemical processes) and the water (from industrial and human waste) was dreadful. Factory owners lived in splendor, while urban workers often lived in cramped and unsanitary housing and worked long hours in harsh conditions. Child labor was common, including dangerous and poorly paid work in mines.
It took a long time before safeguards were established, such as environmental protection regulations, safety protocols for workplaces, laws prohibiting child labor, and health inspections for food. Undoubtedly, the cost of doing business increased when factories were no longer allowed to dump their waste into rivers, sell tainted foods, or exploit workers. But society as a whole benefited hugely from these regulations, and few of us would want to return to a time before.
Just as the Industrial Revolution had a dark side that needed to be managed, our transition to the information age has major problems that we need to confront and solve. The collection and use of data is one of those problems. In the words of Bruce Schneier:
Data is the pollution problem of the information age, and protecting privacy is the environmental challenge. Almost all computers produce information. It stays around, festering. How we deal with it—how we contain it and how we dispose of it—is central to the health of our information economy. Just as we look back today at the early decades of the industrial age and wonder how our ancestors could have ignored pollution in their rush to build an industrial world, our grandchildren will look back at us during these early decades of the information age and judge us on how we addressed the challenge of data collection and misuse.
We should try to make them proud.