Blog @ andreaprovaglio.com

Security is the art and science of CIA, Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability (yeah, we know that!). But many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view. While some businesses might consider our shopping history a legitimate piece of information for them to know, we, as customers, may want to protect our habits under the broad term of privacy. But is there such a thing as privacy in a connected (actually more and more unplugged) world? Sun Microsystems CEO, Scott McNealy's answer was a loud no, almost 9 years ago ("You have zero privacy anyway, get over it."). Eventually, things got worse.

Today, Internet users are offered tons of "free" online services: email, video communications, social networking sites, encyclopedias, search engines, restaurant guides, ... How come that companies offering free services suddenly become multi-billion dollar enterprises? Two of them, arguably the most successful, have been targeted by ethics and privacy activist Daniel Brandt: Google Watch & Wikipedia Watch report that a Skynet-like, evil superior intelligence is already online and is close to become self-conscious. Is that true? Well, if you look at how controversies are solved in Wikipedia you may find that, despite the "anyone can edit" tagline, some users are more equal than others and opponents are hushed up by zealots with mantric jargon like neutral point of view, reliable sources and consensus. If you sum this to Google despicable cookie policy and IP address logging practice you end up with Animal Farm meets the Big Brother.

And finally, here comes the almighty Smartphone, the ultimate gadget for the power user. Does anybody realize that most of them have, at least: a camera, a microphone, a GPS receiver, plenty of connectivity and a remotely exploitable operating system? You still feel safe, don't you?

My wish list for Web 2.0 is the following: reliability, assurance and privacy. I'm afraid I have to wait for Web 2.1.