Robotics, Big Companies, and Big Data; Big Impact

Hey everyone, 

I thought I’d post something a little different today- this post is mostly in the form of a podcast! 

http://robohub.org/robots-podcast-privacy-google-and-big-deals/

During this past lecture, we talked a lot about Big Data, and our readings/in-class discussion did bring forward various concerns about identity, creating an ‘online persona’. This podcast (which you can download through the link) talks about these themes in terms of ‘robotics’, which is a big deal for major companies like Google and Apple. I think the speaker brings forward an interesting perspective as to whether the existing privacy policies are fit to handle the direction our online, technological future is taking. Furthermore, he’s actually a professor at Ryerson, so he deals specifically with Canadian concerns (which I think is important so that our policy discussions remain relevant to where we’re likely going to be practicing). 

For more background on this topic, here is an article that I think would serve as a good introduction to the topic: 

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1599189

I also think it’s interesting to keep in mind what the implications might be to our economy and job availability when companies begin to extensively incorporate robotics. That’s obviously off-topic from privacy and data interests, but it’s another practical effect to think about!