Bad Boys: What Are You Going To Do When They Crowdsource Surveil You?
DISCLOSURE: I am a founder, shareholder and otherwise interested party in the business venture Phuzz described below.
The road to our inevitable utopia of freely and comprehensively shared personal information is still full of bumps it seems. As a renowned thought leader and an advocate for a united global infocracy, I’ve written, campaigned and thought-led relentlessly for the reduction of restrictive personal privacy legislation and for free and unlimited access to society’s data for everyone. Despite the fact that social media platforms are proving every day the invaluable benefits of limited privacy, there are still many detractors who seek to suppress technology from driving the infocratization of society.
Take for instance the recent controversy spurned by Google-acquired Waze. According to an article on ArsTechnica, the highly popular crowdsourcing app for drivers has come under fire with law enforcement officials. The primary concern: the app’s police reporting feature. Users can notify the greater Waze community of the presence of the police on the road with the hopes of saving another driver the cost of a speeding ticket. But this function has been decried by authorities in Virginia, among other places, as a “police stalker”. Their concern, of course, is for the safety of the officers.
I can think of 100 ways that it could present an officer-safety issue. There’s no control over who uses it. So, if you’re a criminal and you want to rob a bank, hypothetically, you use your Waze.
— Jim Pasco, the executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police.
Undoubtedly, Waze does raise concerns with its potential to facilitate crime. For instance, when bank robbers not only know the location of police officers but also have up-to-date info on potential traffic issues, they know the best possible routes and have an exponentially better chance at executing a successful robbery and getting away safely. But while a Waze-powered crime spree could happen at any moment, information doesn’t rob banks, people do. Society’s solution is so simple but, for many, impossible to see:
Want to ensure your personal safety? Liberate all of your personal information.
I believe the best way to combat social media-enabled crime is not to punish the data but rather to fight back with an equal and opposite data force: Empower and incentivize the people to become the watchers, the reporters and the arbiters of a crime-reduced community.
Enter: Phuzz.
Phuzz is a new social app platform that converts safety-minded citizens into the nodes of a living, breathing data machine engineered to prevent or contain criminal activity.
When a Phuzz user (Phuzzer) observes a suspect situation or person, they simply tap the PhuzzIt button which immediately shares the location and an optional photo or video of the potential offender, alerting law enforcement authorities through the platform’s central dispatch.
If a PhuzzAlert is “liked” by 5 or more people it becomes qualified and its submitted description and photo/video are automatically filed as an APB (All Points Bulletin) and, if enough incriminating information has been submitted, a warrant for arrest.
If You’re Not Doing Anything Wrong, You’re Doing All Right
Phuzz works on the simple principle that if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about. When Phuzz is installed, it maintains a constant connection with central dispatch not only providing the Phuzzer the ability to report malfeasances, but it continually collects and transmits the Phuzzer’s own personal information: location, recent purchases, cellphone activity, and an encrypted stream of all SMS, MMS and social posting data. Keeping a Phuzzer honest makes for honest reporting. And honest reporting makes for a safer society. The more active and exposed a Phuzzer becomes, the more incentives they can earn including discounts on purchases at local businesses, custom avatars and badges.
Critical Mass: The Pressure’s On
Phuzz performs optimally when its penetration in a community has hit critical mass (at least 65% of the designated population). At this point, studies have shown that the fear of exposure of one’s actions outweighs the motivation to commit a crime and paralyzes aberrant behavior. That’s the power of limited privacy and the civic theory upon which Phuzz has been established, but achieving that sort of scale requires a massive initial capital investment and commitment from local government for infrastructure and enforcement, as well as ongoing sponsorship to maintain a properly balanced task/reward system for Phuzzers.
A Two-way Street
The fear of compromised safety that an app like Waze engenders in the police requires a counter-balance. Phuzz can be that counter-balance by creating an equitable exchange of information. Building the trust of our law enforcement agencies by exposing our own personal behavioral data is the first step to realizing the vision of a free and transparent infocracy. The police have nothing to hide; why should we?
Speculatist, acclaimed thought leader, infocratic technublican, award-winning filmmaker, entrepreneur, acclaimed thought leader and Chief Innovation Officer Troy Hitch explores the consumer trends, business innovations and technological breakthroughs defining the next evolution of humankind. He leads with more thought at The Hypermutable Future.
