What I do know, is that I have read no discussion of any sort regarding the kind of dangers and possible scenarios that might be in store for Internet users in repressive regimes. Internet content and communications companies have evinced a wholesale disregard for their users’ safety around the world from the very beginning. I find it extremely hard to believe that, if big Internet does move into data portability, they will not cut that clothing out of whole cloth. It is highly unlikely, in other words, that should these companies decide to invest in data portability, you will be able to exempt yourself from it. Exemptions cost money.

This seems like another case of presuming a “global” innovation without taking the trouble to examine its untidy implications. In the United States or Finland or Japan, after all, what’s the worst thing that could happen if your data gets hijacked? Theft? In Iran or Egypt or China, the worst that could happen is your death.

If I find any writing on this topic, I will certainly post a link to it. If you know of any, or spot any in the future, please share it. Just as in the Internet bubble of the late ’90s, I find the media that covers these innovations (the “social media media”) to be uncomfortably close to that previous era’s uncritical cheerleading. Or perhaps more accurately, these journalists, whether mainstream or new media, seem to spend more time splitting hairs within the topic than addressing its real importance to the life lived outside of it, and which it has the potential to affect on a large scale. I hope this post is seen as a challenge to those involved, not to be pointlessly negative, but responsibly skeptical, thorough and grounded in a real-life context.

I think an extraordinary amount of skepticism is in order.