MSP68 [] Data Babies: The Rise of the Planet of the Tracked

From the moment of conception to the time they die, the next generation of children may be tracked, monitored and surveilled every minute of every day.

Produced by Jeff Sandhu

Transcripts & more at www.kulturpop.com

Episode Excerpt

When I first saw that today’s show had Babies in the title, I assumed it had to be a joke. Matt Armitage is not known for being child friendly. In fact, I’m fairly sure that he thinks they should be farmed. Or grown in vats, like clean meat. But it would seem he’s genuinely worried about generations still to come.

Matt. Data Babies and trackable humans. What’s going on?
•You sound like one of those local TV news anchors in the US doing a hard hitting interview.
•Mrs McGillicutty’s slipped on ice because no one salter her path. Here to answer our questions is city representative, Jeff Sandhu. Councillor, what’s going on?

It really must be hurting you to devote an entire episode to children.
•I prefer to think of them as boxed in adults.
•In that you keep them in a box until they’re 18.
•I had one of those weird realisations over the weekend.
•I’ve been listening to and watching a bunch of anti-vaxxer information over the last couple of weeks.
•To the point where parents are turning down routine vitamin K injections for newborns in some countries, while in other places we’re seeing the return of infectious diseases like measles because fewer kids are being inoculated against them

This doesn’t sound as though it’s related to data…
•Because there’s a weird corollary.
•At a time when parents are rejecting medical interventions for their kids in increasing numbers, ignoring the science that shows these interventions lead to better health outcomes.
•Yet, despite the concerns people have about data privacy with Facebook, Google and the scores of apps and companies that track our habits and movements every second of the day.
•Despite those facts, plenty of people are willing to use services that offer them utility in helping to raise their kids in exchange for a very rich stream of data.