companies generally require pros-
ecutors to obtain warrants signed
by judges—not mere subpoenas—
before divulging the content of
email messages.
In the long run, as we share more
with our virtual assistants, per-
haps certain deeply personal data
should simply become off-limits to
the government. This would follow
other legal privileges, including the
attorney-client privilege, the mari-
tal privilege, the clergy privilege
(protecting both formal confes-
sions as in the Catholic Church and
confidential communications to
other clerics), the accountant-client
privilege, and the physician-patient
privilege. These are not absolute;
exceptions exist for future crime or
fraud, and a privilege can be waived
in other ways.
The real danger in exabyte-
scale data collection coupled with
advances in machine learning isn’t
from private companies attempt-
ing to learn your preferences. It’s
when governments, probably led
by China, start to really figure it out.
The enabling technology is
increasingly available to anyone
who wants it. A generation ago,
automatic license plate recognition
was the stuff of Hollywood thrill-
ers. Now anyone can download
the code for free. I’m thinking of
installing it on an extra computer
to recognize cars pulling into my
driveway. If I might do this in my
spare time, what will the govern-
ment come up with when it actually
puts some thought into it?
J. D. TU CCI LLE is a contributing editor at
Reason.
D ECL AN M CCU LL AG H is a Silicon Valley
writer, an entrepreneur, and a co-founder
of Recent M edia Inc.
REASON 29