Two Dangerous Industry Patterns

In my line of work, there are clearly two key concerns or on-going industry patterns that will affects all of us - the world:

• Disruption in electronic mail operations and integrity, and
• Unsolicited P2P networking

The first one has to do with how the email industry is slowly but surely moving towards stronger authentication methods and the growth of lower reliability of email delivery. If you write something, you really can not guaranteed it will be delivered any more. While this practice can be justified, the end result is that people are left with the idea that censorship is prospering.

The second has to do with the idea of how we are more and more "connected" to each other. In the past, remote systems or user had no right to enter your property or computer or use your system as a vehicle for unsolicited communications. This is changing in the name of security and network and social connectivity.

What you are seeing if a shift towards (what is currently an illegal concept) where vendors believe it is their right to a) enter your computer, b) monitor your computer usage, c) control the licensing and d) to deliver unsolicited content (advertising and direct marketing).

In fact, Microsoft believes it is their "right" to be able to do this and they are using their Live .NET strategy to show what they can do. The problem is that once you open the door and allow this to happen, the begin to go further and further into the privacy domain - which again, push comes to shove, is currently an illegal activity.

But who is going to sue Microsoft? Me? You? Is there going to be anyone who is going to take the lead to fight the Microsofts from changing the rules and the laws to allow them to control your computer?

Well if no one speaks up, soon enough, if not already, it is going to be too late - Microsoft will claim it is too late - the technology is already embedded in their new Vista operating system and it is too late to remove it.