Voice: The Ultimate In Surveillance?

Lost over the last week in all the other news is the fact that Voice was released. This is Block.one's entry in to the world of social media. Running on its own EOS fork, it is touted as believing everyone's voice should be heard.

The only problem is that this application looks like it does the exact opposite.

Source

To start, it is a social media application that requires full KYC (Know Your Customer). This is usually reserved for the financial world since regulations require entities that are offering securities to know who they are selling to. It is also a way for authorities to track people engaging in illegal affairs.

The idea behind this for Voice is that people should have the right to say whatever they want. I guess you can conclude that by attaching one's identity, it might cut down on the trolling. However, as for speaking one's mind, this is a far cry from it.

There are many parts of the world, including the United States, where it is dangerous to openly voice one's opinion. I can only presume that the team behind this overlooked the fact that people can often lose their jobs because of opinions they express on social media. Amazon, along with most corporations, has a policy of termination if one speaks out against the company's actions.

We also see careers destroyed, especially in the sciences, if one goes against the politically correct ideas of the time. The attack dogs come out and people get blacklisted. Suddenly, they are cut off from funding along with often being terminated by politically correct institutions.

Then there is the physical danger aspect of things. By having one's name tied to opinions, especially controversial ones, there is the threat of lunatics taking action. We can add in the fact that, in many parts of the world, expressing certain opinions lands one in jail, or worse as governments exercise their freedom of force.

Naturally, all the personal information collected during the KYC process is not posted online. A government issued photo (there is some irony there) is required though during the sign up process and is the avatar used for the profile.

So where does all this personal information reside?

Lucky for the users, it is outsourced. Block.one chose HooYu to handle the process and store all the data. It is one thing if there is a hack revealing user names and passwords but this company is going to have full name, address, phone number and the aforementioned government photo.

This opens up another can of worms since the data can be accessed by outside entities.

“Investigators can speed up the tracing process by revealing all connections to an individual or business; this allows them to discover hidden addresses, associates, telephone numbers and email addresses, leading to more effective recovery operations,” claimed HooYu.

HooYu also reserves the right to share all user data it collects with its employees and contracted companies acting as data processors on its behalf. While the company’s privacy policy notes that data processors are only allowed to use the data according to HooYu’s instructions, this bears little weight in the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

https://cryptobriefing.com/block-ones-voice-raises-privacy-alarms-debt-collection-crime-prevention/

Another problem arises with the fact that Voice is tied to an EOS wallet. This enables any entity to watch the wallet and monitor all transactions. Once they have a starting point, they can reveal the entire online transaction history as it unfolds. All financial transactions will be open to viewing.

Of course, if you have some money in a wallet somewhere, the debt collectors will know. So will the taxing authorities. The regulators will be able to follow what you are doing. Major corporations will be know more about you with your purchases. Instead of being open only to Facebook (and whomever it sells the info to), this is open to everyone.

Then there is this interesting tidbit from Voice itself.

The question that jumps out is who is doing the moderation? Facebook has moderation too and that did not work out so well for some who exercised their freedom of expression.

It is also worth noting that Block.one recently settled with the SEC over their ICO. The company raised $4 billion yet received basically a slap on the wrist. The fine was $20 million which I am sure anyone would trade for a $4 billion windfall. Perhaps there were some strings to the caliber of the fine.

The linked article above has more information, especially about HooYu.

After reviewing some of this, we can see how it is all very troubling. It is bad enough we still have to endure this with the financial system yet, now, it is spreading to social media. The consequences of "sharing one's voice" are evident to anyone who looks at history. Even today, with the division we see across the globe, open-mindedness and accepting of diverse opinions is rather sparse.

Somehow, the Voice team feels that this path is a good approach and has some benefit. I guess the question is to whom?

It does not appear that the users are the major ones to benefit.

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Posted via Steemleo