Critical Points

This project is incredibly relevant in this day and age. As we enter the Internet of things era where many sensor filled, connected devices will collect and distribute personally identifiable information, it's more important than ever to have strategies for handling personal information. Having data "decay or "forget" is one, but there are many established interests that are based on archiving every bit of data possible. Existing security approaches are not enough. Yakamoto Industries advocates the use of noisy, blurry, and unreliable information as a strategy for countering the massive data collection and surveillance practices that now characterize the Internet and threaten privacy, expression, and identity on multiple levels. Yakamoto would like to see data obfuscation become embedded in information systems across industries, and help motivate individuals to inquire about and understand how their information is being collected and used. Like online "reputation" companies that charge to clean up undesirable data off of public sites or Facebook, Yakamoto imagines a counter industry that fakes it instead. Rather than aiming for accuracy it would strive for unreliability. Unreliable information is an undesirable target for profiling, surveillance, and data breaches. Yakamoto encourages the development of tools for data obfuscation, and is conducting experiments on Facebook.