The Happy Moron

I like to read Bruce Schneier’s stuff; he writes in English. He has a gift for making technical material non-technical.

This little piece gives me hope.

We’re familiar with social audit; we call it “manners”. Break a taboo, and prepare to reap the ensuing outrage. People can do all sorts of things that are gauche and inconsiderate. If people did do these things on a regular basis, society would fall apart. People don’t do these things because if they did, they would be ostracized.

We’re familiar with moral audit; we call it “conscience”. Do something wrong, and be convicted. Suffer the guilt.

Audit is the bit of security *after* prevention, the “If you do it, you will be caught and punished” bit.

Social audit is becoming more important, because as people gain new social tools, they become more powerful. It becomes impossible to prevent them from doing certain things, and it becomes necessary to deter them.

I can see the informal rules of social audit eventually evolving to meet the challenges of socializing over the internet. Friends won’t let friends post pictures of certain things, or they’ll hear about it later. There will be a line beyond which employers will not tread in snooping on employees, for fear of jeopardizing a working relationship.

The problem that audit does not solve is the problem of those unscrupulous characters who are undeterred by it. They now have the ability to be unscrupulous on a much broader scale. Your crooks and con-men who feel that they’re skillful enough to avoid getting caught are going to have a field day with more powerful tools available to them.