By contrast, when you hand over the management of your medical, legal, or financial affairs to another human, the performance of those tasks depends on your willingness to reveal very private and personal information. While oaths and laws may protect some confidentialities, there is no real regulatory shield against the leaking of intimate knowledge by human assistants. That is achieved solely through trust and mutual respect. In the digital world, such high regard and real confidence will be more difficult to accomplish, given the absence of actual or inferred values in a nonhuman system. In addition, a society of electronic agents will be able to communicate far more efficiently than a collection of human cooks, maids, chauffeurs, and butlers.
Rumors become facts and travel at the speed of light.
Since I constantly argue in articles and lectures that intelligent agents are the unequivocal future of computing, I'm always asked about privacy. However, the question is usually posed without a thorough appreciation of how serious an issue privacy is. As half the faces in the audience turn red, I admit I am joking. But no one is laughing. It's quite telling, but not that funny.