In a perfect world this wouldn't be necessary. In the real world we have Cambridge Analytica manipulating elections. Volkswagen cheating regulators. Boeing deciding their bottom line is more important than lives.

And you can't prevent all disease with data alone. Most of us have some vices that we know are bad for our health but we do them anyway. And sometimes rightly so. Physical health isn't the only thing that matters in life. We make trade-offs and there's more than just data driving them. We're creatures of emotion :)

I definitely wouldn't trade off perfect health for having no privacy.

I suspect that makes you a tiny tiny majority.

>>> I just don't want companies I don't trust to own my data.

Neither do I. So i can have a world where my data is secret so companies do not have your data (not sure this is possible)

or we force the companies to be trustworthy (perhaps almost as hard but we do have many examples of doing this.)

Imagine a world where handling private data requires a professional qualification and membership, like say a banking license.

Regulations require that the location data tracking you and your family (ie Life360) is provided to the NHS researchers via encrypted file transfer, you cannot support your business with targeted advertising.

Imagine I can have my family's screentime data sent for analysis and a weekly review video is sent back to me suggesting my recent videos have been veering towards the usual QAnon gateway path and perhaps I should be careful.

My super market purchase history and credit card use at the takeaway suggests I am eating less healthily than my previously agreed limits - would Inlike to start the middle aged man Supermarket order list which gets me ingredients and recipies that might achieve my goals

I know this sounds dystopian- and I need to spend some time writing it up - but frankly I need help with life, and I think most people who evolved for chasing antelope and intellectually wrestling with a tribe / family no bigger than a wedding guest list need help handling the modern world.

We should have the modern world set to good defaults (why not have every salary drop 5% into a index fund from age 18) - and this sort of "intrusive" data management is one way to scale that

How many people go to McDonalds despite knowing it's basically poison?

How many people do drugs or cigarettes or even alcohol knowing it's bad?

I don't think this is a minority at all. A lot of people just don't care enough.

> Imagine I can have my family's screentime data sent for analysis and a weekly review video is sent back to me suggesting my recent videos have been veering towards the usual QAnon gateway path and perhaps I should be careful.

Lol I always disable screentime as I view it as solving a non-isue. But what will you do if the user ignores the "perhaps you should be careful". The news already advises us that QAnon ideas are factually incorrect. This doesn't stop people, it almost feels like it does the opposite (QAnon supporters will view this as confirmation that the state is against them).

So this is not very effective. It won't actually work without mandating it. Meaning complete state control and censorships. Which means no freedom anymore. Also, it will even reinforce the QAnon narrative of "big state forcing ideas into our heads". Because, really, that is exactly what you will be doing. You will basically be fighting them by making them right. Does that really make sense?

> My super market purchase history and credit card use at the takeaway suggests I am eating less healthily than my previously agreed limits - would Inlike to start the middle aged man Supermarket order list which gets me ingredients and recipies that might achieve my goals

Again, most people that are overweight know they're eating wrong. Including myself. It does not stop them.

What I do wish is more availability of good food for takeaway. Living alone it's a major bore having to cook and all the takeaway choices are bad. But that's beside the point. Informing people does not help and we're doing this already. Forcing them takes away all their freedoms. They will rally against it. Would you like to live in a prison where someone else decides what you're going to eat?

> We should have the modern world set to good defaults (why not have every salary drop 5% into a index fund from age 18) - and this sort of "intrusive" data management is one way to scale that

We're already doing that. It's called "taxes". The government doesn't "index fund" it but funds are a speculative thing. They have no return if they are ubiquitous. Besides, our governments prefer borrowing instead. Good or bad, they're so far into that rabbit hole they're never going to get out.

> I know this sounds dystopian- and I need to spend some time writing it up - but frankly I need help with life, and I think most people who evolved for chasing antelope and intellectually wrestling with a tribe / family no bigger than a wedding guest list need help handling the modern world.

Yes it sounds very dystopian. And don't take the "Chinese model" for something that has come as a response to modern society. On the contrary, it's based on Confucianism which predates our western society and religions (he died about 500 years BCE). Personally I think his ideas about servitude to the state might have worked back then but they are not working today. It's something that was useful when life was hanging by a thread. It's not for solving first world problems :)

Do many people need help? Sure. But I'm sure many people needed help too during the industrial revolution or middle ages. In fact they needed a lot more help. They were dropping like flies back then. I agree our minds are not made for connecting the world on a global scale. But we deal with that already. Think about your Whatsapp list (or whatever IM you use). You don't have everyone in the world in that. Just your buddies. You find circles on the web with people with common interests. Such as here. We're recreating our own comfortable little villages. We already make a huge difference in people "we know" and that we don't. Again this predates the internet and started being a thing from the time we started living in cities.

I'm sorry you need help. Go look for it, you will find it! But I don't think building the society you intend will really solve any issues. It will just brush them under the carpet, just like it does in China.

Also, if you really want this... I'm sure the Chinese government will let you move there :)