“What did you find?” Genevieve was still poking at the Phoenix data, looking at the greatest needs reported in the city and the average wait times on calls to FEMA, 911, the fire department, appliance repair.

“It’s got her dorm.” Toba sounded a little dazed. “It shows how many people are there right now — phone data, I think — and what shops are open nearby, and the average temperature inside buildings in that neighborhood. And there must be someone there who’s more involved, because there’s stuff on the composition of the paint in the dorm — maybe someone’s chemistry homework? — and its high temperature specifications, and when the lightbulbs were last replaced, and…”

Genevieve chuckled. “It’s a lot, isn’t it?” She remembered when she had started using the cooperative, how surprisingly granular and detailed it was. “And the worst is…”

“…knowing that this data has always been out there,” Toba finished after a pause.

“Except worse,” Genevieve said. “Because the cooperative has much stricter privacy rules than most of them, and fewer members. You know one time a company made an overture to our part of the cooperative, the municipal area I mean, asking for access to our data, and some members who are lawyers looked at their terms and explained it to everyone and we voted and turned it down.”

Malka Older • 'Shared Data,' a short story from an alternate future