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Privacy: Good Riddance?
Steve Furlong writes "David Brin, science fiction and science author, has a different take on invasions of privacy. Read
article for more info. " Brin's got an interesting take alright-nutshell is rather then try and fight the cameras that are going to go no matter what, make them so ubiqutous that everyone can know-but also reinstate the courtesy inherent in living in a collective sense, like the village of yore. The article is definietly worth a read.
I saw a show on this once. It was mainly about survelance cameras in every corner of a city. I beleive it was a poor area in Europe somewhere. There were cameras present everywhere overlooking every nook and cranny. The show talked about how in the future, it will be like Medeval times where the poorer live outside and the more well off live inside the confinements of the castle walls. Of course these catles would be a tad larger, but the concept is the same. That's basically how this one area is right now.
... but it's an important one. The key (IMHO) is that any view the cops have, ordinary citizens have too. A clickable city map showing where cameras are. Someone recently showed where all the camers were on a stretch of avenue in NYC; it was something like 17 cameras in three blocks ? These were mostly/entirely private cameras, but .. this idea of public accessibility to surveillance "data" could be extended to private cameras that have a view of public spaces, too ... maybe ...
Coming from the US, what Brin says makes a lot of sense-we live in a society in which any waiter can get to our credit cards, every business can find out about our credit histories, purchases, and transactions, and most activities can be logged on the internet, as well as other 'invasions' of privacy. Yet we accept this, because its convenient, for the most part, and we trust, because it is reciprocal, though more openness from the big business/government side wouldn't hurt.
How about those in other countries? What is the issue of transparency and privacy? There is a sense of freedom in believing the waiter won't steal your credit card, or that the car to your left at a 4-way stop will stop, and let you pass, because you're there first. Of course it isn't perfect, but I take it for granted sometimes how much trust is built into the system.
Am I just babbling about inconsequential things?
AS
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*Pikachu*
David Brin explored this concept somewhat in the novel "Earth". One aspect of the society he presented there was a group of senior citizens who wore "True-Vue" goggles - sunglasses with integrated fiber-optic cameras - who simply watched everything and everyone that passed their field of vision, and constantly uploaded the data streams to the 'net.
Spooky thought, but I have to agree with his central statement - if everybody sees everything, then it all evens out. The problem would indeed be to make sure that privacy (or the lack thereof) was extended to all strata of society.
Brin points out that cryptography will be useless when the authorities have a microscopic camera hidden in every suspect's house or office, watching the keyboard as they type in their PGP passphrase or obtaining the cleartext by capturing the message before it is sent.
Unfortunately, we will have to go through some major cultural shifts. We (as a society) need to learn to tolerate other behaviours much more before anyone can see what anyone else is doing...
I liked the article... I think there are some valid arguments, but I question how fast we can handle the transformation to a "transparent" society.
His point might be true if his assumptions are correct. He says that surveillance is going to be everywhere anyway, and there's not stopping it. I don't agree. A large city (damn, can't remember the details, I believe it was in California) was going to implement the "camera on every street corner" idea. A huge number of people came down to the public debate about it and basically said "Hell, no!"
Rather than just throwing up our arms and giving up on privacy, we need to stand up for it. I figure you have two choices: a) open up society with these cameras and such so everyone can snoop on everyone else and teach people to be corteous and openminded and make them not persecute others for being "abnormal or b) Take a stand on privacy and block measures that limit it. It would seem to me that not only is choice b more desirable, it's a lot easier to obtain.
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Jason Eric Pierce