Technology is stripping
away your privacy. Every thing you are and
everything you do can build an almost incontestable
portrait of you. Your fingerprints, your DNA,
the distance between your eyes, your teeth,
your voice or your signature all bear information
providing not just clues to your identity,
but close to positive proof that you are indeed,
you.
Technology
is propelling us ever more rapidly into the future.
Not just a tomorrow that's a little different than
today. But rather a whole new set of worldly surroundings
that individually taken, most people can understand
and live with, but collectively are leading us like
sheep to slaughter. We quickly learned to love the
convenience of cell phones but have not yet learned
how to use them gracefully. Soon we will have cell
phones that have Global Positioning receivers built
in so our whereabouts can be recorded while conversing.
We will trade our privacy for the moment when we dial
911 for emergency help. They will know where we are
without asking.
We use the Internet to communicate by e-mail and
anyone that really tries can read it. We use the
web to get news, stock prices, entertainment schedules
and tickets, and to buy almost anything for sale.
We accept nasty little pieces of code in our computers
that track our every movement on the web and send
it to snoops we don't even know.
We are giving up our rights to privacy in exchange
for convenience and since it happens just a little
at a time we don't even feel it. We will feel it
however when all the data about you, or me, is
stored in databases. Just like it really is right
now. It's not quite ready for prime time though.
The missing piece to complete surrender of privacy
is your real identity. We can hide behind email
or chat room nicknames but your ISP knows who you
are, where you live and the bank you use to pay
them. It is no hurdle at all for all the scattered
databases, each with some information about you,
to communicate with each other and discover your
real identity.
Once the information is shareable, every time
you use any electronic device that is on a network
you will be in the public eye. Just think of any
piece of information you might wish to be private.
Is it? No. Not if someone wants it. And if someone
does they are unlikely to let you know you are
really naked. Information about you will be exposed
for those that want to see it.
Does it sound like our liberty is under attack?
You betcha. And the attack is so swift and silent
that neither our governments nor we know what to
do about it. Before we can understand the last
little piece of privacy we just lost, there is
another little piece waiting for its nibble of
our self worth.
Now that the United States is at war many things
we take for granted will be compromised for the
sake of security against terrorists. If we cannot
guard our population from external threat we won't
have a livable world. We must be able to know when
non-citizens are within the country and when they
leave. Nothing new here. Most every country demands
to see a visitor's passport, coming and going.
What is new are the technologies to identify anyone
anywhere a digital camera can be aimed. Imagine
cameras in New York's Times Square capturing the
digital image of each person 24 hours a day, 365
days a year. That's not so scary is it? Of what
real use are archives of pictures of crowds? How
could you hope to find one face among millions?
The answer is frightening. Today cameras in Times
Square, or at the corner of First and Main in your
town, could send the images of people's faces to
a computer. There, just like fingerprints, key
identifying elements of each face would be measured
and put in a database. There you were at 2:07 PM
at First and Main. No problem, unless of course,
you do have a problem.
Put each of the database computers on the Internet
and allow each to be queried for a facial characteristic
match of someone being sought. If it is you being
sought there is little you can do to deny you were
at a place other than where the computer says you
were. That's pretty useful information for the
authorities if you are a terrorist.
If you are a terrorist or not, and would like
to maintain your privacy, better start thinking
about the trail you leave behind. The dozens of
databases that soon might contain your unique facial
profile along with your bank records, the videos
you rented, the web sites you visited, the books
you purchased, the taxes you paid, the property
you own, the car you drive, the home you live in,
the schools you attended, and the kids you have.
Scared yet? I am. And I don't have a clue as to
what to do about it. Do you?
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