Legal Bill

Remember the first time you read 1984 (or saw the movie)? I do. I remember thinking it would never happen. We love our freedom too much. We covet our privacy. We would fight against intrusion into our lives and stop it before it ever started.

But we didn't. We accepted the intrusion at every step. If anything, we the people helped to drive it. It didn't come from government alone. Private industry learned that consumer information was valuable and the more of it they had, the more money they could make. And then government learned that it didn't really need to institute laws or programs that invade our privacy. They could simply request, demand or subpoena the information from businesses and individuals alike. Everything they could ever want was already there, handed over on a silver platter and residing for all eternity on the servers of corporations big and small, on the hard drives of our home computers, in the storage of our tablets, phones and cameras. And we created it. We wanted the devices that gather all our private information, track our movements and analyze our preferneces and habits. We willingly gave it to the corporations. And we damanded more ways to turn it over. Over time, sentiments seemed to change. Privacy became equated with secrecy. Publicity and notoriaty became the goal and the quest to achieve it saw millions of people willingly publicizing information about their private lives to the world. And today it seems it is just taken for granted.

What started me on this rant? Google Glass. This isn't the first or only piece of technology that invades our privacy, but it certainly takes the invasion to the next level. Take a read from this article on CNN:

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/25/tech/i...html?hpt=hp_c2

This isn't the begining. We are already to far along to turn back. In addition to the government, Google, Photobucket, Amazon and numerous other sites have information about us that we created and turned over ourselves. Hell, S2ki has information about us and we create more every day with every post on this forum.

Corporate surveillance camreas, government cameras and private cameras take millions of images, store them, and wait patiently for someone to demand them. Our phones track our every move with built in GPS. Our internet searches are saved in the servers at Google and Bing and our e-mails are retained in so many places, you couldn't delete them if you wanted to.

Do we care? Not much it seems. And I think the younger generations care less than the older generations. It's no longer a matter of time before we are all wired into "the system" and under constant surveillance. It already happened. Do you care? Do you worry about it? Do you live by the motto "I don't care what they know about me, I'm not doing anything wrong"? Do you even think twice about this before you buy a piece of technology, connect to the internet or enter your information into a private or government web site?

I'm not sure if this discussion can last long in the general forum. I can see the discussion quickly veering into the realm of politics. But I'm hopeful that a discussion about privacy and technology can be approached at a level that transcends political bickering.

valentine

LB, I think about all these things a great deal. If I were a lot younger, I'd probably be protesting loudly, holding up placards and marching. However, this is not the case. So much has changed in technology in just the past decade, not to mention the past several. I watch a program on SyFy called Continuum that really brings a lot of this tech-world of the future in focus. A line in the dialog last night said something along the lines of technology being invented that watches everything we do in order to "keep us honest." Alas, it is invented to pry into our lives, convince us to spend money we really do not need to spend and in order for government to be aware of what we are doing and almost to the point of what we are thinking. It frightens me but I see no end to it. The younger generation is rushing headlong using their great minds to invent technology that will eventually lead to who knows what . . . 1984? maybe.

Lovetodrive2000

I think the younger generations do not realize what they are loosing.

They have been part of the movement towards all of these devices, and don't realize the freedoms they are loosing.

So... with the Google glasses.... if I see someone wearing them and recording me, do I have the right to demand the pictures be deleted, or do I have the right to tear them off their face and step on them to protect my privacy?

Legal Bill

I'm not even sure how you would know they were wearing them.

Legal Bill

I watch that show also. I think we are only a couple of connections away from being able to gather all the information available about anyone you like right on your home computer.

RMurphy

Any physical contact is considered assault. So no, you have no right to tear them off someone's face and destroy their property. If you are in a public environment, you can have no expectation of privacy. People already record video with their phones out in public all the time and it's not illegal. Laws vary from state to state a little bit, but in a private environment, the person recording is required to inform you that you are being recorded. You can choose to decline consent. A lot of laws on this subject already exist and I don't profess to know all of them. I've only read enough to know if I'm allowed to run my dashcam at will and what I'm required to disclose while running it in the State of California.

Technology can be used for both good and bad, and the definitions of those terms are often difficult to agree on. I currently use my dashcam mostly as a witness and self-protection mechanism. I call that good. Others may feel differently.

RMurphy

We aren't a couple of connections away. We are already there.

Morris

Just go shopping on-line for a specific product, then watch ads pop up on your screen for that product when you're on other websites. One small example. Happens all the time to me.

RMurphy

That can be minimized by restricting the use of cookies by your browser. I say minimized and not eliminated because you do have to allow certain cookies just to complete a purchase transaction on shopping web sites. However, you could clear cookies after completing a purchase and so there would be no way for the various sites to track what you've been shopping for while online. Downside to clearing cookies: some sites that you may want to "remember" you (like maybe s2ki so you don't have to keep logging in all the time) will not remember you after clearing cookies. It's an individual choice if you want to give up the privacy in order to get the convenience. But it *is* still a choice one can make.

valentine

^^ Murph, I clear cookies and history everytime I surf, but amazingly I get emails inviting me to check out places who sell the very product for which I searched earlier. I no longer really worry about it since I am not overly concerned that someone out there knows I'm looking for books about dogs or a special lawn tool. What I DO concern myself about is overreaching government tracking of all of us. I'm not so fringe as to worry overmuch about using my GPS but I do think from time to time about smartphones and the tracking devices with which they come. We pay a price for convenience and that price may be a loss of freedom or in the future some agent showing up at your door because you may have accidentally or innocently connected with something or someone that is on a "watch list".