I've written before about how technology has compromised our privacy (think how smart phones, web browsing, facebook, e-z pass, credit cards, gps devices, lo-jack, on-star, RFID chips, traffic cameras, etc. can be used to track our activities, travel, and communications).
Privacy advocates face an uphill struggle.
Contending with the naive ("I'm not doing anything wrong"), the pessimistic ("They have all our information anyway"), or the lost ("My iPhone has a Mayan Calendar!") isn't easy. And it's hard to see the problem until it's too late.
Protecting information goes way beyond identity theft or tracking spending habits. It's about allowing the government and law enforcement to gather personal information without probable cause.
The Stasi, the state security agency of the repressive German Democratic Republic, are probably most notorious for the files they kept on hundreds of thousands of ordinary East Germans. Those files were instrumental in determining promotions, entry to higher education, and obtaining visas for travel.
Once information can be easily centralized (Fusion Centers and the REAL ID are designed for this) then there is really nothing to stop large quantities of personal data from being readily accessible to authorities. We need limits on what can be gathered and for what purpose.
It's happening here and now. The ACLU has documented the surveillance and intelligence gathering on environmentalists, war protestors, and civil activists. Think about the “terrorist watch list” and how effectively it has kept 4 year olds off airplanes and it's clear things are not getting better.
There is hope. Pay attention to this very important case on cellphone privacy that is being argued in the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in
For the latest, check out the ACLU Technology & Liberty Project.
