Worried about privacy?

June 5, 2006

A recent ruling on the sharing of airline passenger data helps show how European and American views differ on the competing demands of individual rights to privacy and the public need for security is the subtitle of a recent Economist article. I find it hard to get worked up about invasion of my privacy, and I’m not sure why. One reason may be that, so far, I have never felt threatened. Another reason may be that I am not very smart and believe that if I behave and don’t call attention to myself, everything will be alright. Think Ostrich. All I have to do, I reason, is stay below Big Brother’s radar screen.

The war on privacy | Economist.com

Nothing is private now

But technology and online business methods may, anyway, make this argument redundant. Wider use of DNA profiles, security cameras and credit-card records all make it easier for authorities to track individuals’ movements. And the collection and trade of personal information given freely on the internet is at the heart of many online business models. Cookies, e-mails and details given to all kinds of websites leave an electronic spoor that the police, security agencies, businesses and hackers can follow.

Only the most egregious breaches of online security and deliberate attempts to procure personal information are reported in the media. But smaller leaks that compromise privacy are everyday occurrences. The mass of personal details used by government agencies or businesses increasingly renders old notions of privacy obsolete. The electronic trails that diminish privacy may help to trap crooks and terrorists, but where net curtains once shut out nosey neighbours it will, for good or ill, become increasingly difficult to shut anyone out in future.

So why worry? I suspect that a high degree of paranoia doesn’t much reduce the probablilty of being seriously inconvenienced, or worse, by incursions on my privacy. Even if I get hit tomorrow, it doesn’t change the probability of it happening. This mindset is probably largely due to the accident of living an upper-middle class life in the good old U.S. of A., and for that I am thankful.

Dave, which he yet may be taught a lesson that wakes him up, but he isn’t holding his breath.

Posted by Dave | Filed Under Deep stuff, Technology