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Law & Technology
Law and TechnologyWho is watching you?
By Deborah Pierce
Feb 14, 2002 -- Cameras everywhere, national ID cards, GPS chips implanted under the skin--the latest sci-fi dystopia novel? No, just the latest newspaper stories. As I read these stories, I think about what kind of a society we are building. What comes to mind is not George Orwell and Big Brother, but Jeremy Bentham and the Panopticon.Jeremy Bentham was an English philosopher, political theorist, and founder of utilitarianism. In 1791, he came up with a design for a unique prison: a Panopticon. The panoptic prison would be designed so that the guards stationed at the center of the prison could observe each of the prisoners at all times, but the prisoners could never observe the guards and so would never know when they were being watched. This design would theoretically lead to better behavior on the part of the prisoners.
In the 1970s French philosopher Michel Foucault took Mr. Bentham's idea for a prison one step further: he used it as a metaphor at a societal level. Foucault noted that the potential for complete information about a person coupled with pervasive observation could lead citizens to modify their own behaviors to fit into certain accepted categories in order to escape calling attention to themselves.
Today, technologies exist that come close to making Foucault's metaphor a reality. Here are a few examples that highlight the pervasive and intrusive nature of current monitoring capabilities that are used by business and government, and that are increasingly being shared between them. As you read through the list, ask yourself, who will be seeing the data being collected? It's a long list: the people, businesses or governmental agencies who are authorized to have access to the data; insurance companies, marketers, and employers who might purchase the rights to it; and, if the data is not stored securely, potentially anybody else.
* The "Klever-Kart" is a grocery store cart that tracks you as you move down the aisles, in order to "serve you better." Records of your purchases are stored in a database.
"Onboard assistance" GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) systems in new upscale cars not only let you know where you are, but let the company providing the service know where you are--and where you've been.
* Implantable ID chips (such as Applied Digital Solutions', currently used to monitor vital signs of heart patients) identify you uniquely and will, in the near future, be able to track your movements precisely. Right now use of the chips is voluntary--but suppose it became mandatory?
* Cameras in public places are popping up everywhere; particularly those equipped with facial recognition software. What happens to the pictures and videos they take? Next time you're outside, count them ... hint: Look for them at intersections, along highways, mounted on the sides of buildings, etc. For a fun (yet chilling) way of seeing the pervasiveness of these cameras go to http://www.appliedautonomy.com/isee/ and see how long it will take you to get from Point A to Point B following the "path of least surveillance."
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View a Panopticon: http://cartome.org/panopticon1.htm They Want Their ID Chips Now http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,50187,00.html Kidnapped? GPS to the Rescue http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,50004,00.html Is Know-It-All Grocery Cart in Future? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47423-2002Jan28.html Intricate Screening Of Fliers In Works Database Raises Privacy Concerns http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5185-2002Jan31.html Why a national id is a bad idea. http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel020502.shtml |
The modern panopticon features more than just continual observation; it involves combining all the data to get detailed profiles on people. Falling into this category are many of the surveillance methods now hastily being put in place or being proposed in the quest to make us more secure.
Profiling of airline passengers is being touted as one way to ensure that our planes are safe. One such government plan, CAPS (Computer Assisted Passenger Screening), already connects the reservation systems across the U.S. with private and governmental databases. The goal has been to construct a profile that fits "normal" behavior and then match it against passengers. To determine "normality", CAPS looks at traits such as your current living arrangements, travel patterns, who rented the apartment before you did, magazine subscriptions and restaurants you frequent. A lot of information would come from data aggregation companies like Acxiom Corp. that collect information from public records and warranty cards that you mail in. Plans to expand CAPS to include continuous monitoring in real time are in the works.
"I'm not doing anything wrong so I don't have anything to worry about."
Everybody's first reaction is "I don't have anything to hide, so what's the problem?" To answer that question, consider the following:
You may not be doing anything wrong right now, but what is right and wrong will change over time. In the 1940s, being Japanese was viewed as wrong enough that it allowed people to be summarily rounded up and shipped off to camps. In the 1950s, being a communist would likely ruin your life. What viewpoints or behaviors are okay today that might be questionable 10 years from now? How will you know what is acceptable and what is not? What are the consequences?
Or, even more simply, think about airline profiling: What if you aren't "normal" by whatever undisclosed definition they're using? What about combining a digitized photograph from a driver's license with photos from souped-up surveillance cameras, with data stored from CAPS, from grocery stores, department stores, and magazine subscriptions. Are you "normal" enough?
Knowing that you may be watched at any given time is likely to cause you to modify your behavior so as to prevent being needlessly harassed by officials. Trying to be as "normal" as possible is likely to be the path of least resistance, but it would also make life a lot less free and a lot less interesting. Bentham may have been right about using a panopticon as a model prison, but do we really want to use a panopticon as a model for society?
Deborah Pierce is the founder and executive director of privacyactivism.org, which has its headquarters in Bellevue. She spent the last four years as a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, www.eff.org. To contact her, send e-mail to editor@seattlepress.com, attention Deborah Pierce.
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| Lemonzo | Aug 19, 2003 | Manchester, UK | |
| No I don't have a sodding loyalty card! | |||
| Bob Papenburg | Oct 28, 2003 | MontrČal - QuČbec | Physician |
| People have no idea how pervasive tracking is. Whenever you buy something now, the product is bar-coded and scanned - so yuor puchase is stored somewhere. Pay with a credit card and now a name is attached to you purchase list. This goes way beyond buying a chocolate bar. Same for your plane ticket, petrol, etc. Add this to surveillance cameras and absolutely no privacy. Does anyone want some hidden person knowing what their favourite brand of condoms is?? Or toothpaste?? | |||
