TC375: Privacy & Technology

"Which of the following societies would you rather live in: one in which everyone uses WearComp like Steve Mann or one in which everyone and everything has an embedded RFID tag?"

Before I can begin to discuss this particular issue, I must make a few distinctions about where I stand on most matters of civil liberties and privacy. I am slightly torn, as I am a major advocate of civil liberties, civil rights, and the right to privacy, but I am also entirely intrigued by and interested in the widespread possibilities of new technologies and their implications for society. Therefore, my views will reflect my personal feelings about privacy and civil liberties, but I have an interest in seeing just how such things could work, so I am not entirely opposed to developing ideas just because they could later contradict views of mine; I would prefer to see such possibilities investigated to greater length before we make any final decisions on their legality or morality.

First, I am against (and weary of) the idea of powerful organizations and individuals being able to identify my location (if not my activity or current state) at any given time. I believe this strips people of a very basic right, but I also believe that it has very beneficial uses, such as locating individuals in emergency situations. Therefore, I think that we must structure protective measures and systems as we design increasingly complex and immersive technologies.

To support my view, I point to the position of the American Civil Liberties Union. According to Barry Steinhardt's "Liberty in the Age of Technology," "We should be responding to intrusive new technologies by building stronger restraints to protect our privacy."

So I am against the idea of information about my precise whereabouts and condition being used to advertise to me, or to exploit me in any such manner, but I see value and use in such information being used to rescue victims of a collapsed building, or to locate where an emergency call is coming from, to give just two examples. Thus, I see the need for strong and well-thought-out restraints to protect our privacy.

It is partially because of this shared weariness of such power and information being in the wrong hands that I am intrigued by Steve Mann's WearComp projects. I like his philosophy about individuals mediating and enriching their own environments. However, I do not think it is all that realistic to ask whether one would prefer to live in a society where individuals all use systems like Mann's or one where everyone has embedded RFID tags. Instead, I think it is far more likely that whatever develops in the future will be a combination of the ideas that are just beginning to unfold now, such as these, and ideas and technologies that do not exist, and perhaps have not even been envisioned yet.

Like the student who returned home from high school and threw his RFID badge on the table, proclaiming "I'm a grocery item, a piece of meat, I'm an orange," I do not want to be akin to a trackable commodity in Wal-Mart's warehouse. However, I am not so technophobic as to suggest that any use of such technologies would be detrimental to society; I would love it if my refrigerator would remind me that my milk is expiring! The trick will be balancing power, privacy, and practicality. Without the proper restraints, the technologies that we are dealing with could quickly become more problematic than we intend.