Increased e-tracking ‘creepy’
For the London Free Press – June 23, 2007
We are experiencing an increase in surveillance such as cameras, car black boxes, GPS tracking, and heightened security. This creeping intrusiveness is rather, well, creepy.
The United Kingdom, for example, has more than four million surveillance cameras. Individuals are photographed on average 300 times a day.
The rebuttal when someone expresses discomfort at this increased surveillance is: “If you are doing nothing wrong, what’s the problem?”
Government and society define what behaviour is right and wrong, accepted and unacceptable. That definition often changes. Having extensive information on individuals opens us to the abuse of that information and power.
The world has always benefitted from those who are innovative and different and not afraid to question norms. Many scientific developments and social enlightenments have flown in the face of conventional wisdom.
The more information there is available about us, the greater the chances someone might misuse it. Examples include fraud, identity theft, predation or the technical enforcement of every possible legal infraction.
Society has always depended on discretion in the enforcement of the law so enforcement is consistent with the intent of various laws. Enforcement is not intended to punish every technical transgression. Chronic surveillance makes it too easy to eliminate that discretion.
Just because we desire privacy doesn’t mean we are doing anything wrong or that we have something to hide.
If you are not convinced there should be limits, ask yourself:
- Why do we close our blinds and lock our doors?
- Why do we not want our medical and financial records to be freely available?
- Why do we sometimes drive differently when a police car is behind us even when we think we are driving properly?
- Would you want all of your conversations with everyone to become public?
- Would you want to post photos of your children along with their names, routes to school and favourite candy?
Surveillance often is justified by motherhood statements about the prevention of some evil. We must be vigilant to ensure that increased surveillance does indeed result in the intended goal, without causing more harm than good.
Technology makes it too easy to disseminate and combine information. We must ensure that, wherever possible, recorded information is kept only for short periods, isolated so it serves only its narrow, intended, justified purpose, and is not shared. Just because we have the ability to store, share, combine and manipulate massive amounts of information, doesn’t mean we should.
