Cancel "Big Brother"

"It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time...You had to live -- did live, from habit that became instinct -- in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized."

- George Orwell, 1984

Undoubtedly it's a little cliché and over-the-top to go running to Orwell's 1984 every time the issue of intrusive government monitoring comes about. But, hey, if the shoe fits...

A poll released yesterday shows that Americans support the increased use of public surveillance cameras by a nearly 3-to-1 margin. This disturbing data, if the poll is to be believed, shows that people are fast losing their appreciation for individual privacy.

The standard argument I hear--even from my mom--is that if you're not doing anything wrong, then what harm is there if you are being watched? Well, you might not feel so comfortable if you knew that your every movement and every interaction was being recorded and stored, perhaps in perpetuity, and you couldn't be sure who was using that information and in what way. If you're not worried about abuses from the people currently collecting the info, what about those whose hands it could fall into at any point in the future?

"It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself—anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face… was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime…"

Admittedly, for the moment this sounds fantastical and paranoid, but since my aim is to caution about potential misuse, let me clarify two things:

First, I promise I'm not one of those privacy wieners that whine about everything. You could find out a great deal about me through Google and Facebook and this blog and myriad other sources, all of which I'm aware markedly decrease my own privacy. My very use of such sources decreases my own expectations of privacy, as would the increased use of surveillance cameras. But the latter is not something I'm entering into voluntarily and is something I feel much less comfortable with.

Second, this isn't some far-off, "someday the robots will turn against us issue". Such a system already exists in central London (the "ring of steel"), and a similar setup is currently being installed in New York City. There are already plans to expand the system to other major American cities.

For some reason, I don't hear too many people bring up the obvious folly of such a public surveillance system. Namely, that roadside cameras don't prevent crime, they relocate it. Obviously then, if criminals aren't plotting and executing crimes out in the open, they'll do so elsewhere. Do we then stick cameras in every workplace, every restaurant and movie theater, and finally, in every home? I see people being a lot more uncomfortable (I hope) with the implications of a surveillance system if they think it through.

Our society is predicated on a guarantee of the individual's rights, perhaps foremost among those being his freedom from unnecessarily being interfered with by the government. Before everyone decides to pursue security at any cost, we should all carefully consider the value of what we're giving up.

Check Out the View

This week, Google introduced its new "Street View" feature, built into the Google Maps website. So now, in addition to the overhead satellite imagery of an area, you can get a ground-level perspective on things.

"The Street View vista appears in a little frame over the standard Google Map view. You can pan around the view or zoom in just by scrolling or double-clicking. Then, wander through the city by clicking the arrow icons that float over each street."

This is a pretty cool feature that I can see being especially useful for looking up directions to a destination. The view from the sidewalk is a lot easier to navigate from than a bird's-eye view.

Of course, you have to wonder what developments lie ahead for this kind of technology, which is sure to come to your cellphone or GPS device within months. Given that so many people use this feature for navigating, I suppose it's only a matter of time before the "Street View" offered is a live camera feed.

That'd be great for giving you a heads-up about traffic, but in providing an instantly accessible camera on potentially every street corner, you have to worry about privacy concerns. Already, several websites have posted pictures from "Street View" showing a man outside an adult bookstore, women sunbathing, and more.

Public privacy has been steadily shrinking for years as technology has gotten more advanced. But it isn't Big Brother who's been pushing to keep an eye on all of us--we've done that to each other. That distinction is of no comfort to me, but I guess we'll all just have to get used to it.

So smile, you could be on candid camera!

Permanent Records

My column in today's Diamondback focuses on the downside of the permanent digital archive that is the Internet. Through blogs, AIM profiles, and sites like Facebook, not to mention the ubiquitous Google search, you can basically unearth a college student's entire life. Employers and law enforcement are already relying on such techniques, and there could be trouble for us if the person on the other end doesn't like what they're seeing.

From "Permanent Records":

Some time in or around the year 2030, I am sure I will be awakened one morning by the ringing of the hologram phone. The president — whether it will be Jenna Bush or Chelsea Clinton, I don’t know — will say to me: “Jay, I have bad news. You can’t be Fed Chairman/Secretary of War/Supreme Overlord after all. The opposition party’s got some dirt on you, and you’ll never make it through the confirmation hearing.”

As I sit there, dealing with my crushing rejection, I’d wonder what did me in. Was it the away message back in 2014 that said: “Skipping work today. At the baseball game”? Did my uncle violate U.N. sanctions by selling pop tarts to the Libyans — and then brag about it on his MySpace? Or did Sen. Chuck Norris threaten a filibuster over my membership in a Facebook group that claimed he is Jack Bauer’s girlie little sister?

Click here to read the column.

Google Earth: Bent on World Observation

For the past couple days, I've been playing around with Google Earth, the latest cool new toy offered by everybody's favorite tech wizards. Google Earth, a descendant of the Keyhole service, allows users to view satellite imagery of any part of the world. This feature, which has been around for many years, has now been integrated with data (where available) plotting transit systems, commercial enterprises, and more. A map overlay detailing schools, restaurants, hotels, and more yields extra information than just the standard terrain scan.

Google Earth is remarkably easy to use. Type in the location you're searching for, and the program automatically "flies" you to your destination in fine cinematic style. I did the requisite searches for famous landmarks (see examples), old neighborhoods, etc., and found the results (when data was available for the location) to be pleasing--if not practical, at least entertaining. Google Earth also tries to incorporate a three-dimensional aspect to the program, allowing users to "tilt" the landscape. While a cool idea, this feature rarely delivers results that look good without losing perspective or detail.

This morning, as I was following the details of the terrible tragedy in London, I decided to put Google Earth to the test to try and create a rudimentary map plotting the locations of the bombings. This proved to be remarkably easy; all I had to was type in the name of a location, say, "King's Cross Station, London", and I was "flown" immediately to the spot. By selecting or deselecting various options, I could view street names, transit stations, rail lines, and more. The resulting map I created is seen below:



With regards to today's terrorist attacks, I think British PM Tony Blair said everything that needed to be said:

When they try to intimidate us, we will not be intimidated. When they seek to change our country or our way of life by these methods, we will not be changed. When they try to divide our people or weaken our resolve, we will not be divided and our resolve will hold firm. We will show, by our spirit and dignity, and by our quiet but true strength that there is in the British people, that our values will long outlast theirs. The purpose of terrorism is just that, it is to terrorise people, and we will not be terrorised.

I would like once again to express my sympathy and my sorrow to those families who will be grieving, so unexpectedly and tragically, tonight. This is a very sad day for the British people, but we will hold true to the British way of life.

Today is another reminder that the "war on terrorism" doesn't just take place in faraway countries. Despite all the precautions and security measures in place, our enemies can still on occasion take the war to our doorstep, with devastating results. We are reminded there is still much work ahead of us in order to ascertain a safer, more secure future.