Should we just get used to being monitored
From video cameras in the mall and on your favorite street corner hangout, to monitoring of telephone calls, e-mail, web surfing habits, downloading habits, library and shopping data, the ability to figure out what you are likely to do, talk to, and think has become far too easy. Some companies, some governments can’t seem to get around the inescapable conclusion, to monitor is to control, no matter at what subconscious personal level.
Self Censorship might be the thing to do next. That is if you can, we are as a race remarkably resilient to what people want us to do, in favor of the things we want to do.
In terms of statutory protections and privacy enforcement, the United States is the worst country in the “democratic world” and is outranked by both India and the Philippines on overall privacy protection. The U.S. has fallen into the “black” category reserved for countries with “endemic surveillance.” Source: Cnet
It is very easy to monitor today, vast collections of data exist on everyone, from things they have purchased on a credit card, to their movements via cell phone tower hopping. The temptation to track, to monitor, and to guess what is going to happen next is a very big temptation for everyone from governments to corporations, and it is not going to stop anytime soon.
Realistically the only way to stop this kind of activity is to make it illegal, with government fully supporting the concerns of the governed. That is where the interesting part is going to come in, as a participatory democracy, we have our opportunity every 4 years to set the tone of government, and how we want to be governed. There are many proposals out there on how we should address privacy, as well as our expectations of privacy.
In the mean time, we might as well get used to the idea that we are going to be monitored, for just about everything that we do, places we go, and we have to weigh the risks of public disclosure against what it is we are doing at the time. Unfortunately, this is probably not going to happen for the vast majority of people who are on line.
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