Friday, August 28, 2009

Good Things, Bad Things: Privacy

This post is part of the "Good Things, Bad Things" series.

In general, the right for privacy in our world is diminishing. Some proof for that are: the ever growing number of CCTV cameras in city centers (especially in the UK, where this thing has almost gotten to the point of being a public Big Brother), Google's Street View and its privacy infractions, online mail applications that use key words to put contextual ads, and electronic data everyone leaves behind him just to prove he or she is still alive, e.g. on Facebook, Twitter, cellular networks, blogs, etc. To this one can add the debate over biometric database, especially the one lobbied for and promoted by MK Sheetrit in Israel.

Photo: Hustvedt for Wikipedia. Photo location: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Three_Surveillance_cameras.jpg#file.

However, things really are nauseating when they come closer to oneself. One aspect of our lost privacy is the fact that the U.S. government requires every international student and international worker to report about his or her moves. We are already in the biometric database of the federal government as it is. And, lately, we discovered the that the University of Cincinnati, specifically one person in it is an avid reader of this very blog. This caused D and me to consider how much of what we experience in life should be made public through Facebook and blogging.

I have to say that although I hate having my rights being restricted by little people in dark suits, I support what the government is doing in attempt to prevent atrocities such as 9-11 from happening again. However, Sheetrit, this does not say that I support the biometric database promoted in Israel, there are other ways to have smart ID cards, and there are many nations that don't have ID cards at all, and biometric databases will not prevent terrorism or crime as you claim.

What I do hate, and I think there is no excuse for it, is having my freedom of speech trampled by little men that don't wear suits or badges. This is absolutely wrong.

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