Curiouser and Curiouser!

Curiouser and Curiouser! on surveillance http://matt.blogs.it/ RSS feed for topic surveillance Copyright 2006 Matt Mower Squib/0.1 self@mattmower.com self@mattmower.com en-gb Citizen spies reporting for duty Tue, 16 Jul 2002 18:25:18 +0100 <A href="http://blogdex.media.mit.edu/route.cgi?id=1945993">1. US planning to recruit one in 24 Americans as citizen spies - smh.com.au (53.8 points)</A>. US planning to recruit one in 24 Americans as citizen spies [<A href="http://blogdex.media.mit.edu/">( blogdex : recent )</A>] <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> » I think this is a fantastic idea.  Everybody living withing a mile and a half of a senator, congressman, local polician, law enforcement officer, or corporate chief should sign up today.  Then immediately start a whispering campaign against their neighbour. Heck I wish they'd bring it in over here in the UK. Where do I sign up!?!</BLOCKQUOTE> http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00000217.html Privacy's end? Mon, 09 Sep 2002 12:40:42 +0100 <A href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0103966/2002/09/09.html">Karlin Lillington</A>: "What society keeps its citizens under greater, round the clock surveillance than any other? Russia? Indonesia? North Korea? Why no -- it's Great Britain." [<A href="http://www.scripting.com/">Scripting News</A>] <BLOCKQUOTE> » It's true.  It's also a fact, although not well understood, that the recent RIP act was not a snoopers charter at least not the way people seem to think.  As one Home Office minister admitted the snoopers are already at it and sharing their information with anyone who cared to ask.  RIP was an attempt to legitimize this activity.  As such we should still oppose it (because it is too broad), but we shouldn't forget that the violation of our privacy continues unabated. Karlin also points to a <A href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/bigbrother/privacy/yourlife/story/0,12384,783641,00.html">piece</A> by Simon Davies in the Guardian which is very worrying indeed.</BLOCKQUOTE> http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00000511.html Who are they kidding? Fri, 01 Nov 2002 12:54:47 +0000 <A href="http://www.istori.com/log/archives/00000156.html">Monday: "Secure Beneath The Watchful Eyes"</A>. This official London Transport "Secure Beneath The Watchful Eyes" poster handily beats the USPTO's Homeland Security eye/keyhole graphic for spine-tingling ... [<A href="http://www.istori.com/log/">istori/log</A>] <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> » My first thought when I saw the poster was that it would not have looked out of place outside Dr. Goebbels ministry. I'd like to be amazed at how quickly we've adapted/succumbed to the surveillance state.  I'm persuing my MP about these issues, I'd like to think that others are too but I wonder.  I also wonder if it will do any good.  I took a look at the <A href="http://www.siobhainmcdonagh.org.uk/issues.shtml">issues page</A> on my MP's site, hardly inspirational...</BLOCKQUOTE> http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00000801.html Shrinking liberties... it doesn't wash with me Tue, 25 Feb 2003 11:46:47 +0000 <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <A href="http://www.smartmobs.com/archives/000692.html">Smart Mobs</A> picks up on a <A href="http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=11573&c=39">report</A> by the <A href="http://www.aclu.org/">ACLU</A> which argues that surveillance is increasing, civil liberty guarantees are shrinking, and the combined impact of surveillance data from multiple sources is far greater than the sum of its parts. Although I only follow the issues from the sidelines, I have growing concerns about corporate and governmental prying. The more my life is easily traced by following electronic trails, the more I worry about who is sniffing those trails out. Whether or not my career as a criminal mastermind is tediously pedestrian is beside the point - the fact that I have nothing to hide makes me more concerned about my actions being watched, logged, collated, catgeorised and cross-referenced. Sometimes I take comfort in the thought that the more data the government has, the less it will know what to do with it. Trying to integrate it meaningfully will be way too complicated - trying to see and understand patterns across all the disparate data streams is just a cyber-spook's wet-dream. But then I get back to cold reality. Just because they can't do it, won't stop them trying. The integration may not be meaningful - the patterns may not be understood - but patterns there will be. And in the paranoid world of the cyber-spook, an excess of false positives will be a fair price to pay for tracking down the bad guys. So my real concern is not that they're sniffing my electronic trail. Sure, it's an invasion of my privacy but it's rather an abstract invasion. My real concern is what cock-eyed conclusions someone will draw from matching this parameter with that pattern and what real-life, concrete actions they will take against me (or you, or any of the other millions of people whose profile just doesn't smell right). Paranoid? Maybe. Except, they are watching us... [<A href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0118812/">Making Connections</A>]</BLOCKQUOTE> Simon neatly identifies the conumdrum facing most of us in relation to privacy issues.  We see our rights being eroded on the back of claims of this or that (today it's terrorism) but we have no trust in the custodians that they will not betray us. That the government cannot possibly assimilate all the information it eventually hopes to hold does not, however, make me feel any happier.  This is, I think, for two reasons: <OL> <LI>We have seen many times how a single idea (or cluster of related ideas) can revolutionise an industry completely.  Today they may not be able to use the data in aggregate, but they will keep it and, who knows what they will be able to do tomorrow?</LI> <LI>The data may not be useful in aggregate but it will be open to targetted abuse.  That is, if my data is separable somehow from everyone elses then what is to stop corrupt officials from selling it to those who, for their own reasons, would wish to use it against me.</LI></OL> Even if these massive TIA style super-databases are a boon in the fight against crime (and I have yet to see the cogent and persuasive arguments for this) I would, I think, still be find the countervailing arguments for liberty more compelling. Total Information Awareness and it's ilk are sledgehammer solution to the wrong problem.  We should not be asking how to catch more terrorists but how to avoid situations in which terrorists want to kill us. http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00001195.html