In response to the earlier Slashdot article which argues that innovation has slowed down...there is now a risk of Skodas exceeding the speed limit. I'd call that progress.
In addition to the countless video cameras watching every moment of daily life, starting today, GPS units will be implanted in every infant born prior to handing the child over to the mother.
This is considered important in the fight agains crime as it will allow police to instantly know who was at a crime scene at any given moment. Scotland Yard said that the GPS units do not infringe on citizens' rights as the data will only be used for tracking down criminals. The average citizen who does not break th
Cameras in public aren't too threatening - after all, it's public, where expectations of privacy come only from one's incompetence at spotting voyeurs, or their incompetence at staring. Embedding spies in private vehicles is across that essential line, even if it starts out voluntary. Only rich people will be able to speed, or even just afford to avoid the surveillance. Until the "nondiscount" fees are unaffordable.
The real invasion of this system is that the raw data will be used not only to trigger a GPS
" after all, it's public, where expectations of privacy come only from one's incompetence at spotting voyeurs, or their incompetence at staring."
There are two kinds of privacy, and they're getting mixed up every time this issue comes up. There is a privacy that comes from not being seen or having one's presence otherwise perceived by fellow humans. You don't have this kind of privacy in a public place, granted. You only have it some kind of seclusion.
But there is another kind of privacy - that comes from not being monitored and/or identified. From not being *watched*. Unless you have police or a private eye tailing you, in a modern city you're almost perfectly anonymous, even as you're being seen by hundreds of people, likewise anonymous to you.
I would argue that the latter kind of privacy is far more important and it certainly is the kind we're losing. This is the kind of privacy you lose when being monitored by CCTV, spyware, cookies, RFID, whatever technology does these days. Even if it doesn't identify you by name, it identifies you by a number of characteristics that's sufficient for purpises of marketing, law-enforcement and, if anyone wants, invigilation.
The privacy of one's private property, like one's house, is much more important than any privacy in public. That's not to say that the right to be "presumed innocent until proven guilty" isn't also important. Nor is the necessity of "due process", where "reasonable suspicion", "probable cause", or other evidence-based causes for state monitoring, as judged by a judge, documented for defense, and rescindable.
But public places are, as you mention, defined by witnesses. Being seen in public means one's action
"Who alone has reason to *lie himself out* of actuality? He who *suffers*
from it."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche
Skodas! (Score:5, Funny)
Up Next--GPS Implants (Score:1, Funny)
This is considered important in the fight agains crime as it will allow police to instantly know who was at a crime scene at any given moment. Scotland Yard said that the GPS units do not infringe on citizens' rights as the data will only be used for tracking down criminals. The average citizen who does not break th
Re:Up Next--GPS Implants (Score:5, Insightful)
The real invasion of this system is that the raw data will be used not only to trigger a GPS
Re:Up Next--GPS Implants (Score:5, Insightful)
There are two kinds of privacy, and they're getting mixed up every time this issue comes up. There is a privacy that comes from not being seen or having one's presence otherwise perceived by fellow humans. You don't have this kind of privacy in a public place, granted. You only have it some kind of seclusion.
But there is another kind of privacy - that comes from not being monitored and/or identified. From not being *watched*. Unless you have police or a private eye tailing you, in a modern city you're almost perfectly anonymous, even as you're being seen by hundreds of people, likewise anonymous to you.
I would argue that the latter kind of privacy is far more important and it certainly is the kind we're losing. This is the kind of privacy you lose when being monitored by CCTV, spyware, cookies, RFID, whatever technology does these days. Even if it doesn't identify you by name, it identifies you by a number of characteristics that's sufficient for purpises of marketing, law-enforcement and, if anyone wants, invigilation.
Re:Up Next--GPS Implants (Score:3, Insightful)
But public places are, as you mention, defined by witnesses. Being seen in public means one's action