A response to a blog entry by @OwenGreaves found at http://blog.owengreaves.com/thoughts-from-owen.
I have begun to believe that in a world of free information flow created by the internet and other technologies that we need to seriously increase the privacy protection in our laws, and more over, those privacy protections need to be enforced by law enforcement criminally and not the civil courts.
For instance, I have come to believe it should be a crime to report on a criminal proceeding before a guilty verdict has been delivered. An accusation in today’s world is as damaging as a conviction. (I expect that freedom of the press advocates will yell at me for this one…)
Government’s job, IMHO, is to provide limits on the free market in order to protect the public. We regulate lead in toys for the good of the public because we know that the free market – the laws of supply and demand – won’t respond fast enough to dangerous goods to prevent the loss of life. Likewise, the interests of corporations are just too tied up in devaluing personal privacy for it to be left solely to the free market.
I look forward to the day when I can have my Diabetes cured by nano-technology, my ever degrading eyes replaced by a computerized optic implant, or my bones – genetically prone to Osteoporosis – replaced with ones made of titanium. But Owen is quite right in being concerned about what side effects these technologies are going to have on our society.
You can’t talk seriously about privacy in today’s world without mentioning Wikileaks. Many of my political allies are ecstatic over the leaked documents, claiming them as a victory for democracy and the public. I’m not so sure. I think I want our ambassador to
Because that is where we are headed. Wikileaks doesn’t, and won’t, stop with governments. Did you fire an employee yesterday? Expect that any secrets they have on you to appear on Wikileaks tomorrow. Did you get a job that someone else really wanted? You can bet that the credit card bill you threw out – with that embarrassing sex shop charge on it – will be on Wikileaks within the week. Did you cut someone off in traffic? Expect that the abortion you had ten years ago is going to be made public.
And, as Owen rightly points out, the amount of information that will exist about each of us “in the cloud” is just going to increase as the power of technology increases. As a society, we are either going to have to start putting real power behind information and personal privacy, or we are going to have to simply get over being embarrassed about all the naughty and sleazy things we do.
We are going to have to get over our embarrassment and judgment, not just personally, but for our public figures as well. We are going to have to stop allowing the violation of personal privacy of our elected officials to damage their ability to govern, or even run for government. Remember the BC NDP candidate who had to quit because of racy pictures on his Facebook page? Mr. Lam at least chose to post those pictures. We are quickly moving into a world where the choice about what information is posted about us is not ours to make.
Privacy is the new political frontier. These issues and questions of privacy vs. the public’s right-to-know are going to be what defines public policy in the coming decades. I don’t really believe that we are truly prepared for this brave new world.
