Privacy

Nowhere -- and No Way -- to Hide

Articles — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:06:00 -0500

Privacy doesn't mean anonymity. Think about that for a bit -- and get used to it.

Or if you don't like it, get a plan. But it had better be a good one.

On Oct. 23, Donald Kerr, deputy director of the Office of National Intelligence, outlined the new order of things: "Too often, privacy has been equated with anonymity; and it's an idea that is deeply rooted in American culture." Well, yes, the Bill of Rights, for instance, includes protections against "search," as well as "seizure." But that was then. As Kerr put it, "In our interconnected and wireless world, anonymity… more

Scarlet Letters, Digitized

Articles — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 12:59:00 -0400

Did you see that YouTube video of an Australian priest hurling abuse at a motley crew of skateboarders in front of Melbourne’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral? Well, his superiors did, and last week the Rev. Mgr. Geoff Baron was placed on indefinite leave.

And what about the famous, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist’s cringe-making "personal" e-mail about his wife leaving him for Ted Turner? Gawker highlighted it last week with this in the precede: "insane insane INSANE."

Heck, you might say, they had it coming. But think again. What if one of your worst moments -- when you’ve lost your temper or judgment -- wound… more

A Card We Should All Carry

Articles — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 00:00:00 -0500

As states get ready to comply with a law passed last May and roll out Real IDs (think 50 flavors of enhanced drivers' licenses that will also, for lack of anything more suitable, regulate access to airplanes, bars and banks), it might be time to consider a national identification card. Unfortunately, two camps own the conversation.

Security heavies and cultural conservatives say a national ID is necessary to protect us from Islamic terrorists and illegal immigrants. Libertarians and government-wary leftists fret about privacy. Progressives and moderates have never shown much enthusiasm for the debate. But there are lots of reasons… more

From Typhoid Mary to Diabetic Debbie

Articles — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 00:00:00 -0500

On Jan. 15, New York City began requiring local clinical laboratories to report to the city health department the results of blood sugar tests performed on citizens. The department plans to use the information to improve surveillance for diabetes, which afflicts an estimated one out of eight New Yorkers and to "target interventions." Specifically, if you live in New York and have trouble resisting sweets, your doctor may soon receive a call from the health department suggesting that he or she needs to persuade you to change your lifestyle.

What makes this development so extraordinary in the annals of American public… more

We'll Just Shoot First, Ask Questions Later

Articles — Thu, 20 Jun 2002 00:00:00 -0400

Did you hear about the government's new plan to launch anticipatory strikes against evildoers?

No, not President George W. Bush's policy, announced on June 1, of "preemptive action when necessary to defend our liberty and to defend our lives." That's old news. Now it's time to look ahead, to "Minority Report," the new Steven Spielberg movie, which offers a window into the dystopic future when government power is taken to extremes. If the film scares you, remember, it isn't "only a movie" -- it's real life, too.

"Minority Report," set in 2054, imagines that the government has set up… more

From Russia with Lopht

Articles — Wed, 01 May 2002 00:00:00 -0400

Had Alexey Vladimirovich Ivanov been born in Chicago rather than Chelyabinsk, he'd likely be well on his way to joining the geek elite. His three-page resume lists computer skills that would dazzle any Silicon Valley headhunter. According to his employment history, Ivanov began working at a regional telephone company in Russia while still in his mid-teens, installing Web servers and Cisco routers. His programming talents include tricky languages like C++ and Perl, and he has mastered 18 difference operating systems, from Linux to Solaris. But Chelyabinsk, a Stalinist burg located in the Ural Mountains, is a… more

The Unwanted Gaze

Communications — Wed, 31 May 2000 12:30:00 -0400

A New America Event
05/31/2000 - 12:30pm

The Digital Age has brought abundance to the connected, but one commodity is growing perilously scarce: privacy. The Internet and other information technologies have made sensitive information about individuals' private lives available to employers, vendors, government authorities -- to anyone, in fact, with the right knowledge and a little money. In his new book, Jeffrey Rosen argues that legal, technological, and cultural changes undermine an individual's ability to control how much personal information is communicated to others, and he proposes ways of reconstructing some of the zones of privacy that law and technology have been allowed to invade.

But the question of privacy and the Internet is far from settled in the public debate -- many note that commercial interests have used individuals' information in the pre-Internet, snail mail, analog world, and argue that the standards for use of information have not changed at all. In fact, some make the case that commercial interests can do a better job of fine-tuning the kind of opportunities and information that consumers want thanks to data on their preferences and habits.

A transcript of this event is also available.

The Unwanted Gaze

adminn — Wed, 31 May 2000 00:00:00 -0400

The New Politics

Articles — Mon, 17 Apr 2000 00:00:00 -0400

Several years ago I was driving cross-country from Washington to Berkeley. My D.C. license plates inevitably sparked interesting political discussions along the way, especially in the Rocky Mountains, where I encountered many people with … more

Don't Tread on Freedom

Articles — Thu, 17 Feb 2000 00:00:00 -0500

Attorney General Janet Reno and FBI Director Louis Freeh lobbied Congress yesterday to expand the federal role in the battle against Internet crime. The Clinton administration is asking for an additional $37 million to bolster its hacker-tracking … more