Anyone here read "Digital Fortress" by Dan Brown? It totally applies here.
I don't care too much, but I still like my privacy.
I wouldn't throw a fit if they did start.
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Anyone here read "Digital Fortress" by Dan Brown? It totally applies here.
I don't care too much, but I still like my privacy.
I wouldn't throw a fit if they did start.
A lot of people believe this. Unfortunately, this doesn't address methodology. What if your habits were suddenly ruled illegal? The "Green Police" Audi commercial wasn't too far off the mark. What if the television you are buying on ebay is illegal? (http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/03/california-tv/). What if you post a comment about your daughter's lemonade stand, and the cops show up? (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/0..._n_253017.html).Quote:
Originally Posted by Ron
What if Citizen's United vs. the FEC went the other way, and you were found distributing corporate propaganda (like sending a funny anti-politician Youtube video to your friends)?
The fact is, the only reason government does not completely regulate the people is because it still lacks the proper tools. Cede your privacy and you WILL never get it back.
Never in history has any government or authoritarian power had the potential to accumulate so much information on people.
RFID's and other tracking devices exist in newly issued passports. They are being legislated into state ID cards such as driver's licenses.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GursOom9dNA
"Medical device information...medical records...and personal information."
Imagine a government that has this kind of access. People in Mexico are implanting their children with these chips, to track their location so they are not kidnapped.
In the ultimate act of irony, the desperation of people for "safety" may well be our ultimate surrender of all actual defense.
I know it's kind of rambling, but this is true.
Government exists to serve us. Government should always be scared of the watchful eye of the people, not the other way around.
@Nullroar- What can I say? I simply do not feel these possibilities/situations will effect me or my children. Even if I were to post something, for example, that was illegal, at most it may put me on someones watch list. After being "watched" it will be found that I am an overall good person not worth going after ("there are bigger fish to fry"). Maybe I have more faith in our Constitution, Bill of Rights, etc. Maybe I am happily ignorant...
Hey Louis, please don't boot me out of the forum. This post ends my discussion of politics (in case you consider this politics)...:)
Ron, you seem to think that it won't effect you because it will be put on a watch list. But as government becomes increasingly automated and able to process more data, the bureaucracy that would otherwise leave millions of "people of interest" happily safe behind mountains of paperwork is removed. What is keeping these people of interest safe is not that the system is good, or that the system is too wise, but that the system is too inefficient. When this changes - which it will, as our international databases become more comrpehensive, as RFID chips slowly become commonplace and then mandatory, as automated surveillance and instantaneous data on anyone becomes a reality- there really will be no "last line of defense." Once a system is in place that could be used to root out communications of any sort of dissent, any sort of organizing, any sort of anything, what is there to stop government from going after you? It would be given the weapons it needs to silence not only those who speak out publicly, but privately.
We should never rationalize things on a basis of "if we do right, we have nothing to worry about," when we no longer control what the government decrees is right.
Instead, ask yourself: SHOULD the government have this access? Forget if what you are doing conforms or not to the law, just ask if the government should have this sort of power over people in the first place.
Just remember- Freedoms taken at the point of a sword can be regained the same way, but freedoms willingly ceded are lost forever.