Recap

Privacy & Technology

"We're probably living in a golden age;" people in the future, to us, "will be a slave civilization," said Lauren Weinstein (vortex.com), the creator of the PRIVACY Forum. Weinstein, who was the guest on Wednesday night, warned of the increasing erosion of privacy rights fueled by new technological developments and the post 9-11 climate.

By themselves, the individual technologies that collect or transmit personal information such as tracking chips are "bad enough on their own," Weinstein said. But what he is really concerned about are the "meta-technologies" that tie all the smaller ones into "a massive system that could be quite suffocating in the end." While he said he has "a warm spot in his heart" for DARPA, the agency that created the predecessor of the Internet, he said their "Dr. Strangelove" tendencies with programs like T.I.A. (Total Information Awareness) could be approaching such a meta-technology.

"The most powerful ally to those who would abuse these technologies is complacency," Weinstein pointed out. To fight against this, he advocated contacting companies involved in the use of these technologies, as well as politicians, to make your voice heard.

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Spotlight on: LifeLog

Tonight's guest Lauren Weinstein has delved into privacy and technology issues. At the intersection of such concerns, is a new project under development, called LifeLog. Created by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), the project purports to "extend the model of a personal digital assistant (PDA) to one that might eventually become a personal digital partner."

"The goal of the data collection is to “see what I see,” rather than to “see me”. Users are in complete control of their own data collection efforts, decide when to turn the sensors on or off, and decide who will share the data," reads DARPA's mission statement. According to the plan, hardware worn by the user would record visual and aural inputs to form a kind of electronic diary.

But because DARPA serves as the research and development organization for the Department of Defense (DoD), privacy advocates have some serious qualms with the intention of LifeLog. "Why would a defense research agency be developing such technology if not for some type of government use?" Paul A. Toth questioned in the current issue of After Dark. "Although DARPA insists that the LifeLog is inherently voluntary…the potential for exploitation remains," Toth wrote. He also pointed out possible misuse of such a program by the private sector, in which, for example, an employer might request that new hires wear the LifeLog.

--L.L.