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Chapter IOPrivacy, Civil Liberties,and EncryptionCon trolling Our Data /den tityIn 1791 the British reformer, Jeremy Benthan, published a design for a jail inwhich the prisoners could be continuously watched from a central guardstation. The prison was set up so that the inmates couldn’t tell whether aguard was actually watching them at any particular moment. Benthanhypothesized that the constant possibility of observation would force theconvicts to obey prison behavior rules at all times-at first for fear ofdiscovery but eventually out of habit. Benthan called his prison a “panopti-con” because it allowed the authorities to see everything. These days, asmore and more of our activities cast digital shadows that are visible toanyone who cares to look, we are in danger of finding ourselves in an elec-tronic panopticon with ourselves as the prisoners.Our world is increasingly rich with data. These data are needed formany of the benefits that information technology can provide, fromimproved emergency medical service to more convenient financial transac-tions, from safer streets to better schools. But the more data that are avail-able the harder it is to keep anything hidden. Electrons tend to wander;electronic data tends to leak. As our daily movements start leaving elec-tronic footprints, as the world gets increasingly networked, and as largernumbers of people have access to those networks and the data that travelover them, we will lose control (we have already lost a great deal of control)over what the world knows about us.Beyond the narrow circle of people who know us personally, our publicidentity is shaped by the data the world has about us. Our ability to func-tion in the world-to borrow money, purchase items on credit, and get ajob-depends on the descriptions of us collected in uncounted numbers offiles. But we don’t know what is out there or where it is. We are totally263264 Chapter 10ignorant of who has it or what they’re doing with it. We have no ideawhether it is inaccurate-by mistake or malevolence. These days, it doesn’ttake very sophisticated equipment to tap a telephone conversation andthen change the words around to have our own voice say things that neverpassed our lips. As the film“Forest Gump” displayed, it is almost triviallyeasy to take a photograph and to combine it with other images to create aperfect picture of a scene that we never really played. Given the wide-spread inaccuracy of stored data and the ability to modify digital informa-tion, we may be losing control over the person the world thinks we are, ourpublic identity-who we are.Similarly, gathering enough data about aperson allows someone else to act in their name-to “become” that person.Without a secure right of privacy, we will lose not only our opportunitiesbut also ourselves.In some cultures people dislike being photographed because theybelieve that images of themselves contain a part of their soul, giving theholder of a picture unwanted power over them. Our society tends to sepa-rate images and data from the person they portray. But perhaps we’ve got itwrong. Perhaps having control of a person’s image in the form of either aphotograph or a date profile does give the holder a kind of power.ELECTRONIC EXPOSUREPrivacy is the power of information self-determination. We have alwaysscattered data bits along our path in birth records, telephone books, mort-gage applications, insurance forms, legal cases, store purchases, and more.But in the past, most of those bits were transient and scattered, gettingthrown out at the end of the day along with the paper trash. Those factoidsthat did endure were isolated, stuck in filing cabinets, and spread aroundmany locations. Putting the pieces together was slow, arduous, and compli-cated. The cost and difficulty of data gathering meant that only the wealthi-est and most enduring bureaucracies could do it on a large scale-govern-ment being the prime example. As a result, the traditional image of “BigBrother” was of the government’s misuse of its surveillance powers.Today, however, data are stored electronically, which means it can bekept available inexpensively for long periods of time. It can be capturedautomatically as a by-product of every transaction, from impulse shoppingto the legal system. Electronic data can be easily transferred from one placeto another so that enormous databases can be assembled. It can be quicklycross tabulated using common identifiers such as Social Security numbersso that once isolated details about specific individuals can be broughtElectronic Exposure 265together. And it can be flexibly utilized by those who wish to go afterspecific people: private firms, the police, and thieves.By the 198Os, large businesses found it increasingly cost-effective tocollect marketing data about potential customers so they could focus theiroutreach on those most likely to respond. By the end of that decade, manybusiness pundits were describing a firm’s data as its most valuable strate-gic asset. New firms and entire industries arose specifically to meet thegrowing commercial desire for personal information, and awareness of thevalue of marketing data spread from large retail firms to the entire businessworld. By the 199Os, the rise of personal computers and networks has putthese sources of data within cost-effective reach of small businesses. Theresult, according to polls, is that most people’s first image of privacy inva-sion in the mid-1990s is junk mail and phone solicitations. Today there arehundreds of thousands of “little brothers” peeking into our homes. Thecreation of a National Information Infrastructure (NII) will give them manymore windows through which to watch us.But privacy concerns more than the annoyance of junk mail or inter-rupted dinner meals. The lack of privacy can also lead to being ripped offor blackmailed by thieves, or discriminated against by employers, land-lords, and commercial institutions. It can undermine civil liberties anddemocracy. The Information Superhighway’s ability to move us furthertoward a panoptic society can counter any positive impact it may have onstrengthening democracy or free speech. Continuing revelations about past(and current) misbehavior by private firms, local police, the FBI, the CIA,the NSA, the military, and even presidential staff make it clear that wecannot take our liberty for granted. If it is possible to use telecommunica-tions for a particular


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