Filed under: Hmmm
It is interesting, just when you think things are getting really bad in the states, you know privacy loss and nosy people being highly intrusive, you run across something like this talking about the situation in Britain and you start to feel better. I know they had issues with their government trying to enact a database of everything their people do online, which I thought was nice. However, if I was a hacker I would have been drooling. If I lived there I would have been considering a move, maybe relocate to some place less ‘big brother’. You know, like some small dictatorship somewhere. Really, what they are talking about there is just scary. People are people and prone to corruption, how would you be able to trust your government with that much information on you? They would know everything about you, especially in this age where online is where many live their lives now.
I know some places record the phone calls of their workers, which makes sense as it is a liability issue in this case. There are some pretty good ways to take care of call recording so that as a company you can keep track of your employee’s activities at work. The only reason I tend to be ok with the intrusive actions like that at work is because if you are the employer you are normally going to be held responsible for their actions. That means if they do something stupid you get to pay for it. That is not a fun prospect, not at all. Actually, with call logging you can keep a record of the calls and what is said on your pc. That can be very convenient, although you would have to keep and ensure the stuff was secure because that could be a different but unpleasant liability.
Tags: intrusion, invasion of privacy, loss of privacy, privacy, security
Filed under: Hmmm
It’s really interesting, the level of privacy people will accept. It is a bit like the frog in the water, boil it slow and it won’t know it is being boiled. It is truly the same for people. Privacy is something that many people value but if it is taken away slowly most won’t notice as long as they aren’t personally bothered. I have seen a few things pop up here and there about the amount of CCTV cameras in place in different parts of the world, especially in Britain. They have a huge cctv system there, supposedly the most in the world. I kind of wonder if that is true, maybe they are just more obvious about it.
In a way I think it could be a good thing because there are a lot of benefits to having things recorded. Of course, you always have the downside; the absolute possibility of abuse of the system that can occur if things are not kept under control. Think about one person being able to influence your life in innumerable ways, then consider if that person has no morals and disdains ethics. That is where a surveillance society becomes very scary. It can of course get even scarier. I saw the movie Eagle Eye, and while it was entertaining it was also fairly scary because I could see how it could happen with things all being so connected. We just have to watch out and keep laws on the books that protect those with less power. The best thing for that is really not a law but the media.
The good part of a surveillance society is what we ourselves can use. They have vehicle tracking in many countries, as well as laptop and desktop tracking. You can also have cameras in your home and a video system all set up to record anyone who goes in there. A closed system is better; otherwise others might be able to spy on you with your own system. If it is closed then you can have your own spy cameras set up and your own spy software in effect. There are really all sorts of things that you can do with the technology, as long as we can keep our political systems in check and our lives relatively uninterrupted.
Tags: cameras, cctv, life, privacy, Surveillance
