Maybe you've already heard of a recent incident in a Philadelphia suburb where a school district gave a student a laptop to take home and use. What the student did not know was that the web cam on the laptop could be remotely activated and images could be captured and viewed by teachers. (Ostensibly, the laptop was configured to capture images of the machine’s user if it was lost or stolen.) The way the student found out that something was wrong was that a teacher reprimanded him for “inappropriate behavior” – at home! (Via the webcam, the teacher thought the student was taking pills, but it tuned out to be Mike & Ike’s candy. I know, I know…happens to me all the time, too.)
The lack of boundaries of privacy has only been exemplified with this web cam issue. The lines are increasingly grayed between where one’s responsibilities end and another’s privacy begins. Technology has all but shattered the partitions that used to exist in society used to areas of black and white. What is curious though is that the boy and his family are screaming about his privacy violatd, but he and his entire family have already begin the media tour, appearing on CBS' The Early Show the Saturday after it happened. (Translation: We value our privacy, unless we can extract some value out of it....)
The genie is out of the proverbial bottle with the state of privacy we once enjoyed. I envision a near future where privacy is no longer the quasi-right that people think it is today (BTW, the word ‘privacy’ is not mentioned even once in the Constitution); it is or will be a monetized privilege. Sort of like a drivers’ license is. Consider privacy as a ‘pay for service in future. You want privacy? You pay extra – like the extra cost you incur for not having your name in the phone book.
As we surrender ourselves evermore to the Siren’s call of convenience that technology sings to us, you either plug your eyes and ears (that is, stay off the grid, or at least off Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or any reality show), or do what Ulysses did when he and ship passed the island of the Siren’s; he had his crew tie him to the mast and refuse to let him go no matter what he said.
That is, he dealt with it
Note: Wikipedia notes that “the term "siren song" refers to an appeal that is hard to resist but that, if heeded, will lead to a bad result”.
Hi Al,
ReplyDeleteGood article. Especially liked the extracting value of privacy part.
It all depends on an individual to value his value of privacy. If he is ready to pay the price whichever way and face the consequences, it is his/her game.
V