The Brave New World of privacy

This week on The 404, the guys talked about Google’s new Wallet. Aside from the cool idea of being able to swipe your phone to pay for whatever you’re buying, Wilson brought up privacy concerns. Jeff’s response was “What do you have to hide?” and for me that rings some bells.

Also in the news this week, President Obama signed the Patriot Act extension. How specifically are these two news events related? Let’s see:

I make some inflammatory statements about how much I detest peas*, I think peas should be eradicated and people who like peas are fascist. Let’s say the government is a huge proponent of peas, probably because their congressional/presidential campaigns have been supported by the pea industry and pro-pea lobby groups. Worse, let’s say our leaders are less than bright**. They decide that peas are integral to the US economy and any anti-pea activist is a “terrorist.”

Thanks to Bush Deuce, any government can slap the “terrorist” label on any group and – because they’re a government – it’s suddenly an accepted fact. Let’s do a test: when was the last time you heard about a “terrorist” group on the news and actually did any research into what they do/did/planned? The label can be arbitrarily assigned.

The Patriot Act means the government doesn’t have to prove you’re a “terrorist” to start spying on you. Maybe an agent with a serious hard-on for the anti-pea movement decides to SUSPECT you of “terrorism” and then begins collecting information about you to prove it. Lets say you purchase ingredients (which are readily available over the counter) that could be used to create an explosive device***. These items were purchased for their INTENDED purpose, but thanks to the Patriot Act and the increased availability of all your information in one place, the government sites the Patriot Act and takes your purchase history from Google. You may have purchased all of these items over the course of a year (or two) but the Patriot Act does not require that a warrant is obtained. For all you know, the government is monitoring your purchases right now.

But what do you have to hide? Nothing, I guess, as long as the government doesn’t mind you hating peas. Just make sure you don’t hate anything that the government LIKES.

If you think only the people with something to hide have to be concerned, you’re deluding yourself. Any of your interests or hobbies can classify you into a group, and a group can be labeled pretty easily. Think about something you really like and what would happen if the government decided it was bad. Not because it IS bad, but because it wants people to THINK it’s bad.

*I became uncomfortable talking about my pro-choice positions in public places, like airports, when Bush 2 was in charge because – given his vehement pro-life stance – I wasn’t convinced that that kind of shit wouldn’t get me a full body-cavity search. Paranoid? Maybe. Possible? Yes.

**Because THAT NEVER HAPPENS. Raise your hand if you believe everyone currently in the House and Senate actually understand the implications of technology and privacy and how they could be used to hurt citizens rather than help the government.

***I resisted the urge to Google search for said ingredients because I don’t need a visit from any federal agency, thank you.