The Future of Privacy: Moot?
January 5, 2001
Evolving cultural trends render some privacy questions moot.
Last year the federal government introduced us to "Carnivore," a
not-so-reassuringly-named software utility that dragnets our email streams
looking for fish to fry. As information technologies generally become more
invasive and the information they collect harder to control, we justifiably
fear for our privacy. Typically on the sly, in what one popular new book
calls "The Unwanted Gaze," government, corporations and other entities
increasingly track our physical activities and rummage through what have
become virtual extensions of our brains: our computers and Internet
presence.
Combining this data with what others collect, these agencies
may eventually gain access to everything from the contents of our urine to
our credit histories. Such privacy violations are bad enough when the
resulting files are accurate and used responsibly, and, of course, they're
often wildly wrong and criminally abused.
Worse, once digitized, this data is more difficult to control than
common gossip. "The right to privacy," as deduced by Earl Warren's Supreme
Court from the "penumbra" of the Constitution, has never faced such an
assault, with volatile technologies fast outstripping our ability to
regulate or even to understand them. It becomes questionable whether our
current concept of privacy can survive this onslaught.
Happily, our "current concept" is evolving with cultural trends that
help render some privacy questions irrelevant. Consider homosexuals "coming
out of the closet," a trend that has certainly tended to render "exposure"
obsolete. Secrecy here used to be critical for employment, avoiding
blackmail, or even staying out of jail.
To the extent that we've moved away from poisonous attitudes
respecting sexual orientation, "exposure" has become irrelevant. No, we
aren't there yet, but the day is coming when sexual orientation will be
considered as matter-of-fact as hair color. Bleached blond jokes aside, we
normally aren't concerned about keeping our natural hair color a secret.
Likewise, in the recent past so much as a whisper of mental illness
anywhere in the family, let alone evidence of any personal affliction, were
matters of dire concern. Exposure of treatment for problems as common as
mild depression could mean the end of a career -- or never getting a job in
the first place. But, as with homosexuality, cultural attitudes are fast in
the process of shifting away from irrational condemnation.
Respecting substance abuse, those who have been through The Betty Ford
Center have far less reason to hide than the addicts of 20 years ago. 'Same
with divorce, adultery, illegitimacy, bankruptcy; an interest in pedestrian
pornography. To some, increasing forbearance for such human foibles heralds
the End of Western Civilization. To most, however, growing tolerance
demonstrates growing understanding of the admonition against casting stones
and a wiser appreciation generally of "There but for the grace of God ..."
To a very great extent, therefore, the quality of society determines
its nature and need for privacy. In a society wracked by self-
righteousness, ignorance and fear, privacy generally is critical. The more
informed and enlightened the realm, the fewer the secrets that need
keeping. Naturally and ideally, only genuine character issues and overt
behavior should remain at issue. Arguably, if one has been a persistent
liar or child molester, exposure remains appropriately hurtful.
The old bromide goes, "Never do or say anything you wouldn't mind
seeing in the next day's newspapers." Few of us live lives quite so
spotless. On the other hand, even an interesting variety of spots, again,
short of genuine ethical offenses and outright crimes, shouldn't count for
much in a society of more enlightened newspaper readers. Titillation may be
with us forever, and to be its subject forever annoying. But condemnation
is the crucial issue.
The essential question respecting the current assault on privacy is,
can trends for greater tolerance, combined with vigilant legislative
constraints protecting traditional privacy rights, outstrip technology's
fast-growing power to invade and harm? Relatedly, we are also questioning
the structure of some institutions.
With DNA profiling, for example, we gain a growing ability to predict
who will get what diseases. But this presents a real privacy danger only in
America, where the first order of our health care system is not to care for
health, but to eliminate profit risks. Do we sweat bullets trying to keep
insurers from finding out who is and is not a risk? Or do we follow the
rest of the industrialized world in obtaining a system that unconditionally
protects everyone?
Do Swedes predisposed to arthritis worry that some prospective
employer will find out about it? In this case the enlightenment required
applies not to any irrational social stigma respecting health, but to
irrational social contracts. The need for privacy can be obviated in some
cases by institutional reform.
Elsewhere, government needs to act quickly and decisively to keep
privacy legislation and court decisions up to speed. At the user end,
wonderfully secure encryption software and anonymity procedures are already
available for email, newsgroup postings; Web browsing. These protections
need to be made more widespread and user-friendly. Perhaps foremost,
however, continued progress towards a more human-friendly society will do
more than anything else to guarantee privacy where it's really needed.
A simultaneously more open and open-minded society enables us to shrink
our respective privacy spheres. A smaller, more manageable privacy sphere,
safeguarding only those issues that remain genuinely sensitive, means more
certain protection irrespective of technological advance.
A futurist and commentator, Travis has been published nationally and internationally since 1978.
Copyright © 2001, Travis Charbeneau, All Rights Reserved.
travchar@mindspring.com
http://www.richmonder.com/charbeneau
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