When I was growing up my mother used to say, “Don’t do anything you’d be ashamed to see reported on the front page of the newspaper.” I took the warning seriously which may account for why my life may seem boring to others. What matters is that I sleep well.
Given the dullness of my history, I wonder why I take such umbrage at government and commercial electronic snooping. But of course, whether my life is dull or not isn’t the point. Personal freedom is. That’s why I’ve joined the side of those watching the watchers. I have no control over where technology is taking us. But I support those who are raising the alarm because what we don’t know can hurt us.
When the CEOs of Google, Facebook, Microsoft and other big technology players joined their voices to ours, I applauded. I thought of them as our heroes.
Well, I may have celebrated too soon, according to writer Bruce Schneier. His article in the Atlantic warns that the “uproar” you and I and every other ordinary citizen believes may be making a change is largely theater. http://http://finance.yahoo.com/news/don-t-listen-google-facebook-150814523.html Big electronic companies have no real incentive to promote tough anti-snooping regulations. It would affect their bottom line as they are big data collectors themselves. According to Schneier their objections are cosmetic, an attempt to placate overseas customers who are opposed to electronic snooping and have threatened to cancel billions of dollars in sales.
The truth is, NSA collects its big data from a variety of sources of which the public and even the technology companies have no knowledge. That being the case, there are no white knights large enough to protect us from government snooping. We are left with two choices. We can give up electronic devices and fall off the grid, or we can take my mom’s advice and live a life that is boring.
(Courtesy of karenpelletier.wordpress.com)
