Being a hardliner on privacy seems like an easy choice until some thug snatches your camera and says "you can't record that because it's a violation of privacy" -- in the old days when only powerful people had the means to record and broadcast information it was easy to say "NO" to all surveillance. --But, now that we all have the power, do we really want precedents that stop us from documenting our world as we see fit? I don't. Do you?
It's really hard to talk about concepts like privacy when so many people think that cameras that read licence plates of cars on public roads and then track their movements are just as much of an "invasion" of privacy as reading someone's email ... no... MORE because they can see you.
But think about what we can do armed with equally powerful information ourselves? This street cannot run in one direction only. That is the danger we need to fight.
We can know where they are. We can have acces to all of this information too. And you know what? I'm so excited to do my own data mining. Simple things such as "just how often do elected officials in the Bronx spend in their "home" borro?" Complex things like: "which senators are meeting with which lobbyists?"
None of this is to say that "there is no cause for concern" (you bet there is) -- but the concern I encounter often reaches way beyond things that I'd even be able to agree are "wrong" let alone illegal. In fact, to agree that these things are wrong is dangerous since it will mean giving up power.
Like the absurd notion that you have a right to drive around and no one can watch you do it and put together where you are or where you are going. Or that no one can keep records on where you have been if you walk around in public. There is no such right and it'd be awful if there were one. But say the words "facial recognition technology" and many sane people will start to argue that "there oughta be a law!"
But you know what? Hands off our databases! and keep you hands off our cameras as well! I'll keep track of what I like thank you very much and yes that can include you. And yes it is true that big companies and the government can do it too. But, if you think laws will do anything but stop "ordinary" people from using this technology you're being a bit naive.
What none of us can do is open your mail, look in your window or read your email. And I'll fight with everyone to protect those real privies. But not the imaginary ones. Call it the so-called "right" not to noticed. I'm not going to work against my own interests as an activist and an artist and a curious person to make it harder to recored information. No. It's not going to make us safer it's going to make us helpless to fight back-- because "privacy" is always most well protected for the well-to-do and powerful first THEN everyone else.
Functionally, it just gets in the way of research.
I'd feel a lot better about the conversation we've been having if I knew that there were others who see the value in everyone being able to collect data and analyze it and learn from it. Then we can focus on that information that never should have been collected.
But, when I'm told that the very act of aggregating data that, by itself, is "harmless" suddenly changes the very nature of that data making it "personal and privite" -- I feel like I'm acting against my own beliefs to support such attacks.
So, I want to lay out my concerns as clearly as possible.