A very eloquent post on privacy by Bruce Schneier:
The Value of Privacy
Last week, revelation of yet another NSA surveillance effort against the American people has rekindled the privacy debate. Those in favor of these programs have trotted out the same rhetorical question we hear every time privacy advocates oppose ID checks, video cameras, massive databases, data mining, and other wholesale surveillance measures: “If you aren’t doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide?”
Some clever answers: “If I’m not doing anything wrong, then you have no cause to watch me.” “Because the government gets to define what’s wrong, and they keep changing the definition.” “Because you might do something wrong with my information.” My problem with quips like these — as right as they are — is that they accept the premise that privacy is about hiding a wrong. It’s not. Privacy is an inherent human right, and a requirement for maintaining the human condition with dignity and respect.
Continue reading →
Or CBS, or ABC or any other main stream media outlet it seems. You had to read about it on Boing Boing, or some other tech-centric media.
Real ID passes in US Senate
Privacy advocates’ efforts to stop legislation that would create a federally-approved electronic ID card failed today. A military spending bill which contained the so-called Real ID Act driver’s license reform passed unanimously in the U.S. Senate. Snip from Declan McCullagh’s report at News.com:
President Bush (…) is expected to sign the bill into law this month. Its backers, including the Bush administration, say it’s needed to stop illegal immigrants from obtaining drivers’ licenses. When the act’s mandates take effect in May 2008, Americans will be required to obtain federally approved ID cards with “machine readable technology” that abides by Department of Homeland Security specifications. Anyone without such an ID card will be effectively prohibited from traveling by air or Amtrak, opening a bank account, or entering federal buildings.
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Here’s the full article on CNET. Major change. No debate. Slipped into the ass end of some funding bill that no one will question because it would be “un-patriotic”. Lovely.—
The Memory Hole is a site that I recently came across. (They published the first photos of flag draped caskets arriving at Dover Air Force Base from Iraq.) Know what your government is doing to you!
