CDR: Comments on and about e-privacy in Canada

[Robert Guerra]

Folks:

I thank some of you for posting your comments on the e-privacy 
bulletin board that the CBC has set-up.

I'm not sure how long the discussion group will last, so please feel 
free to  continue to share your thoughts on the crypto-canada mailing 
list
<http://crypto-canada.greatvideo.com>


Regards

Robert

Here's a message I really like...

http://interact.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/WebX?14@119.UM22aQsobAM^4@.ee768e0

(see e-prvacy discussion section)

I think that it should be written into Canada's constitution that ANY 
information about any Candadian citizen belongs to that citizen. That 
any agency who wants to store, retrieve, review, transfer or in any 
way duplicate that information must obtain formal consent from the 
citizen involved. That every citizen has the right to know what 
information an agency is storing about them, and who they have shared 
this information with.

I think treating personal information with the same rules as private 
property would solve our privacy fears.

The really scary scenario is that with the proliferation of public 
video cameras and wireless technologies, our every move may someday 
be recorded in a database somewhere. Even cars are now being equipped 
with technologies that track where we are and how we are driving at 
all times. That is really Orwellian, in my opinion. Cell phones do 
the same thing by continuously traingulating your position, in fact, 
if cell nodes didn't do this, cell phones wouldn't work.

The next big wave that is coming, with the convergence of television, 
telephony, broadband internet and wireless networked home electronics 
is that everything - even your box of Cheerios will have an IP 
address.

I attended a recent lecture at UBC that was given by Dr. William J. 
Raduchel, the Chief Strategy Officer of Sun Microsystems, and he said 
that Sun and many other companies are hard at work putting the 
finishing touches on the technology that will make it possible for 
your fridge to recognize that you are running out of milk, and 
automatically add it to your shopping list, and automatically shop 
for it if you want - but here is the really freaky part: In the near 
future, Dr. Raduchel said that all advertising will be targeted based 
on your 'electronic behavior'. Picture this: You come home from work 
and your house sees you coming and the door opens and the net-enabled 
television in your livingroom comes on, and there is a commercial for 
Cheerios that says, "Did you know that the box of Cheerios in your 
cupboard is almost empty?" - and a coupon for Cheerios will print out 
of your net-enabled refrigerator, and the General Foods corporation 
will be able to run a report that tells them exactly how many boxes 
of Cheerios there are sitting in cupboards in wired homes across 
Canada, and how full each one is.

This is not science fiction - this is reality, and it is coming to a 
net-enabled home near you.

If you think your privacy is an issue now, just wait until your TV 
set knows what you had for breakfast, and your toilet knows the 
blood-sugar levels in your urine, which is automatically appended to 
your medical records.

Big brother is here, and he is about to become far more powerful that 
Orwell could have ever imagined.

I encourage you to look this up for yourself, look at the Sun 
Microsystems website and review the white papers on Jini technology 
and how companies like Whirlpool are building it into new appliances. 
Sun is just one example, of course, there are hundreds of companies 
who enthusiastically embrace these new technologies.

Ken MacAllister Vancouver, BC
-- 
"...as we transfer our whole being to the data bank, privacy will 
become a ghost or echo of its former self and what remains of 
community will disappear"...Marshal McLuhan
--
Robert Guerra <rguerra at yahoo.com>, Fax: +1(303) 484-0302
WWW Page <http://pgp.greatvideo.com>, ICQ # 10266626
PGPKeys  <http://pgp.greatvideo.com/keys/rguerra/>