DailyPost 432
CAN WE SALVAGE PRIVACY?
Edward Snowden ripped off the lid of Govt. surveillance in the US, the shock US & the world has not been able to recover from. The start of the privacy movement will remain to be Edward Snowden’s lasting legacy. To call his leaks as the 9/11 of Privacy sounds very appropriate. Security Vs Privacy Vs Business battle is on globally, the prima donnas not being many.
The citizen and his customer avatar is in the midst of this high end game of immense power & of whopping profits_ literally knowing your traits, taste, preferences & better than you do. The Govts & IT juggernauts Surveillance is in full swing. We might keep defining Personal Information, in reality they are already in possession of data way beyond it. The inherent nature of the digital Surveillance system runs on by now well perfected operational & functional principles of being Covert, Automatic & Ubiquitous. What if all the personal data is not traded but surreptitiously used for creating a police state & for dictating sales & consumer preferences without the citizen being aware of it?
Legality, technology, human / fundamental rights does not seem to come to terms with each other. The quantum of personal data is endlessly being generated. Some small correlation can make this latent data even more potent. It’s already being done for a variety of purposes. All of us are being watched all the time & to add insult to injury that data is stored forever. A dream come true for Intelligence / espionage / Surveillance & to fulfill monopoly mindset audacious business dreams.
”Fear trumps privacy,” says leading expert Bruce Schneier. The *PATRIOT ACT was a body blow to privacy. The years that followed saw technology grow on a totally non-privacy trajectory. Pro-Privacy makes its major headway with the implementation of GDPR of the European Union. The world is also watching the enactment/ mechanism to coming to shape post India Supreme Court’s landmark judgment. Privacy, life & liberty are inextricably intertwined.
PRIVACY CANNOT BE A TRADE OFF FOR CONVENIENCE.
Sanjay Sahay