Surveillance technology and its implications.

The Transparent Society, by David Brin

 

What is the role of gender in the evaluation of Surveillance?

Could I select surveillance on/off, or delete at the end of each day, or have it expire in two years?

Does the law need a new rule of “evidence” to protect citizens?

Can the information be segmented in portions locked for conditional recovery?

 

Can economics offer a solution? What methods would allow people to be paid when information is used. If you “author” your life then the expression of your life can be monetized. People who access my records will pay a fee that I set. Does that solve the database problem? Does this meet and improve upon Justice Stevens’ 1989 “practical obscurity” test? The improvement being that the level of obscurity is controlled by individual citizens.

 

Author Brin in his book argues that society needs more light, or symmetric information flow, not added restrictions on information to ensure privacy. He proposes “the watchers” be subject to being watched by all.  However, it might be augmented with market pricing methods, so citizens can vary access by information type. Some information will be so costly as to deter nearly all. Further, it serves as an indicator to the “observed” of the interest-level being expressed, and recorded in cash.