Little Brother
“Big Brother” is one of the reoccuring themes of this site, but perhaps
“Little Brother,” the concept of individuals watching and sharing
information about each other, poses the bigger threat. Inexpensive
technology has made increasingly easy for people to surveil public
spaces and each other. National governments are alarmed and mostly powerless against the information disseminated through Google Earth, and the tagging of photos through Riya’s facial recognition technology
decreases the control that one has over the distribution and location
of one’s own image. Jennifer Granick offered a frightening take on the application. Edit: Seoul’s Dog Poop girl is the perfect example of Little Brother exacting vengeance, in cyber-mob form.
Evil K met with either Riya, or the pre-cursor of
Riya, in 2001, during his banking days. His description of the
technology gave me the heebie jeebies back then, and that was before
the Web 2.0 days. Now, Riya combined with Web 2.0 can create
infinite permutations for misuse (for instance, AG and I joked about a parody of del.icio.us called mal.icio.us, but this joke could easily become creepy reality).
When questioned about why I am so open on the web, I always thought
that “being boring” was the best
defense against “Little Brother,” but I’m not sure that suffices now,
or will suffice in the future. I’ve already moved towards making this site
more closed in a subtle way, and I’ve shifted to a whitelist on my
other site, so perhaps a trend towards a closed network will continue
as cheap, accessable technology makes us more vulnerable.
**
Oh, and on another Geeky Chic thread, as a federal court in Pennsylvania has ruled, Science: 1, Intellgent Design: 0. I’ve got to go hunt down the 139-page decision.
ToastyKen
December 20, 2005 @ 4:18 pm
I love the “Little Brother” term. I haven’t heard it before. It’s interesting to compare your post to David Brin’s 1998 The Transparent Society, where he argued that ubiquitous surveillance could lead to greater freedom if citizens are able to watch their gov’t as much as the gov’t watches the people. He seemed mainly concerned about the people-gov’t implications; he didn’t seem to think about the people-people implications.
Saheli
December 20, 2005 @ 4:33 pm
Hmm, can’t find the link now, but I think I blogged about the positive aspects of the panopticon regarding the RNC arrests earlier this year. But yeah, lots of potential for creepiness. Does anyone remember My Sister Sam? The murder of the actress probably informs a lot of sensibilities about privacy. . .
Saheli
December 20, 2005 @ 4:43 pm
I wonder if concerns about privacy are modulated by how likely one feels one might be stalked. . .
ToastyKen
December 20, 2005 @ 5:44 pm
Btw, SSR, you forgot to flush just now before you left the bathroom. 😉
echan
December 20, 2005 @ 6:12 pm
Okay, you two kids. Time to get a room.
ToastyKen
December 21, 2005 @ 1:55 pm
Another thought: On my own blog, I left in datestamps but took out all the timestamps because I didn’t want people to to easily see when I posted stuff. 😛
echan
December 21, 2005 @ 2:45 pm
Sometimes I find the 4:00 a.m. timestamps helpful, as a disclaimer when I’m rambling about kalbi tang and drunken hijinks.
ToastyKen
December 21, 2005 @ 5:48 pm
Also relevant, anything you blog can and be used against you in a court of law. From this Ars article.