James Burgess

There are a great many and varied number of things that scare the human race - either collectively or as a whole. From the potential of huge meteors to crash into the Earth, obliterating us all - to the relatively drama-free fear of being struck by a golf ball, which knocks you off-balance, resulting in you falling down a cavernous void, into a pile of small pink flowers which were concealing a 16th century intruder-prevention device, which ultimately causes your demise. But, when you push aside the comedy regarding that particular previous sentiment (maybe I’m a bit too hopeful in calling it ‘comedy’?) - there are some truly scary things on the horizon in the world of personal privacy.

We’ve already seen the privacy invasion step up a notch with the introduction of ID cards and RFID passports - both of which passed through, in various countries, with very little resistance. The questions are, “How much of our privacy are we willing to sacrifice?” - and - “When are we going to stand up and do something about this blatant infringement of personal property and anonymity?”

In the UK, we’ve become quite accustomed to the back-and-forth between politicians over the introduction of ID cards. These idea behind these cards is to give one to every member of the population, and to store DNA, fingerprint and other biometric data about the carrier. I don’t know about you, but that information being given to the government would make me feel like a criminal, not a “Regular Joe” of society. The interesting fact to note is that those ID cards didn’t make it through parliament - but ones with a lesser degree of ‘invasion’ looks like it might do. And herein lies the problem - the classic “if you can’t get in the front door, try sneaking in covertly through the back door” ploy. Once everyone’s carrying the cards, upping the amount of information on them is a much smaller, and simpler, task.

I’m not one for scaremongering, or anything like that, but if the Government has sufficient biometric data about you, and potentially considers you a ‘rebel’ to society, in some way, wouldn’t it be simple enough to plant your data at a crime scene, or implicate you in a scandal, or something similar? Many will say “you just have to trust the Government to do a good job - they’d never do anything to harm the people.” Really? Last time I looked, [cabinet] politicians were a lying, cheating bunch (by and large), with very little regard for any person except themselves and their own interests. And back-benchers aren’t really going to get a look in on major issues like this, are they?

These small invasions of privacy are everywhere and, like many things, once they get a foothold, they’ll be virtually impossible to eradicate. As an example, the USA has just given permission to Customs and Border Patrol to scan, examine and/or seize data from travellers’ laptop computers without any given reason, just a “suspicion” and, as suspicions can’t really be proven, that basically gives them free reign. There are no rules governing this new ‘law’.

The problem, here, lies in our own hands. It is us, as the general population, who allow these ridiculous and unacceptable laws to pass because of our cluelessness. We should take our governments for what they are - sly, conniving, manipulative groups of selfish individuals, and watch our backs. If we lose our privacy, we’ve lost all that makes us ‘private individuals’. If you’re not scared now, you really, really, should be.