The Abandoned Arts

        The world is changing, the industrial revolution has faded and the information age has come. Personal technologies have developed at an exponential rate, helping to connect people to information and each other. This growth has also brought about technologies which provide people with great new means of security. Though these fantastic leaps in technology are creating a safer world, they are also being used to kill personal privacy. Anyone, especially the government can access thousands of pieces of information about any living person at any time. Big brother is watching.

        Smart Cards are credit card sized plastic cards that have a circuit chip embedded into them. These cards need very strong security, and each of its applications requires sensitive data to be stored on the card, such as the biometric information of the card owner, personal medical history, and cryptographic keys for authentication. Smart Cards or Integrated Circuit Cards (ICC) are being introduced in countries all around the world because of their versatility. In Reynosa, Mexico, workers were often robbed while carrying home their weeks pay. MetaCo LLC, created a smart card called MetaCard, each worker had their fingerprint scanned and imprinted into the MetaCard, which would not allow anyone else to use the card. The employee used the card like a time-clock for work attendance, swiping the card in the reader as they entered and exited the factory. Their wages would be deposited onto the card at the end of the week, allowing them to use the card for cash transactions, or to deposit the money in their bank accounts. Because of the high security on these Smart Cards, they will provide protection against theft and fraud.

        Applied Digital Solutions has created a product called the VeriChip. This ID chip is roughly the size of a grain of rice, can store 6 lines of text, and emits a radio frequency at 125 kHz which can be scanned using a special scanner from up to four feet away. In the future the VeriChip may even have a GPS receiver. Applied Digital Solutions plans to market the chip in the United States as a medical device which would allow hospital employees to scan a patient to access their medical records. Should the GPS receiver be integrated into the VeriChip, it would also allow for a person to be located anywhere around the world, which would serve as a great medium for finding missing individuals.

        One means of security that has been provided by technology, that has been in use for many years is the security camera. Surveillance cameras are considered by some to be the cornerstone of the surveillance society. They are an overwhelming means of providing hard evidence of a crime that has been committed within the range of a cameras lens. When Rodney King was being beaten by Los Angeles Police, a bystander caught this act on video. Though the trial ended in acquittal of the police, this situation proved how potent video can be as evidence. Facial recognition software has also been created for use with security cameras. When this software finds a person whose face matches closely with one in the database a record will be retrieved, with the image of a card-counter or criminal as well as a list of their aliases and associates. The ability to observe without tiring, and identify individuals immediately makes surveillance cameras a very powerful tool.

        "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." (Benjamin Franklin)

        Smart cards are an already existent threat to humanities personal privacy. The growing use of smart cards makes it possible for governments to track the activities, communications, and financial transactions of all citizens, from the cradle to the grave. Enormous amounts of revealing information about your life are on file for anybody who can access the thousands of computer databases that store this information. Because people can look at every thing you have ever done using smart cards, the most common of which are credit and debit cards, it seriously damages our human right to privacy.

        Id chips are a very dangerous tool in the wrong hands. Because the ID chip can potentially carry any type of information, it raises many concerns. Donna Lieberman says Theres the danger that well be walking around with our entire life history up our sleeve, or in our sleeve, available to who knows who, That Private information is far too sacred to be abandoned by the altar of technology. The ID chip could also be used for transactions, however there will be a permanent record of every single transaction including the time and place. The ID chip has the potential to track a person wherever they go, and what transactions they make, gives the ID chip the potential to be the most intrusive technology conceived, completely eradicating any existent personal privacy.

        The security camera is a very widely used security device; however it can be very damaging in the wrong persons hands. A man sued the city of Wilton Manors on the claim that police were watching him as he used the washroom. The lawsuit states that washroom cameras at Colohatchee Park violated the unidentified man's rights. Police had arrested the man and charged him with public exposure based on evidence collected from the camera, but later dropped the charge. In Tuscaloosa, Alabama the operators of a traffic camera had used it to zoom in on various college-aged womens breasts and buttocks while they walked down the street. Though the infringement on privacy done by security cameras is very limited, its largest danger is abuse by the operators. Watching is a boring activity, and bored watchers (especially men) despite the fact that they are there to stop criminal activities will inevitably engage in sexual voyeurism to "pass the time"

        Humanity is growing, and with this growth is a demand for security. Technologies have been developed to stop theft, fraud, kidnapping, and other such crimes. Though these crimes are being deterred with the developments of such technologies, a more serious problem is occurring; peoples lives are being recorded to a file for anyone to access at any time. Our privacy is being taken away, anything a person says can be used against them, anything a person does can be used against them. Big Brother is still watching.