Friday, December 28, 2012
While the events of September 11 brought substantive changes to the public sphere, private industry has been quick to capitalize on the increase in surveillance technologies. Public attitudes toward the government's heightened security measures were initially acquiescent, but there is little indication, then or in the years since, that the events of September 11 changed public opinion on privacy rights in the workplace or the realm of commerce. The federal government's attitude toward extracting private information from private organizations has nonetheless provided something of a moral sanction in the use of private information for purposes of validation in the commercial sector. > moreFriday, December 21, 2012
An increasing number of theorists are advocating transparency (i.e., the relinquishing of protection over information on every front, from individual to governmental) over against our existing privacy intuitions as a result of new technologies and their impact on traditional expectations and protections. Privacy is a highly desirable product of liberty. If we remain free and sovereign, we may have a little privacy in our bedrooms and sanctuaries. As citizens, we'll be able to demand some. But accountability is no side benefit. It is one of the fundamental ingredients on which liberty thrives. > moreThursday, November 1, 2012
The attacks of September 11, 2001 have left a mark on Western consciousness that eclipses the shells and empty space where once stood the World Trade Center. These attacks ignited worldwide responses in both practical and political realms that reflect concern over loss of life, loss of property and loss of face before the global community from the threat of similar attacks. While related incidents were experienced on a smaller scale in England and Spain in the years following, the wound to a collective identity has been felt most poignantly in the United States, and the response has been unsurprisingly commensurate. > moreSunday, October 7, 2012
The movement toward rationalization and control of the workplace through surveillance is part of a larger trajectory in modern institutions, progressing toward more subtle, nonphysical means of effecting social control. But this movement is only fully realized in the absence of preventative legislation and when technology provides a fundamentally transparent and nonphysical means to acquire information on employees. It is the transparent forms of surveillance which pose the greatest challenge to employee privacy. Ironically, the nonphysical threats of technology have provided the greatest difficulty for lawmakers to address in protecting the right to privacy. > more