April 07, 2004
They See Your Every Move
Posted by nerdling | April 7, 2004 06:45 PM
What scares me about articles like this is not that multi-national corporations and the government are trying to find avenues to gather personal information and invade privacy. I take that as a given; the companies want to know what I am up to so they can find more ways to sell me stuff, and the government wants to know what I'm doing so they have a better idea how to, uh, influence the populace.
I take it as a given that there are plenty of people who have personal information about me in their keeping, whether I gave it to them (or want them to have it) or not. The scary thing about the future we're facing if RFID laws are passed is that not only will there be large corporations (including the government) that have access to a lot of your personal information, but they will know where you are, physically. All the time. If you want them to or not.
That's just one step closer to absolute power, kids.
I never really thought of simple physical tracking as too much of a step towards absolute power. I usually don't give a shit about what people know about me, and as long as I can think, do, or say what I want, then I'm a happy camper. I guess I see physical tracking as more of information gathering than a constraint, the latter of which is what really concerns me.
Posted by: jeff at April 7, 2004 04:17 PM
But the more they know about you the more they can do to curb your thoughts, activities and opinions. Personally I don't think there is much outside of my credit rating and whether or not I have an infectious disease that anyone needs to know, aside (possibly) from felony convictions.
I'm wary of information gathering because I think it is the first step toward all kinds of constraints. Most people are already debilitated by the limited privacy that we have; I don't need to lose any more, and I don't think anyone else does either.
Posted by: Marleigh at April 8, 2004 11:05 AM
