Japan has started officially tracking people without installing a privacy policy or discussing what would be collected. And, i’m quite happy to see that people are upset and rebelling. In my dreams, i still hope that Kate’s little fantasy comes true…
Category Archives: privacy
surveillance has social costs
Here’s a great little piece on the social implications of TIPS and other surveillance projects based on a personal story of life in Prague…
burning man & privacy
An interesting lawsuit has emerged. Burning Man folks are suing a company called Voyeur Video for selling videos of naked women at Burning Man. It’s not just my love of BM that makes this interesting, but what it means to be in public/private. Here’s a big big festival on public land run by a private organization with explicit rules that all videos must be registered. CNN and MTV have been banned year after year. Yet, this company took lots of images and are selling them, without the permission of the subjects. Is this a public space? A private space? I can’t help but think about what this might mean for general recording and selling of data…
minority report
Although i didn’t make it to opening night, i did get to see Minority Report on opening weekend. Although i am not the biggest Tom Cruise fan and i get quite annoyed by Steven Spielberg, i was quite pleasantly surprised. The digital cinematography was fab – good lighting tricks, great filters, perfect layout, good use of fisheye and smart irregular dropping of frames. The plot was well done, although it had a bit of that A.I., let’s-add-on-extra-30-minutes feel, but this was much more bearable. I was quite psyched by the perfect timing of the release of a surveillance film, particularly with it’s thought-provoking take on how the public feels about it. There was a great homage to Stanley Milgram, where everyone stopped what they are doing to be accounted for – obedience to authority at its best. Given some of the corporate systems for eyescanning and finger printing, the big question is: how long until this is a reality? [The better question is, of course, will people rise up to say that this is unacceptable?]
Plus, of course, i appreciated the use of technology, mostly thanks to John Underkoffler. I have to imagine that Hiroshi was shitting his pants on Friday, watching all of his tangible research be pertified for the screen. Plus, i caught a neat little use of Ben Fry‘s Valence piece in an early scene. Yay for Media Lab work looking fab!
For those who are curious about the ML-related work, check out:
– electronic paper (i.e. the animated newspapers)
– laser wall (using lasers to detect hand motion mid-air)
– tangible media (sensor-based objects like the memory chips and balls, gesture work, etc.)
… there are more but this is what comes to mind… it’s just so great to see the research prettified…
All and all, i was quite entertained! [as was roger ebert]
privacy by microsoft (palladium)
Microsoft is at it again… only this time, they have support fron all the big players (Intel, AMD, Dell, Gateway, etc.). it seems as though they’ve got a plan to make systems full of privacy and security, which seems fab, right? but of course, i’m worried, because somehow i have a feeling that it’s going to be about surveillance of behavior with complete authentication rather than simply making certain that no one gets to your machine that shouldn’t. but maybe i should be a little be more optimistic – this is after all one of the first public announcements…
privacy workshop
i love getting academic compliments… four of us crazy grad students from 3 different institutions decided to put together a workshop proposal for CSCW 2002 and it was accepted!!! what’s even better is that this is a high compliment since we are all students and normally workshops are done but “established” people… so, we’re now starting the call for participants – how crazy? a bunch of folks gathered to talk about identity & privacy in order to focus on empowering users!
observing surveillance
if you happen to be in D.C. June 3, check out the Observing Surveillance event. regardless, the website is fascinating…
fellow privacy troublemakers
A few days ago, a friend of mine (David Nguyen) asked me if i wanted to help with a proposal for a workshop for CSCW 2002, alongside Carlos Jensen and Scott Lederer. The topic: privacy in digital environments, intended to empower users through awareness and control. Of course, i jumped at the opportunity and in a matter of days, we produced this workshop proposal.
privacy continues to be problematic
Every day, i’m reminded that privacy is becoming less and less a part of my reality. What’s sad to me is not that i lack ultimate privacy, but that i’m quickly losing the privacy that i’ve gained through modern life, back to a state that is so invasive that we might as well have zero freedom. Below are random articles on privacy that i want to keep track of, because they are a reminder.
inQtel – the CIA’s VC firm.. They are paying off different startups to turn around and make spyware of sorts…
Rosen’s article on privacy (which is quite similar to the talk that i went to this week on the same topic). It’s quite nice to hear that someone is coherent about these issues, even if they make me paranoid.
[cypherpunk login for nytimes: c1ph3rpunk/c1ph3rpunk]
Nothing to Yahoo Over New E-Rules – lack of privacy on Yahoo, again.
Online Companies Draw Fire For Removing ‘Offensive’ Postings – Yahoo deleting “terrorist” messages. Too bad that all of my V-Day posts got removed too. But, i guess we are a terrorist organization, because we fund folks like RAWA and talk about pornographic words.
FDA doesn’t regulate implantable chips. Yes, they regulate everything else that goes in my body based on their moral high ground, but not chips.