One of the constant themes of our time is the protection of personal data. Sometimes we are shocked to discover what is collected about us not only by governments, but also by private corporations. This happens regardless of whether we agree with it or not.
Many laws regarding it have been passed, but the situation has not actually improved. Quite the opposite: Increasingly sophisticated technology is making it possible to store more and more data and to find a larger amount of information about specific people, and in many cases the law allows for it to be collected. For example, in many European countries the police can track mobile phone data without a warrant.
There are some people who are trying to oppose this trend, but the main problem the data protection community runs into is that the vast majority of people don’t mind it at all. If you ask a clerk at your nearest store whether she is bothered by the fact that her children’s health data is being stored in a central database somewhere, will she have a problem with it? Probably not. Similarly, most people who use Google and Microsoft every day likewise have no idea what information of theirs is being tracked and stored by them, nor who they sell it to. And they don’t care.
This raises two key questions: What are the reasons for this loss of interest in privacy, and what further developments we can expect in this area?
More surveillance than under the Communists
The loss of interest in privacy is a relatively new issue. I still remember a student party in Prague that took place in February 1990, shortly after the overthrow of the Communist regime in what was then Czechoslovakia. The party was held in a school that had previously trained the Communist cadres.
There were security cameras set up all over the building, and I still remember how sick we felt when we found out. We thought that such things had disappeared for good with the Communist regime.
But this isn’t only about cameras anymore, nor is it solely about the traditional privacy concerns surrounding cash and gun ownership. In 1990 we never would have believed that there would soon come a time when a democratic government…
Continue reading on Counter-Currents