The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us
to Choose Between Privacy and Freedom?
by David Brin
David Brin's fascinating book, The Transparent
Society is a valuable introduction to the privacy debate topic. This
1998 book provides fascinating and unexpected arguments for the
negative on the coming year's national high school debate topic. Brin
dedicates the book to: "Popper, Pericles, Franklin, and countless
others who helped fight for an open society…and to their heirs who
have enough courage to stand in the light and live unmasked."
Brin carefully explains the technology
underpinning current concerns about privacy. But then he puts these
concerns into historical perspective and argues that the average
person has a lot more privacy today than people did in the past. And
Brin further suggests that lack of privacy may not be as big a problem
as too much privacy. Strong privacy advocates want anonymous user
names and encrypted transactions on the internet, but Brin explains
what he thinks are better, safer alternatives.
The Transparent Society is considered by many to
be the most thoughtful and insightful book on the privacy debate. Brin,
an academic physicist as well as successful science fiction author,
covers a lot of ground with wide ranging and endlessly creative
thought experiments and insights.
In The Transparent Society, Brin makes the case
that is also made by economist Dan Klein in "Trust and Privacy on
the Net" (in the May issue of Ideas on Liberty), that much of the
concern about privacy turns out to be a concern about confidentiality:
"In so many cases where [privacy] is used the issue would be more
aptly discussed as one of confidentiality in transactions or in
information shared in completing transactions." (p. 16).
Klein also mentions a point about misleading
polls of privacy concerns (also emphasized by Brin in The Transparent
Society): "A pollster, it has been said, is someone who asks
citizens what they think about something they don't think about."
(p. 14). Brin cites studies showing that while people care about
corporations collecting information on them, they don't care very
much. When polls ask for a prioritized list of concerns, privacy is
not near the top. For example, people use supermarket shopping cards
that collect detailed information on their purchases, in return for
discounts on the goods they purchase.
Another example: though people care about
privacy, they care more about crime. Small cameras in public places
dramatically lower crime rates (a 68% drop in Glasgow, Scotland, for
example). Cameras mean less privacy in public places, but most people
prefer more safety.
Brin argues, however, that the cameras should
not be only in the hands of the police. He much prefers voluntary
organizations or the general public having access to cameras via the
internet (much as traffic cameras on city freeways are now accessible
via the net). Neighborhood busybodies will be able to see more things
that are none of their business. But since cameras are coming anyway,
Brin argues it is better to have information flow in all directions
rather than just from the public to government agents.
Brin's arguments are not always convincing, but
he does a great job of outlining the major privacy issues and
challenges for the 21st century.
|
