11-16-2007, 12:11 PM
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Privacy and Little Murders
Issue #124 | Nov. 16, 2007 | by Andy Kowl
In China last week a young technology company executive was talking to me about privacy after my speech where privacy was one topic I covered. Since any comprehensive discussion of RFID should include privacy concerns, I told the primarily Chinese audience how this is a basic American value they should pay attention to.
This Chinese tech exec said, “I guess the people in the United States are not as worried about privacy as we are here.” I was taken aback for a moment. Since the People’s Republic of China is a police state, where even the number of children a family may have is controlled by the authorities, I figured privacy would not be much considered.
During the Cultural Revolution in the mid-1960’s, Chinese society was turned on its head. The Red Guard encouraged people to destroy their family photographs and thousands of children reported their parents to the authorities for not having pure revolutionary thoughts. Now that’s privacy intrusion. How arrogant of me to think I am more concerned about the potential for privacy violation than these good people.
Two nights ago my privacy was violated while buying a bottle of Nyquil at Safeway. The bottle did not have an RFID tag.
Nor did this have anything to do with my Safeway affinity card – those cards where we all sell our privacy for 25¢ here and a dollar there. That is a deal we enter willingly. Whatever data they gather about me and my family from those cards is fair game.
Keeping information about yourself private
I had a cold and felt like crap. The Safeway cashier swiped the barcode and asked for my ID, to her credit with embarrassment. I thought she’d give it a perfunctory look, since it contained alcohol, though it seemed silly.
When she started entering information into her register, I asked if she was entering my driver’s license number. She said, no, she was entering my birthdate. License, birthday, either way I was outraged. But frankly I did not have the energy to act on it
You think you need RFID to violate my privacy? All you need are bad decisions. With bad decisions many things can violate our privacy.
All it takes is some gutless middle management slug who is told by a sniveling lawyer that because this medication contains alcohol ‘we’d better cover our ass.’ Maybe some kid will get caught drinking two bottles of Nyquil bought at Safeway and someone will complain or worse.
Where is the executive who says, “Damn it, let’s be proud to stand up for our customers’ privacy. If our stock drops a nickel, so be it.”
When I bought medication in Beijing nobody hassled me.
Political demagogues
Visiting my daughter at college a couple years back, an Ohio trooper gave me a speeding ticket. He had checked my license, registration and insurance paperwork. No problem. He asked for my Social Security number. There was a blank at the top of the ticket for one.
I told him I would not give him my number and clearly that was a first for him. I said, “You have called in all my paperwork and plates. You know where I live. In America we are not required to present any other identification.” He said I must give my number due to the Patriot Act. I asked if this meant I’d be breaking federal law, how did he have jurisdiction. Obviously some politicians in Ohio had created this requirement as a vote-pandering tribute to national security.
The cop said Social Security number or jail. Now I manned the barricades in the early 70’s. I’m proud to have counted Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin as friends. But I had un-gettable tickets in my pocket to take my daughter to an amazing show that night and could not see calling my freshman kid to bail me out. I caved.
Little Murders
I saw a Jules Feiffer play called “Little Murders” at Circle in the Square in New York City, probably not long after the Chinese Cultural Revolution. It starred Elliott Gould and they later made it a movie. Gould’s character and all his friends keep witnessing random violence and having loved ones offed. The black humor is that everybody starts taking these things lightly. Little murders. Then his wife gets shot. Nobody had done anything as things got out of hand.
It is poor decisions putting our privacy in jeopardy. Some are not so clearcut. Is it a good or a bad thing that you can watch my house by satellite so Google can sell more advertising? Is it good or bad that London, and now more cities, are placing security cameras everywhere?
How RFID fits in
RFID is a powerful auto-identification technology. It is legitimate to want to know that RFID is not being used to violate our privacy.
But it is not RFID putting anyone’s privacy in jeopardy. It is poor, thoughtless and/or greedy decisions being made.
If you work with RFID technology, one day you may be called upon to make such a decision – likely about something you cannot even anticipate now.
Maybe your answer means losing business. Maybe it means losing your job. Or maybe it means being a leader and showing everybody else a better way. You will not know until it happens.
Please, give even a tiny chipping away at privacy the thought it deserves. If you rationalize that you “had no choice,” shame on you – at least have the grace to lose some sleep over it.
Let me finish by saying that only interference I had in getting around Beijing and the surrounding areas was due to language, not government intrusion. So, for clarity and language differences, I hope my new friends reading this in China understand I write with respect and in solidarity. Let us work together to do our best.
Next week we take a Thanksgiving break. Let’s be thankful for the freedom that privacy is a cornerstone of.
Important Considerations
Framing the RFID Privacy Policy
What is Privacy in the context of RFID?
Last edited by AndreaC : 11-16-2007 at 12:28 PM.
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