The information highway will have its own influence on politics. For the first time, politicians will be able to see immediate representative surveys of public opinions. Voters will be able to cast their ballots from home or on their wallet PCs with less risk of miscounts or fraud. The implications for the government may be as great as they are for industry.
As long as you protect the password, the information stored on your computer can be held under the strongest lock and key that has ever existed. This allows for the greatest degree of information privacy any individual has ever had. Many in government are opposed to this encryption capability, because it reduces their ability to gather information. Unfortunately for them, the technology can’t be stopped. The National Security Agency … does not want software containing advanced encryption capabilities to be sent outside the United States. However, this software is already available throughout the world, and any computer can run it. No policy decision will be about to restore the tapping capabilities governments had in the past.
If ubiquitous cameras tied into the information highway should prove to reduce serious crime dramatically in test communities, a real debate would begin over whether people fear surveillance more or less than they fear crime. It is difficult to imagine a government-sanctioned experiment along these lines in the United States because of the privacy issues it raises and the likelihood of constitutional challenges. However, opinion can change. It might take only a few more incidents like the bombing in Oklahoma City within the borders of the United States for attitudes toward strong privacy protection to shift. What today seems like digital Big Brother might one day become the norm if the alternative is being left to the mercy of terrorists and criminals. I am not advocating either position – technology will enable society to make a political decision.
In a few years it will require only a relatively modest additional sum to add and operate cameras with connects to the information highway. Within a decade, computers will be able to scan video records very inexpensively looking for a particular person or activity. I can easily imagine proposals that virtually every pole supporting a streetlight should also have one or more cameras. The images from these cameras might be accessed only in the event of a crime, and even then possibly under court order. Some people might argue that every image from every camera should be available for viewing by everyone at any time. This raisers serious privacy questions in my mind, but advocates might argue that it’s appropriate if the cameras are only in public places.
I can imagine proposals that every automobile, including yours and mine, be outfitted with a recorder but also with a transmitter that identifies the car and its location – a future license plate. After all, airplanes have “black box” recorders today, and once the cost drops, there is no reason why they shouldn’t be in our cars. If a car was reported stolen, its location would be known immediately. After a hit-and-run accident or a drive-by shooting, a judge could authorize a query: “What vehicles were in the following two-block area during this 30-minute period?” The black box could record your speed and location, which would allow for the perfect enforcement of speeding laws. I would vote against that.
The public may insist that the police record themselves in the course of their work. And the police could be all for it, to guard themselves against claims of brutality or abuse on one hand and as an aid in gathering better evidence on another. Some police forces are already video-recording all arrests. This sort of record won’t affect just the police. Medical malpractice insurance might be cheaper, or only available, for doctors who record surgical procedures or even office visits. Bus, taxi, and trucking companies have an obvious interest in the performance of their drivers. Some transportation companies have already installed equipment to record mileage and average speed.
One reason for documenting a life will be defensive. We can think of the wallet PC as an alibi machine, because encrypted digital signatures will guarantee an unforgettable alibi against false accusations. If someone ever accused you of something, you could retort: “Hey, buddy, I have a documented life. These bits are stored away. I can pay back anything I’ve ever said. So don’t play games with me.” On the other hand, if you were guilty of something, there would be a record of it.
Privacy fears revolve around the possibility that someone else is keeping track of information about you. But the highway will also make it possible for an individual to keep track of his or her own whereabouts – to lead what we might call ‘a documented life.’ Your wallet PC will be able to keep audio, time, location, and eventually even video records of everything that happens to you. It will be able to record every word you say and every word said to you, as well as body temperature, blood pressure, barometric pressure, and a variety of other data about you and your surroundings. It will be able to track you interactions with the highway – all of the commands you issue, the messages you send, and the people you call or who call you. The resulting record will be the ultimate diary and autobiography, if you want one.
Medical records, driving records, library records, school records, court records, credit histories, tax records, financial records, employment reviews, and charge-card bills all profile you … Information about us is routinely compiled into direct-marketing mailing lists and credit reports … The scattered nature of information protects your privacy in an informal way, but when the repositories are all connected together on the highway, it will be possible to use computers to correlate it. Credit data could be linked to employment records and sales transactions records to construct an intrusively accurate picture of your personal activities. As more business is transacted using the highway and the amount of information stored there accrues, governments will consciously set policies regarding privacy and access to information. The network itself will administer those policies.
One area of vulnerability is the system’s reliance on cryptography – the mathematical locks that keep information safe … Because both the system’s privacy and the security of digital money depend on encryption, a breakthrough in mathematics or computer science that defeats the cryptographic system could be a disaster. The obvious mathematical breakthrough would be the development of an easy way to factor prime numbers. Any person or organization possessing this power could counterfeit money, penetrate any personal, corporate, or governmental file, and possibly even undermine the security of nations, which is why we have to be so careful in designing the system.