Paranoid secret squirrel threatens virtual citizen privacy
By Davey Winder in Editorial
Posted in Blog, Security, Internet, Uncategorized on
I guess it had to happen, given the current climate of fear amongst governments in the US and UK regarding the so-called terrorist threat. Don’t get me wrong, I take the whole national security debate as seriously as the next rational citizen and am aware that terrorists are capable of perpetrating the most abhorrent of acts. However, I am also aware that governments see the current climate as being an ideal launch pad from which to bring in draconian laws that can impact upon the privacy of every citizen, good or bad. The arguments are always the same: if you’ve done nothing wrong then you have nothing to fear. I am afraid, however, that I do feel very real fear when 5 million kids have been fingerprinted and are on a database which could be used in case they do something wrong in the future. I am afraid I do feel fear that my DNA can be routinely taken and stored on a national police database even if the original arrest is proven to be in error and I am released without charge, again just in case I do something wrong in the future. And I do fear that a report by US intelligence officials which suggests virtual worlds such as Second Life are a breeding ground for international terrorists is a warning of yet more erosion of privacy that is set to come our way in the near future.
A report by the US government Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity group says that the anonymity and easy global access of Second Life creates a seedbed for transnational threats. “The virtual world is the next great frontier and in some respects is still very much a Wild West environment. Unfortunately, what started out as a benign environment where people would congregate to share information or explore fantasy worlds is now offering the opportunity for religious/political extremists to recruit, rehearse, transfer money, and ultimately engage in information warfare or worse with impunity.”
Yeah right, just like the evil Internet, that accursed email and those PAYG mobile phones many people use. Which of course, governments the world over are already bugging and attempting to control.
Is it just me, or does anyone else have a genuine concern that the whole global terror threat is just a smokescreen under which the state can start to monitor everyone, all the time? The UK is already the most filmed nation on the planet, with more CCTV installations watching our every move in small towns and big cities alike. Mobile phones, email, the Internet and now Virtual Worlds are all technologies that, TPTB assume, will give them even greater power to monitor the millions of us who are doing nothing wrong so have nothing to fear.
Luckily, however, the citizen is able to fight back because technology also brings with it the ability to achieve anonymity, to encrypt conversations to the same standards as the intelligence agencies use and to maintain our privacy. No wonder they are running scared and running into the arms of the law to force a change.
For the time being at least, even if the law does change and even if the secret squirrel types insist on perpetuating the myth that we must be evil if we want to remain anonymous online, I doubt that anything can be done to effectively monitor activity within something like Second World. If you saw that episode of CSI New York where a contract killer adopted an avatar personality to get close to the next target in real life, and was traced in an instant and to a specific apartment location by law enforcement officers, remember that this was pure fantasy. For the time being at least, the real world rational citizen can sleep easy in Second Life I think…
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