Protecting the internet, our privacy and our freedom.

Here's an article that reflects some of my views on protecting the internet...

Should We Amend the US Constitution to Protect the Internet? by Brian O'Conner

All this SOPA and PIPA talk lately along with the Justice Department's well timed shutdown of megaupload.com, has got me thinking as well as fired up on getting the idea across of how important it is to have a free and open internet.  

I believe we need to create a digital bill of rights as an amendment to the constitution.  

• The primary intention of this amendment should spell out exactly what our rights are in the "virtual" world as well as greatly limit the intrusion and laws the government can make to govern internet usage and traffic. 
• Certain rights should be never be considered waived by way of the fact that you are on the internet, (for example, those lengthy user agreements we often just click accept without readying completely, should never be viewed by the law as a given that we waive our right to privacy).  

These rights should include:  

An extended digital right to privacy.  

If you haven't really thought it through before, you may not think privacy is such a big deal, but just as our forefathers created a bill of rights to speak to generations not yet lived, we need to do the same with the advent of the digital age.  We need to make ethical considerations to protect the rights and lives of the people living today and for generations to come.  

Consider this, if there were enough storage space, between the NSA and the patriot act it would be possible to document and log every single website you've ever visited for your entire life.  This includes every keystroke you've ever typed, every photo or video you've uploaded, any game you've ever played online, or for those playing games like the sims, where you live in a "virtual world", all movements, words and actions could be recorded and kept stored indefintely for hundreds of years.  If you work and type documents online for work, school or personal use, for example google docs or Microsoft Office 365, cloud services that are just now catching on, right now all that information can be taken without your knowledge and stored against your will, forever.  Don't forget every phone call you've ever made, and now with gps on phones it'd be possible to have an accurate tracking of your movements for your most of your life(and don't forgot gps also tells how fast you're going, should police be allowed access to your gps records to see if you've been speeding?). (lets ignore for the moment, the fact that it is always possible for the mics and cameras on your phone to be turned on and listened to or watched at any time without your knowledge). Don't forgot money, the debit cards are pretty handy but now our every transaction is logged digitally as well.  Oh and we can't forgot about all the public video cameras and facial recognition software, if you combine that with your gps data, and perhaps with more advanced satellites in the future, you could not only tracked but also watched every second you're out of your home, especially in urban areas.  

All of the above is very startling because at some point in time it will be possible to gather all of this information into a single database for every man, woman and child in the entire world.  Only an ethically minded privacy law, will protect us and our future generations and ensuring any information gathered is used in an ethical manner.  If the right laws aren't made, whoever controls this database will have a lot of power whether its government, corporations or both.  And of course anyone with enough money to influence the owners of this database can backtrack your entire digital life.

Who would you want to be able to access this information?   A potential employer?  A new girlfriend/boyfriend?  Your neighbors?  The police?  You could say you don't care, or it's not that big of a deal, but when you really start to imagine the implications, you really do need develop an opinion about it.  Any who has access to website history, phone calls, every place you've went, everything you've bought.  

It can be quite dangerous, as with the help of forensic and statistical computer software it will be possible to track and trend your life with ease and quickly tell people at a glance who you are.  

• Do your want your purchasing habits tracked and known by anyone over the last 40 years?  When you go to buy a car, do you want the car dealer to know the last 3 vehicles you've owned are the brand he's selling so when you ask for that free options package, he can smile and say no because he knows you're going to buy the car regardless and doesn't need to provide you with a further incentive?  
• Do want virtual reality software in place that would allow anyone to jump to any day in your life and relive that day through phone calls, website visits, keystroke entries on game websites, gps records, financial transactions, cameras?  
• What if you found out you didn't get that job because a computer algorithm tracked your purchases over the last 20 years and found you making purchases at the local bar every weekend and reported a 'yes' to a potential employer that you were a habitual drinker?  
• What if you found out you were fired from your job because an employee who didn't like you tracked your facebook back 15 years to before you worked there and found that you has said something derogatory about the company that your boss didn't appreciate. 
• What if the police showed up at your house to arrest you or question you because they had computer software which automatically monitors activities and it red flagged you for whatever reason as a suspicious individual.  What if further laws were made which gave probable cause for law enforcement to further investigate you or search your property?  

I could go on and write an entire book on this subject, I could sit and write 1,000 what ifs and still not have tackled but a fraction of all the injustices and invasions to your life and privacy which could be perpetrated and to an extent are being perpetrated today, but I think you get the idea.  We need to make laws now that strictly governs how our personal information is gathered and when it is used because we're only going to lose more privacy as time goes on.