I’ve noticed people looking over at the black strip of tape across the top of my silver MacBook Air as I work away at a desk in the library. No one has really asked about it though, despite obvious curiosity. To save you having to ask and me having to answer several times over, I shall answer it now.
Why not?
First of all, I would ask you “why not?” I am yet to use the webcam on my laptop and I can’t see myself using it any time soon. It is of no inconvenience to me at all. I do not have to remove and re-tape it. It’s the same piece of tape I put on last year. Although I cannot remember the exact date I decided to tape my webcam, I do remember what documentary I watched the day I taped it. Citizen Four, a documentary film on former NSA contractor, and whistleblower Edward Snowden.
As Snowden himself has stated, the story ought not to be a personal one, it shouldn’t be about him and his courage to whistle-blow, but rather a political one, a human rights on. The documents, or more importantly, what the documents represent and tell us about what the NSA and other national intelligence agencies are up to should be the focus. So, I shall focus on the latter.
What is happening?
National intelligence/security agencies such as the NSA, ASIO and GCHQ have been gathering data on every digital move we make. This includes email, phone calls, Google searches, Facebook friends, posts, likes, text-messages and the list goes on. What is frightening is that they have admitted to collecting this data, and that this data collection is harmful. It is frightening because the harm is not evaluated in terms of how the surveilled’s (everyone’s) privacy is invaded but because they had too much data to analyse which was/is impeding their ability to make informed decisions. The fact of the matter is that they knew they were going to collect too much data to analyse… using yesterday’s technology. Year on year processing power and data analysis techniques improve. This was always going to be the case, and indeed always has been with technology. It’s only a matter of time until the technology allows complete analysis of past, present and future data that can create insights a human analyst couldn’t achieve in a hundred life-times.
A pertinent point that the politicians and protagonists of the surveillance regime will point out loudly and often is that “it’s just metadata”. To digress, it should be noted that even the extent of metadata collection was not admitted to until after the whistle-blow. There is no real reason to trust that content is being intercepted and stored too. Even if they aren’t capturing communications content, the amount of information that can be gathered from your metadata is astounding. If you had called a friend for 10 minutes on Monday, then a one minute call on Tuesday, then made a credit card purchase of fuel at store near where that friend lives, they can pretty quickly work out you were going to your friend’s place. That is of course a simplification, but the general gist of what is possible with a lot more data is made a little clearer.
Why Does Privacy Matter?
You’re not a criminal (I hope). You’re a good person. You therefore have nothing to hide, and nothing to fear. Google CEO Eric Schmidt said “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” Yet I bet he locks the door when he’s taking a dump in a cubicle. I bet he puts passwords on his email accounts. This is because privacy is a natural human desire, in fact, it’s much more than that; it’s a requirement.
Think about the last time you were home alone last. You probably dance differently when your favourite song is; you sing louder, and likely worse than if you were being watched. You don’t write a blog post about the same things you write in your personal journal. That doesn’t mean you write all your crimes in your journal. It just means you’re human.
We are social beings, and anyone who feels the need to fit in (everyone bar sociopaths) will think and act differently. If we are constantly locked into the mind of our conservative selves we never really have a chance to explore our true identity, the deeper self that calls from behind the locked door of our subconscious. We can never say we have fully experienced what being human is like.
“Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.” – Rosa Luxemburg
This analogy is a perfect summation of what privacy does to a person, and how perceptions of privacy, and surveillance can lead us astray from what it actually is. You may still be thinking that it doesn’t matter if we are monitored by computers, since the human embarrassment factor is removed from the equation. Humans still have access to these computers, humans in positions of power. At the times where you do not need to move, while those in power respect their power, there is no need to worry about surveillance. However, as soon as this power is abused there is no way to retaliate, because the chains were already on you. That is why even when the threat is not urgent, the size of the threat is the same and should be handled with appropriate precautions.
Think of it this way. The Australian gun control laws have succeeded in lowering mass shootings and gun crime massively. Returning the right to privacy for all citizens will make it very difficult for a dictator to control a population. After all, information on the populace is the first thing an aspiring dictator seeks.
That’s why I tape my webcam.
Some extra reading/viewing
‘I’ve Got Nothing to Hide’ and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy
