Brain Fertilizer

Not Americans, I guess. Well, not Americans who are being honest about their opinions, Americans who aren't trying to trump up minor issues to score major political points...

Various people say accusations that Patriot Act is a "Threat to Liberty" are overhyped nonsense. Here's a more specific defense.

Fair enough. You can agree or not.

But some indications that people really don't care that much about privacy can be found every time you turn on your TV. Yep, at least two major credit cards have made entire advertising campaigns around the idea that they will pay attention to your purchases and contact you if it seems out of character. One of the paid-actor-fake-examples is a rotund middle-aged man who is pleased that his credit card company knew that he was too overweight to have actually purchased surfboarding equipment.

And GM's OnStar system is about as intrusive as you can imagine. At least some people are raising some questions about that, in that I read an article last week that pointed out something to the effect of, "People want their stolen cars found by GPS, but don't want anyone to know they spent 5 hours at the local strip club."

Technology is creating a corporate Big Brother far more insidious than George Orwell ever thought. For instance, cell phone companies had been trying to figure out how to more precisely locate cell phone users, ostensibly to aid in locating 9-11 calls, but in actuality to help them plan transmitter/receiver construction more appropriately. I just got a cell phone again last month after a 2-year gap, and imagine my surprise to read the user's manual and find that the little symbol in the icon bar means that my location has been identified...and its a "constant-on" system.

I'm sometimes ridiculed for my "If you live an honorable life, you don't need to worry so much about privacy" attitude, and sometimes applauded. It seems to me that the people who think I'm being excessively naive need to confront their naivete (naivety? naiveness?) regarding the impossibility of retaining privacy in our increasingly electronic, increasingly monitored, increasingly interconnected world. The irony is that we pay companies to invade our privacy, much like giving free advertising to multibillion dollar clothes companies like Abercrombie and Fitch while paying for them for the privilege.....