{"id":21019,"date":"2015-03-24T05:45:49","date_gmt":"2015-03-24T09:45:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=21019"},"modified":"2015-03-23T19:54:48","modified_gmt":"2015-03-23T23:54:48","slug":"from-big-brother-to-lots-of-little-brothers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2015\/03\/from-big-brother-to-lots-of-little-brothers\/","title":{"rendered":"From Big Brother to lots of Little Brothers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

A review of two books on what today\u2019s technology does to privacy quotes a useful metaphor from one of the authors<\/a>.\u00a0 George Orwell warned against \u201cBig Brother,\u201d an all-knowing government that wants to track your every move.\u00a0 Today the bigger threat is from lots of \u201cLittle Brothers,\u201d a multitude of corporations, companies, and online mechanisms that want to track your every move.<\/p>\n

From Emily Parker, Two books look at how modern technology ruins privacy \u2013 The Washington Post<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u2018Even the East Germans couldn\u2019t follow everybody all the time,\u201d Bruce Schneier writes. \u201cNow it\u2019s easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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This may sound hyperbolic, but Schneier\u2019s lucid and compelling \u201cData and Goliath\u201d is free of the hysteria that often accompanies discussions about surveillance. Yes, our current location, purchases, reading history, driving speed and Internet use are being tracked and recorded. But Schneier\u2019s book, which focuses mainly on the United States, is not a rant against the usual bad guys such as the U.S. government or Facebook. Schneier describes how our data is tracked by both corporate and government entities, often working together. And in many cases, the American people allow them to do it.<\/p>\n

Ordinary citizens may not like giving their personal information to the government, but they will hand it over to corporations. \u201cIf the country\u2019s spies demanded copies of all our conversations and correspondence, people would refuse,\u201d Schneier observes. \u201cYet we provide copies to our e-mail service providers, our cell phone companies, our social networking platforms, and our Internet service providers.\u201d In other words, the same people who are furious about National Security Agency spying might be perfectly willing to sign commercial terms of service without even reading them.<\/p>\n

It was actually the corporate world that built a \u201cmassive Internet eavesdropping system,\u201d Schneier notes, and the NSA just tapped into it. This is not to say that he lets the NSA off the hook. He is very critical of the agency for overreach and excessive secrecy. Yet even if pre-Snowden America was not aware of the extent of NSA surveillance, there was still an element of public buy-in. After 9\/11, the NSA pretty much had carte blanche to do whatever it took to protect the nation from future terrorist attacks, with some people accepting mass surveillance as necessary for keeping the country safe.<\/p>\n

[Keep reading. . .]<\/a><\/p>\n