Creating a Culture of Privacy
A group of coders walk out of their office and huddle against a wall in the car park, to discuss something secret.
What is the great and important plot they are discussing? It was software test results. Work place spying had become so bad, that the environment was toxic. The simple software development life cycle had become a game of political one up-man ship. Too many bugs, in a development cycle could lead to heads rolling. The problem exacerbated, because IT staff were on short notice contracts, therefore they could be replaced, quickly and easily. In a country suffering from recession, there was no shortage of replacements for anybody who was let go.
In the same place, an employee confided in a friend, that she hated the environment in the project, only to find that, her manager knew and was offended. There were many people who would be happy and grateful to have jobs in a time of recession. The project, in the meantime, was moving at a snails pace and beset by problems, partly because staff could not raise issues without it becoming a “political” trap.
Whatever your political persuasion, the question that needs to be asked is, Is this status good for social cohesion, or for a company, whether profit seeking or not for profit. Is it good for a country or a government? The answer to all these, I hope is, No. It will most likely lead to strength being sapped. Maybe it is possible to make short term gains, but long term, everybody will learn to play the same tricks.
This involuntary accumulation of parts of our lives, is not just enabled by the big corporation or NSA, type state driven spying. It is also driven by, the easy access of surveillance and forensic tools, that allow others to get in on the action. Software to hack facebook feeds and text messaging, minuscule cameras and listening devices advertised in shop windows etc etc etc.
There is no technical solution to all the methods of surveillance today, and how widely they are distributed. However there could be a social, moral and customary solution that could be built, in work, among friends and in our communities. We can shun, the people who break the rules of privacy, at an individual level. Because we believe that it is something, that every human should have a right to.
This is because we need to blow off steam, talk through our problems, and come to solutions, sometimes changing our minds in the course of the conversation. Once we have worked through our emotions, we then step out of our “private world” and give feedback, where it applies. _________________________________________________
Apples and Oranges: http://artforum.com/diary/#entry58416
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/is-your-boss-spying-on-you-9203169.html
Creepy Portraits made with even creepier surveillance technology http://www.wired.com/2016/02/adam-broomberg-oliver-chanarin-spirit-is-a-bone/?mbid=social_twitter
https://www.facebook.com/bbctechtent/videos/498568660348354/
Spy app, do you ever feel like you are being spied on
