If my previous post has tripped your interest then please allow me to direct you attention to a site where further information on the subjet can be found:
www.kiasworld.co.uk
I have added the site to the list of sites on the right hand side so it’s easy to find should you want to look at it at anytime……
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I have just started reading the second book in they Fourth Realm Trilogy by John Twelve Hawks, as some of you may or may not know the narative tackles the subjects of personal freedom in the modern electronic age. So far the second book (The Dark River) is as good as the first, which I really enjoyed and it gave me plenty of food for thought.
It is an interesting subject that I have mixed feelings about.
On one hand I undestand the need for the security of our society and the protection of democracy that our fore-fathers thought valiantly to defend but I also value my personal freedom and do think there is a very fine line between protecting society and oppressing the people within it. We as a people need to be less apathetic about the way in which the data about us is used. Now I’m not for an instance saying that we should all suddenly trying to live of the grid, for many people this is impossible in this modern age and would mean depriving yourself of modern medical care for instance. But what we could all do is this, consider all the different companys (as well as the goverment) that gather personal data on you, e.g. the supermarkets that you use loyalty cards with (Tescos, Sainsburys), the travel company that you have a pass with (e.g. the Oyster card in London), the web sites you provide information to for discounts, the search engine you use that compiles the results of your searches, the banks and credit agencies that swap information about you.
Now what you then need to consider about these bodies is this – what do they do with your information? Then think about how complete a picture someone could make up of your life with all this information if they gathered it in one place? When you do I think it will atleast make you stop what you are doing for a moment.
We need to think a bit more about what happens to our information, how long it is kept for and how freely available to other parties it is (after all, in most cases, the unsolicited junkmail that comes through your door every morning arrives because a company that has your information has sold your address details to a third party for a fee).
There are situations that information needs to be swapped between agencies (particularly in government/police/health care situations) and this should be done in a way that enables those parties to do what they need to do in an more effective way, but I think we need to always remember that whilst this technology can be and is used for good, in the wrong hands it is a frightening tool – just think how much more effective Hitler’s holocaust would have been with modern IT!
What alot of this boils down to is apathy – something I can be as guilty of as the next man. If we do not start engaging more in our own political process, exercising our democratic rights and taking a role in shaping our own future we are going to end up at the mercy of those who persue their own agenda’s in our name. It is ok when the system is on your side, but one day it may not be and that is something worth thinking about.
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