Government

This week was concerned with the development of government alongside our information technologies. Particularly, how our reliance on software and its integration into everyday life has the potential to be manipulated by those in power.

Morozov (2013) envisaged Google glass as being a key component in this development. He suggests that as it becomes more popular and the software surrounding it becomes more advanced, governing bodies will be able to monitor our physical behaviour and impose penalties on infringements from afar. Certainly there has been much discussion about the concept of the ‘nanny state’ in Australia. Proposals to monitor and block access to certain Internet sites has sparked debate over the extent to which our government has the right to do so. Traditional litigation and government legislation has not yet caught up with the modern definitions of privacy and the extent to which information submitted online still constitutes our personal sphere.

Solove (2013) offers a further insight into how this invasion is going to be executed. While officially only the NSA in America has admitted to monitoring metadata from its citizens, it’s probably reasonable to assume many governments follow this model and so Solove’s commentary remains relevant. Singular parcels of metadata in themselves offer a limited insight into our personal interactions. However, when these are stitched together across our media use and across media platforms a more holistic image is given of how we use media and who we interact with. This is where Solove identified an invasion of privacy. We are not protected against this kind of abstractional invasion of our computer use nor is the current government framework legislated against it.

The question then emerges: will we evolve a new framework of governance, which not only acknowledges but also actually relies upon the digital? Many a sci-fi movie has predicted it with catastrophic invasions of privacy and oppression but as the reality emerges the shift may be more gradual. Already many traditionally ‘western’ countries associated with democracy are capitalising on this new territory before legislation can impede them. The monitoring of computer use in particular offers a platform for control and Intel into the public that has not before been seen. It is an immediate and responsive gauge for social unrest and the proliferation of ‘anti-government’ ideologies that can be accessed on a broad scale by governing bodies.

Looking slightly away from this, perhaps the new form of governing will actually emerge from the companies that control information technologies. We can already see that Facebook and Google have a tremendous store of ‘marketing’ information that forms a comprehensive expression of social media use. Their exploitation of this to capitalise on personal information may become the currency of the future and an expression of power in the new digital framework.

Morozov, E. (2013) ‘The Real Privacy Problem’ Available online:http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/520426/the-real-privacy-problem/ 

Solove, D. (2013) ‘Why Metadata Matters: The NSA and the Future of Privacy’ Available online: http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20131125092647-2259773-why-metadata-matters-the-nsa-and-the-future-of-privacy