A Midnight of Lost Privacy

What's happening to America? We are fast approaching a total surveillance society - a "midnight" of lost privacy. And it's only six minutes before the hour.

How is this happening? First there's the technology. We've got RFID tags, biometrics, DNA, data mining, surveillance cameras -- even spy satellites trained on Americans. We're all living our lives more and more electronically, making everyone easier and easier to track -- and our security agencies aren't being shy about taking advantage of the fact.

About the only thing happening faster than the development of technology for spying on people is the speed with which our privacy laws have been dismantled in the past seven years.

Add to that the "war on terror" -- a permanent, standing justification for every intrusive power grab our security agencies can dream up -- a president who claims "inherent authority" to ignore the law, and big corporations that are happy to be part of a new surveillance industrial complex -- and it all adds up to a pretty pretty ominous situation.

At the ACLU we're doing what we can to scream and moan about this. It's hard, because the media likes to pay attention to the latest sexy gadget or spy story -- but they rarely step back to look at the big picture of how all these trends are working together to bring about a genuine shift in American life.

One of the things we're doing to dramatize this situation is introducing a "Surveillance Clock" -- a graphical dramatization of just how close we are getting to the midnight of a true surveillance society.

Americans above a certain age probably remember the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists' "Doomsday Clock." Created in 1947 and used throughout the Cold War, the Doomsday Clock dramatized the threat of nuclear war by moving its hands closer or further away from "midnight" as the threat of nuclear war with the Soviets ebbed and flowed.

Thankfully, the Doomsday clock never reached midnight.

These days we have new worries. On our Surveillance Clock, the time is 11:54. And the seconds are blinking by.

Along with the clock, we've also released a couple of other items:

* A new report, "Even Bigger, Even Weaker: The Emerging Suveillance Society: Where are We Now?" This is an update to a previous ACLU report, "Bigger Monster, Weaker Chains, which we released in 2003 and which attracted a huge amount of attention at the time. In that report, we basically said, "hey everybody, we're now at the point where a total surveillance society is technologically possible - and we don't seem to be doing very well at controlling that technology by strengthening our laws - in fact we're weakening them."

* A video of "Monster Among Us," a new piece written and performed by the talented spoken-word artists Steve Connell & Sekou (tha misfit). The piece is another way we're trying to dramatize the growing surveillance society, especially for a youth audience.

* A timeline of surveillance technologies and policies, which shows just how fast the development of such technologies has accelerated in recent years. We are also inviting visitors to help us fill out the timeline by contributing items we have missed.

Our news culture is definitely built around the headline -- the sudden and the sexy. As fast as we're headed toward a surveillance society, it's not something that happens in one tragic moment that takes over cable television for three days. But it's no less real, and amounts to massive shift in power between individuals and the security agencies. Whether the ACLU and our allies who are concerned about this trend can succeed in breaking through the din, will have to be seen. But we're trying.

Comments

[RumiSouth]

Let me add to your timeline: the Omnibus Telecom Bill of 1996, which (among other things) mandated direction-finding equipment be added to new cellphone service towers, with old ones to be retrofit. Ostensibly for the purpose of locating pretty white women in cell-phone distress, it was actually intended by the FBI and NSA for use in tracking people by their cell phone signals. And now the manufacturers are going to include chips that signal the tower even when the phone is OFF.

Also, the arrival of OnStar, which is a privacy nightmare. The operator is able to turn on the microphone at ANY TIME and record your conversations in the vehicle, track your location, and record your destinations. All in the name of saving innocent families from rain-soaked picnics.

[RobertPaul]

Thank you ALCU!

One of the things that I have yet to understand is that since 9/11 we have learned that the attack was preventable.

What stopped it from being stopped was the incompetence of the CIA, FBI and the Bush administration.

Several excellent article and documentaries have proven this, yet instead of improving communication and taking terrorists more seriously, the Gov't has decided to strip the liberties once guaranteed to US Citizens.

It's enough to make anyone paranoid and, frankly, I think it's about as un-American as can be.

But then there is very little that BushCo does that I agree with...let alone approve of.

May you always be there speaking for us!

[JimLarkin]

i did not request to be born in america justto have to suffer these indignities. ABAS LE BUSH

[tgood]

You mean the ACLU has time for things other than running from city to city demanding rights for illegal aliens ? I'm shocked.

[wagonjak]

Hey you clueless, morally-deficient trolls AlwaysAmused and tgood. The ACLU is trying to defend the rights of the individual against an over-intrusive Government...something I thought you right wingers were angry and worried about!

This Administration is totally destroying human rights in this country and you pathetic Bush humpers will be the first to whine and moan about it when you realize the extent of it, not admitting your complicity in it!

Bless and ACLU and Long May They Run!

[AlwaysAmused]

I would rather they support our right to defend our rights ourselves.


As to the destruction of Human rights by the Bush administration there were far worse violations of civil liberties under clinton but since they were liberal approved noone cared.

[AlwaysAmused]

You really worried about the gov taking liberties?
Then screw the ALCU and use the one right they dont endorse. The right to bear arms. The reason it is, and always has been an "individual right" is because of something the founding fathers understood that the ACLU never has, namely a people robbed of the right to go out and buy weapons have no abillity to revolt, and a people without that abillity to are not feared by the government.

As much as they " scream and moan" about the loss of rights, they never actually support the one right that ensures we the people can actually do something about it.

[dadw5boys]

OVERTHROWING OUR GOVERNMENT IS NOT AN OPTION AT PRESENT.

[AlwaysAmused]

Im not saying we have either the justification or need to do so as yet. I dont believe we do. However revolt is like the use of force or nukes, while not by any means a first tier, or even mid tier option, it should always be on the table.

[RebelPatriot]

When it does become an option, it may be too late. If anything, the lessons of Iraq has provided clear direction on how to stop an occupying force with nothing more than small arms, explosives, and enough willpower. Of course there would hypothetically be heavy casualties, but Jefferson did say the tree of Liberty would have to be watered with the blood of both tyrant and patriot.

[unhipcat]

What? The Founding Fathers wanted to us have weapons so we could overthrow the government they were in the process of establishing. I thought it had something to do with a "well-regulated militia." Thanks for clearing that up, AA.

[ADunafraid]

I have never been so confused with our government as I am right now. At the same time that they seem to be completely incompetent (9-11, Iraq, Katrina, etc.)they also are this close to being able to monitor anyones moves/conversations.

[cynara]

And yet, they monitor us with complete incompetence, since their efforts have never resulted in catching a single terrorist. Sad, very sad...

[bethinCary]

I had written a college paper on this a few years ago-saying that everyone in college should be getting an undergrad law degree becasue of where our society is headed.
I was thinking the other day-that technology can work for us too though. Consumers should be able to buy devices for thier cars or homes-to place inside-in the event of illegal arrests, police brutality...Protestors, antiwar marches...should be taking as much pics of the events and live broadcast them on the nets. This is a way to fight back against invasion of privacy-if that power is abused or usurped.

[wagonjak]

Unfortunately the media either totally ignored the anti-war marches in DC this last weekend, or if they did have a small article or spot on it equated the anti-war marches with the pro-war crowd...never mentioning that the former was 100,000 strong and the latter about a thousand weak!

[Desiderata]

When a government views it's citizens as nothing more than herds of consumer/cattle, so branded as property of the New World Order, then that government commits no violation of privacy since cattle have no Constitutional rights.

[eplatypusunum]

I'm so liberal I would make Jimmy Carter blush. But I'm so bitter and disillusioned that I can't even taste sugar anymore...
We ARE cattle to our rulers. Specifically, dairy cows. We are, collectively, a vast teat to be tapped and nothing more. Cattle, ruled by pigs...
Get used to it or get ready to change it because we're about two steps away from Soylent Green here...

e.p.u.

[RadicalRepublican]

Privacy has already turned into a pumpkin.

I am a card-carrying member of the ACLU because of work like this being done to re-secure freedoms for us citizens. This is a rare time when I think the clock needs to be turned back.

Respectfully,
mike