Cody Rueda
CS 3043 Chapter 6 Connection
Anon’s universe and our universe is very different when looking at government privacy. In Anon, the government has access to the entire population’s memories and experiences. If the government is looking for something they will find it. This is due to the Mind’s Eye technology that lets them see with augmented reality viewing. Anyone they look at they can see the name, occupation, and age of. They can also see their entire life experiences if they login to the Ether. All of these fall into categories laid out in the book.
In chapter 6 of Ethics for The Information Age, Michael Quinn uses the four categories introduced by Daniel Solove to talk about privacy [1]. These include information collection, information processing, information dissemination, and invasion. We see information collection through the Mind’s Eye. When Sal looks at people in public, he can immediately know an extensive amount of information about an individual. The information is presumed to be gathered by that own individual’s Mind Eye and stored on the Ether. The Ether is where the information processing happens. Everyone has their own profile with their entire life seen through their eyes on it. Information dissemination deals with the spread of information. In Anon the Ether is a cloud-based system, so anyone with access can see all the information available. Finally, there is invasion, which would happen when the government does things that could affect people’s way of thinking or invade their privacy. In Anon however, they have no privacy from the government because this invasion happens constantly.
The U.S. has multiple databases that contain millions of records. One of these mentioned in the book is the FBI National Crime Information Center which contains information about missing people, missing weapons, stolen automobiles, wanted persons, and much more. This information is used to connect criminals to crimes. In Anon, their database is also mainly displayed to solve crimes. They can look at the point of view of a witness, the criminal, or a victim and determine who was at fault. They can also use it to see what happened leading up to and after a crime. However, in both the NCIC and the Ether people with access to the databases have used it illegally.
Michael Quinn mentions the increase in Closed Circuit Television Cameras. There have been many more cameras installed in public places and in Great Britain, there are 4.2 million security cameras enough for one camera per 14 people [1]. This has not stopped crime and led many experts to believe the cameras were not effective at stopping crime. In Anon we see multiple crimes being committed even with each person being equipped with something equivalent to a camera.
Quinn, M. J. (2012). Ethics for the information age. Pearson Prentice Hall.