But does it matter?
M.I.T. students profiled in this recent New York Times article don't seem to think so. In exchange for a free smartphone, the students have agreed to let researchers track how they use it, which includes the calls they make, the emails and text messages they send, as well as the music they listen to.
Is this, as the article suggests, creating "an Orwellian future on a level Big Brother could only dream of"? Or is it, as the students suggest, not a big deal, since so much information about nearly everyone is already available online?
Monday, December 1, 2008
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2 comments:
I read your list of priorities for Obama.
Almost nothing there about the fact that the US has more prisoners than any other country.
So the few in Guantanomo is a top priotity for the ACLU, but not the prisons of America, where so many are really tortured by being put into total isolation for years, or even decades. And most of them because of the War on Drugs and the huge increase because of it.
Yet all you have about it is reducing penalties for crack vs cocaine and once again supporting the rights of the few using marijuana for medical reasons.
Again I'm revolted and disgusted.
Marcia, that's a very good point. We sometimes forget to stress the connection between the prisons we run abroad and the huge problems in our own prisons inside the United States. The Supermax prisons and the increasing use of isolation are especially worrisome. The ACLU has a very well-established and very active National Prison Project, where we are working on these issues. There is information about our current cases at http://www.aclu.org/prison/index.html. We work on so many issues that we couldn't possibly list them all as "priorities" but please be assured that this important work will continue.
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