Privacy Issues and The Dark Knight

After mulling it over a while, I have upgraded my opinions about the new Batman flick featuring the Dark Knight and the Joker. I can’t change my rating at IMDB, but I did modify my blog review, from an 8 to a 9 on the Richter scale.

Reality is, though initially critical about a few small things, the big questions it raised still loom large, knocking about against the walls of my wooden skull. The film touches on some important issues related to belief systems, good and evil, and the nature of how power should be used.

In this fictional construct, Bruce Wayne / Batman crosses a line in regards to the invasion of privacy. The technology may be fictional, but the realities are not.

Today I read an article about how Google wishes to photograph every front door in England, the aim of which is to be able to show people not only an aerial view of every place, but also what it is like to walk down the street anywhere and everywhere. Many people feel uneasy or even disturbed by this.

Objections include this one. It gives criminals a great tool for scoping out your place so they can plan getaway routes. And some people simply do not want a camera in their yard.

Cities all over the world have embraced the eye in the sky network of cameras, in the name of “security.” For the sake of personal peace and security, people will give up freedoms. But how much freedom do we put on the altar of security?

We have by now all heard stories of people whose computers were raided by “the authorities” for containing child porn or other illegally downloaded content. The most vivid story that comes to mind is a police raid in which a man had been downloading child porn. They show up and find he is not home. The wife is very cooperative, and offers his computer. They say, “We don’t need it. We already took all the evidence before we came.”

That’s a bit scary to me. What else can these legal, professional hackers steal from us without our permission?

And so Batman takes this new technology, the ability to “see” via peoples’ cell phones, and uses it to locate his arch nemesis The Joker. His purpose is admirable: save innocent lives. His assistant, Lucius Fox as the voice of conscience (Morgan Freeman) is repulsed by the idea, though not so repulsed as to fail to carry out the request. It’s an ugly business this law and order stuff.

And one wonders how much invasion of privacy is taking place today in our society, carried out by people “following orders” who are equally repulsed. Morgan Freeman says he will do it this once and then resign. How many others are there who resign rather than carry on clandestine surveillance?

Here’s yet another story that highlights grey areas of the privacy problem. Currently the state of Pennsylvania’s Auditor General Jack Wagner wants to put GPS units on the ankles of sex offenders in that state. It has been learned that nearly ten thousand registered sex offenders in Pennsy alone have disappeared and are unaccounted for.

A few years back I wrote about the thousands of Wisconsin sex offenders that likewise disappeared, escaped, were “out there somewhere”… predators. Isn’t this what our parents and grandparents were really trying to warn us about when they told us about the bogeyman? The bugger man gonna get you, chile. Stay away from the dark.

And so we have terrorists and sex offenders, and all manner of vile dangers to make us afraid. People dislike being afraid, so they make a trade-off. Yes, I will give up some of my freedom if you'll watch over me, Big Brother. Please help so I can sleep tonight.

But what if our government is not quite as benevolent as our favorite comic book hero? Where do we draw the line in how freely we should allow Big Brother to monitor all our activities?

Currently there is a case in court in which Viacom is fighting Google for the right to have access to all websites Google users have visited. The purpose is to bust people who illegally borrow (steal) Viacom images and video content. Theoretically this sounds noble, but how secure will that database be if or when it gets into the wrong hands? My alma mater's database was hacked so that all my personal info was taken. A year later my personal info was stolen in another dBase theft from a broker I’d ceased doing business with twelve years ago. And more than one bank has been similarly hacked. If Viacom wins, will that info be safe or pilfered for profit on the black market.

Alas, the future remains unwrit. But there are legitimate causes for concern.