Tom Regan
"Database Nation" -- Big Business, not Big Brother, greatest danger to privacy
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The sales clerk had technically not done anything illegal -- she just asked me for my SSN. If I had willingly given it to her, her company, part of a national chain, would have had access to scads of information about me that had nothing to do with computer modems, but that they might have been able to sell to some other business interest eager for details on my credit history, buying habits, etc.
It's just these kind of 'policies' that are at the heart of Simson Garfinkel's new book, "Database Nation: The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century." Garfinkel's book convincing argues that our privacy is under assault from a variety of sources, including government agencies, talented computer geek teenagers who might live next door (or in Timbuktu!), but most consistently from "capitalism, the free market, advanced technology, and the unbridled exchange of electronic information."
O'Reilly Books, the company publishing "Database Nation," compares it to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, the book that almost single-handedly started the environment movement in the 60s. Garfinkel is not quite the elegant writer that Carson was, but it's still not a bad comparison. While issues of privacy have been far more debated in this day and age then environmental concerns were in Carson's era (for instance, polls consistently show that the public does care very much about privacy, both online and off), Garfinkel's work is the first time a writer has decisively and persuasively marshaled all the information together to show how our right to privacy is under constant attack, often by people who claim to have our best interests at heart.
It's this emphasis on the role that capitalism and the freemarket play in diminishing our privacy that will upset the most people. But as Garfinkel writers, the evidence just can't be ignored. These days, advertisers, venture capitalists and marketers demand more and more personal information about customers before they'll advertise in media, or back a new start up, or invest in an established company. So, as in the above example, we're being asked for more and more personal information from corner stores, online retailers and mail-order firms, to name a few.
Sometimes that information is being gathered without our permission, as the recent Electronic Privacy Information Center report on online retailers' privacy practices showed. (Not a single firm in the top 100 online retailers had adequate privacy protection practices in place, and several dozens employed a type of ad that tracks your movements online even after you've left their site.)
But what I enjoyed the most about "Database Nation" was Garfinkel's ability to write about these privacy issues without ranting or raving. Instead, the picture he paints is clear, sharp and focused -- a wake-up call rather than a fire alarm. And unlike many authors who only point to problems without offering solutions, Garfinkel offers sound advice about alternatives to many privacy-damaging practices.
For instance, Garfinkel acknowledges the importance of protecting the public against increasingly irrational acts of terrorism. But he says this can be done without infringing on the rights of private citizens or casting a wide net of suspicion over an entire ethic or religious group. What is required, he writes, is careful planning about difficult issues -- something, unfortunately, most government or private organizations are willing to do.
But Garfinkels's most interesting, and probably most controversial thesis, is that government, rather than being the 'Big Brother' of 1984, is the best friend that the average citizen has in the fight to protect his privacy -- and that vigorous, muscular legislation, and not voluntary standards, is the best way to protect citizen's rights. It's an idea that bound to generate lots of interesting discussion.
Garfinkel's book comes at a good time -- many experts believe that privacy and security issues will ultimately dwarf the Y2K hysteria of the past two years. Database Nation gives us a way to both detect the privacy landmines that exist in our culture and ultimately disarm them.