Juvaria,
I enjoyed your paper. Your educational solution to the loss of autonomy problem is right on the money. The example of people who say that they “have nothing to hide and therefore are unconcerned that their information is being monitored and tracked every time they search on Google or buy something on Amazon” is quite telling and is indicative of the major problem in this area. I lived in England over the summer and witnessed a similar mindset. The vast majority of people that I talked to did not seem to care that they were constantly being videotaped from every angle by a web of CCTV cameras (see my paper). The prevailing thought was, “I’m not doing anything wrong, so why should I care?” In my opinion, ignorance of the consequences of the loss of autonomy and privacy is the main reason why it is occurring all over the world—and education is the best solution.
I like your constitutional argument. Unfortunately, it seems extremely unlikely that any legislation forbidding the tracking of consumer information will come about any time soon.
-- ScottMcKinney - 02 Dec 2009
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