Submitted by LaurenMitchell on Wed, 2008-03-26 09:54
The ACLU is using this video to promote their campaign to collect signatures for a petition to stop a national ID and database program. The Real ID Act, passed by congress in 2005, would connect all state DMV databases into one interlinked database, “facilitating government tracking of Americans.”
Although the ACLU admits that we haven’t gotten to this point yet, they say that “we are fast approaching a surveillance society where every move, transaction and communication is recorded, compiled, and stored away to be examined and used by the authorities -- and even private corporations --whenever they want.” That last part--that companies will have access to this database--is very disturbing to me. The video plays upon that concern perfectly in giving a simple pizza restaurant access to all sorts of personal information about the customer.
There’s also a hint of a nanny state in that the customer’s health records can restrict what he’s able to buy. Considering how much of our lives happen electronically, it seems that “the system” depicted in the video is a real possibility. I think the bottom line here is that I just don’t want everyone knowing what size pants I’m buying.
Submitted by Brett Ommen on Wed, 2008-03-26 11:53.
From an information design standpoint, there's a really biting critiqe about the ways we value privacy issues. The computer interface pops up an alert window for health charges on the double meat pizza, an alert window for a local robbery, and an alert window for free tofu sticks. It's all valued the same graphically, and that's a common theme in prvacy discussions. People are more interested in saving spare change at the grocery store than they are about saving the few spaces where privacy is still protected. The video is excellent on so many counts, so thanks for the post.
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From an information design
From an information design standpoint, there's a really biting critiqe about the ways we value privacy issues. The computer interface pops up an alert window for health charges on the double meat pizza, an alert window for a local robbery, and an alert window for free tofu sticks. It's all valued the same graphically, and that's a common theme in prvacy discussions. People are more interested in saving spare change at the grocery store than they are about saving the few spaces where privacy is still protected. The video is excellent on so many counts, so thanks for the post.