Today sees the launch of Big Brother 6 - but while you are watching the occupants of the Big Brother house, who is watching you?
From making a telephone call to sending an email, technology is increasingly being used to record data on our daily lives. A recent study by the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute stated that monitoring of all types has increased considerably since their previous survey in 2001.
The workplace is a prime example. In the US, 51% of companies use video monitoring of some type and 53% of companies employ smartcard technology. This gives businesses as detailed a view of their employees movements as the cameras which follow the contestants in the Big Brother house.
Communications are similarly policed, with 76% of employers monitoring their employees internet use and 55% reviewing and retaining email messages.
The study also illustrates that the monitoring is not without purpose. As a result of the data collected in the workplace, 25% of the companies surveyed have sacked employees for email misuse, with a further 26% up for eviction for misusing the internet.
Worryingly, it is not just in the workplace that Big Brother is watching you. Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) technology is on the increase in our phones and cars and technology is likely to be further adapted for monitoring purposes in the future.
The law has afforded some protection to individuals. The US has a long way to go in protecting data effectively but in the UK, the Data Protection Act 1998 offers some security from the eye in the sky. Other erosions of privacy have been prevented by different sources.
Two days ago a section of the Electronic Communications Act 2000 was repealed because no order had been made by the Secretary of State to bring it into force during the previous five years. This section gave the government the power to gain access to encrypted data, including the types of encryption used in emails.
Although the constant battle between the legitimate and necessary use of monitoring, and the privacy of individuals and businesses is likely to rage for some time to come, some argue that the danger of monitoring lies not in the acquisition of sensitive data but in what the data is used for. Of particular concern is its availability to third parties.
In the US, concern has arisen over the easy availability of personal data on the internet. A search on a site such as ZabaSearch.com can reveal a disturbing amount of confidential personal data, ranging from names and addresses to criminal records. In light of the growing concerns over identity theft, this should ring more than a few warning bells.
Closer investigation of the site seems that the identity theft problem is more widespread than earlier thought. An extensive search of ZabaSearch.com reveals one hundred and nine people living in the US under the name Elvis Presley. Seventeen of these claimed to be Elvis A Presley. Graceland had better watch out!
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