We need to protect our right to privacy

Information in all its forms can be described quite accurately as a form of power. It can be photographic evidence of a politician’s corruption or files proving insider trading by a major financial corporation.

Most people would agree that the use of such information in the cited cases is both valid and reasonable, as it serves the public interest. More and more however, the public and private spheres are being melded into one and as a result, the privacy of everybody is at risk.
The arrival of Google Street View in Ireland has been heralded in the media as a great move forward for the nation. Certainly, it will make navigation a much simpler task but it raises very serious questions about privacy. Its release on the internet made two immediate stars of two young men from Dublin who used the passing of the van-mounted camera to expose their buttocks in the name of hilarity. No doubt they got many hours of enjoyment out of the stunt and became mini legends in their circle of friends in the aftermath. Since the site went live however, their image has been emailed all over the world and posted to thousands of social media accounts. Their youthful prank has been captured for posterity and will likely never be erased. Although they are difficult to identify in the snap, it will not be difficult to identify them with some digging. They could have done their future career prospects untold damage given the trend of social network investigation undertaken on a regular basis by potential employers. Something in this feels a little unfair.
It is generally agreed by most people that youth can lead a person to engage, every now and then, in practices that they might not if they were blessed with the benefit of hindsight or ‘mature recollection’ as it is sometimes referred. A trial-and-error approach to life can often build well-rounded adults with all the necessary life skills to thrive in the modern world. The explosion in smart phones with inbuilt video-capture devices and cameras has put a new slant on this reality.
A friend sent me a video clip last week that illustrated this point very well. It was taken on the fake holiday ‘Arthur’s Day’ and showed two young men in Temple Bar in a state of wild inebriation. They were surrounded by a baying crowd who showered them with drinks as they cavorted naked in the street. Given the number of people in the crowd, I can say with great certainty, that the clip I saw was not the only one committed to digital history.
It would be easy at this point to tut loudly and say that the young men had no business getting that drunk in the first place and that the crowd should have only drank responsibly, as the Government decrees, and admonished them for carrying on in the street. To take this attitude is to ignore a powerful force – culture. This culture exists in Ireland and worldwide and trying to suggest it shouldn’t is an exercise in folly.
The major problem for these young men and others caught in similar situations is that their culture is clashing with that of the planet’s older generation and also the puritan elements who hold sway all over the world. Is it really fair that one drunken indiscretion in the flushes of youth might forever ruin a life? I would argue that it is not.
Not only those who engage in ludicrous stunts are potential victims of the omnipresent digital eyes. The next time you visit Britain you may not need to send home a postcard or share snaps upon your return home for friends and family in Ireland to know where you have been. A new company called Internet Eyes has just been launched in Britain. The company will charge businesses to have their CCTV feeds monitored online by regular internet users. If these ordinary users spot a crime in one of the five premises they are watching they can press a button to alert the business owner. They will receive £1,000 every time they spot a crime and alert the proprietor. The cameras will be in Britain but users all over the EU can log on and be observers and potential earners. If you enter one of the premises being observed, you may well be watched by an internet user in their home anywhere in the EU. Civil liberties groups in Britain have expressed their concern at the development and the Information Commissioner’s Office is observing the case.
While our images constantly beingrecorded on CCTV may be accepted by most as an uncomfortable fact of life, a more sinister case recently surfaced in the United States. After allegedly being secretly recorded engaging in a homosexual fling by his roommate, Tyler Clementi, described as a ‘gifted violinist’, threw himself to his death from a bridge. His roommate and another student are accused of streaming the video footage, publically outing him as a homosexual in the most horrific and brutal way imaginable. The roommate and student have been charged by police in relation to the case.
However cruel and repulsive the action of placing such footage on the internet is to most people, in many cases, through ignorance or lack of forethought, it would be seen as a prank. Here is a perfect example of the gap that exists between societal understanding of the power of our new technology. I am far from a Luddite when it comes to modern technology but I am growing increasingly concerned that our attitudes and acceptable norms must begin to catch up very quickly before the gap between reality and perceived social norms becomes too wide. If, as a society we have been willing to accept that youthful indiscretions occur, we must now accept that, in many cases, these will now come with video evidence. If, as appears to have happened in the case of Tyler Clementi, a crime against the person has taken place, then prosecutions must be brought.
Privacy, as we traditionally viewed and understood it, no longer exists so we must adapt our thinking and our attitudes accordingly to cope with our wonderful and dangerous new technology.