Janna Malamud Smith

Fear and technology have conspired in ways that threaten even our ‘hearts and minds’ with surveillance. America’s democratic values rest largely on the pillar of privacy protection. Yet today, the historic coincidence of post-9/11 terrorist fears and remarkable technological advances in the area of security and data gathering threaten to undermine that privacy pillar.

Privacy is a precious, fragile concept. In the right measure, it shields and nurtures humanity; it enables the development of “the self,” the emboldened human creature with a distinctive voice and talents. However, life is never simple. Some have the potential to exploit privacy by using it to shield secret antisocial or illegal things they do.

Terrorism has complicated matters. Or, to put it more precisely, terrorist attacks in our highly mobile, anonymous, heterogeneous, technologically sophisticated society have tipped our current privacy balance in worrisome ways. The 9/11 attacks frightened Americans and made them warier of strangers. Humans, to survive, are wired with stranger anxiety; all of us wonder how much to trust someone we don’t know well. A fundamental human question, perhaps ‘the’ question, is whether a stranger will do us harm. Frankly, we can’t distinguish terrorists from anyone else on sight.

Americans, loving technology as they do, have responded to their elevated fear with machines that reduce privacy in the hope of creating safety through omniscience. Not all of this technology is new — but the 9/11-inspired acceleration of its development and availability is new. Fingerprint, face, and iris recognition scanners are being rushed into service. Citizens are being encouraged to report on their neighbors. Researchers at MIT are working on brain scans that potentially might be able to ‘see’ when you’re lying.

Defense contractors have manufactured machines that ‘see’ through thick concrete walls. Entrepreneurs are developing electronic chips you can implant in your children so you’ll always ‘see’ where they are. And private companies and government agencies are collecting endless gigabytes of data on diverse aspects of citizens’ health, finances, and habits.

Ingenuity and fear seem to be spinning into an alliance that is altering the world faster than can be grasped, much less assessed. Will machines and antiterrorist efforts protect us, or will they lead to an unintended “virtual” totalitarianism where everyone feels watched all the time? Are there risks worth taking to protect liberty? Or will the collective need to feel safer through more surveillance crush freedom? These profound questions deserve careful attention. Vigorous oversight and “privacy impact” reviews of new antiterrorist laws, devices, and practices are essential.

In policy and practice, the US government needs to enforce more concretely America’s collective commitment to privacy. Alleviating post-9/11 fear should include allocating fewer resources to buying unproven machines and private data, and more to funding watchdog agencies that keep abreast of the collective surveillance “cost” to our country. Crisis offers America the opportunity to recommit to a fundamental democratic value. Let’s not let fear stop us. The Christian Science Monitor