If you haven't done anything wrong....
Jul. 21st, 2011 01:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
milktree"... you have nothing to fear"
I can't remember a time when that phrase didn't rub me the wrong way. To me it's so overwhelmingly obviously a dangerous sentiment I've had lots of trouble articulating what's so wrong about it.
Today on On Point the subject was the modern, high tech devices and techniques used for biometric identification being issued to some law enforcement agencies (including some local police forces) They include small (ish) hand held retina and iris scanners, face recognition software, etc. There were the obligatory references to 1984 and Minority Report.
One of the callers used the phrase, "if you haven't done anything wrong, what's the problem?" She really didn't see the problem. To her it was all pickles and free beer. "It'll help catch bad guys!" and the like.
The danger of such trite statements is that they're so seductive. Yes, we all want to catch bad guys. I'm not a bad guy, and I'm not doing anything wrong, so it'll never affect me; I have nothing to fear.
But... here's the problem. You don't get to decide what "wrong" is. You probably don't even get to know what wrong is. If you're exceptionally lucky, you might get to vote for or against someone who does.
The people who decide what "wrong" means are not your friends, they're not your family, they're not even your elected officials. They might not even be following the law. They're people who's livelihood depends on making arrests and getting convictions. They're people who can advance their own position (professionally, politically, financially, whatever) by making you into a "bad person."
They're not out to get you specifically, but they do have a motivation to catch you doing something, even if that something isn't illegal and doesn't harm anyone, including yourself.
Maybe they get to keep their jobs, maybe they get a raise or a bonus, maybe they're trying to make society safe and you look like a threat to their poorly programed databases and algorithms. Or maybe they want to buy the entire block you live on, but you won't sell, so they use surveillance data to make you a "suspicious character" and use that determination to make your life hell.
I can't remember a time when that phrase didn't rub me the wrong way. To me it's so overwhelmingly obviously a dangerous sentiment I've had lots of trouble articulating what's so wrong about it.
Today on On Point the subject was the modern, high tech devices and techniques used for biometric identification being issued to some law enforcement agencies (including some local police forces) They include small (ish) hand held retina and iris scanners, face recognition software, etc. There were the obligatory references to 1984 and Minority Report.
One of the callers used the phrase, "if you haven't done anything wrong, what's the problem?" She really didn't see the problem. To her it was all pickles and free beer. "It'll help catch bad guys!" and the like.
The danger of such trite statements is that they're so seductive. Yes, we all want to catch bad guys. I'm not a bad guy, and I'm not doing anything wrong, so it'll never affect me; I have nothing to fear.
But... here's the problem. You don't get to decide what "wrong" is. You probably don't even get to know what wrong is. If you're exceptionally lucky, you might get to vote for or against someone who does.
The people who decide what "wrong" means are not your friends, they're not your family, they're not even your elected officials. They might not even be following the law. They're people who's livelihood depends on making arrests and getting convictions. They're people who can advance their own position (professionally, politically, financially, whatever) by making you into a "bad person."
They're not out to get you specifically, but they do have a motivation to catch you doing something, even if that something isn't illegal and doesn't harm anyone, including yourself.
Maybe they get to keep their jobs, maybe they get a raise or a bonus, maybe they're trying to make society safe and you look like a threat to their poorly programed databases and algorithms. Or maybe they want to buy the entire block you live on, but you won't sell, so they use surveillance data to make you a "suspicious character" and use that determination to make your life hell.
