Confederation of European Computer User Associations

Confédération Européenne des Associations d'Utilisateurs des Technologies de I'Information
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NEWS FLASH

Project I-Spy

 

CECUA Euro-news flash

Do I want to spy on my neighbours and do I want my neighbours to spy on me?
Can you mind your own business!

The Project I-Spy promised just that. Project I-Spy is a service offered on the Internet. And they are not short on promises: This special team of private investigators will show you how to quickly and easily use the power of the Internet to conduct a full fledging investigation ON ANYONE in under 15 minutes. Among other things promised: Get a copy of your FBI file, Check driving and criminal records, Check adoption records, Dig up information on your friends, neighbours, or boss, Find out how much alimony your neighbour is paying, etc.

Project I-Spy has made worst fears come true. The citizen's life is an open book and he or she has absolutely no way to stop it. Even if he has the money he can not stop it. There are no fancy gadgets he could buy to stop it. He is at the mercy of his staff, neighbours and friends. If they want to dig up something on him they can do it. 15 minutes is all it takes. This is even worse than described by George Orwell in his book 1984 - Big Brother Watching You. Now everybody is the Big Brother including neighbours and friends.

In connection with his appearance at the IS User Forum Conference in Stockholm Dr. Bangemann said that the best solution to protecting the rights of the citizen was by the technology itself. Security is best built into the technology. Dr. Bangemann obviously did not know about Project I-Spy. No technology can help here. In this case something more fundamental is needed. What could that be? Legislation? Dr. Bangemann has often explained that the process of introducing legislation is very slow. It takes a couple of years. And in the meantime I-Spy is watching you and me. What we need is a new paradigm: do not abuse the use of information technology, make good use of it but do not abuse it.

And the Bill of Rights pioneered by CECUA and partners is a good starting points. It lays down the basic rights and privileges the citizen of the human and global Information Society can expect to enjoy. The Bill of Rights focuses on the citizens by spelling out in non-technical terms his or her basic rights as a citizen of the Information Society. It uses common and plain language such as privacy, freedom of personal development, freedom of communication, etc. There are no fancy technological terms here. It is all plain vanilla. The message is quite clear.

The Bill of Rights provides the citizen with a "safety net" giving him the necessary support and assurance if he ever needs it. And with Project I-Spy around he certainly needs it. With the Bill of Rights generally accepted and in place the Project I-Spy is contained. There will always be exceptions. But as long as they remain exceptions it proves there is a rule and it works.

There is an on-going discussion about the Bill of Rights is on the web. All citizens are invited to participate and comment and exchange views with fellow citizens. The address is: www.cecua.org Participate and help us to bring the message home. Or if you have a better idea how to contain Internet spying please let us know, send us an e-mail and we will be delighted.