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Siva on Privacy and ‘the Nonopticon’
Siva Vaidhyanathan has an exceptionally good article about privacy in the current The Chronicle of Higher Education.
- Naked in the 'Nonopticon', Surveillance and marketing combine to strip away our privacy By Siva Vaidhyanathan, The Chronicle of Higher Education, "The Chronicle Review" Volume 54, Issue 23, Page B7, (February 15, 2008). [no subscription requred]
"The Nonopticon" is a state of being watched without knowing that you are being watched or at least not knowing the extent to which you are being watched. Reviewing the book Privacy in Peril by sociologist James B. Rule, he says:
Every incentive in a market economy pushes companies to collect more and better data on us. Every incentive in a state bureaucracy encourages extensive surveillance. Only widespread political action can put a stop to it. Small changes, like better privacy policies by companies like Google and Amazon.com, are not going to make much difference in the long run, Rule argues. The challenge is too large and the risks too great.Continue reading
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention blocks publication of report
Great Lakes: Danger Zones?, By Sheila Kaplan, The Center for Public Integrity, February 7, 2008.
For more than seven months, the nation’s top public health agency has blocked the publication of an exhaustive federal study of environmental hazards in the eight Great Lakes states, reportedly because it contains such potentially “alarming information” as evidence of elevated infant mortality and cancer rates.
The 400-plus-page study, Public Health Implications of Hazardous Substances in the Twenty-Six U.S. Great Lakes Areas of Concern, was undertaken by a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the request of the International Joint Commission, an independent bilateral organization that advises the U.S. and Canadian governments on the use and quality of boundary waters between the two countries. The study was originally scheduled for release in July 2007 by the IJC and the CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR).
The Center for Public Integrity has obtained the study, which warns that more than nine million people who live in the more than two dozen “areas of concern”—including such major metropolitan areas as Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee—may face elevated health risks from being exposed to dioxin, PCBs, pesticides, lead, mercury, or six other hazardous pollutants.
Excerpts are available on the Center for Public Integrity web site.
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New FOIA Law Already in Trouble
New FOIA Law Already in Trouble. OMBWatch, 02/05/2008.
Buried deep within an appendix of President Bush's $3.1 trillion budget proposal is an effort by the administration to rewrite the newly minted OPEN Government Act of 2007, which seeks to improve agency implementation of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Despite clear language in the OPEN Government Act requiring that a new Office of Government Information be established at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the Bush administration has proposed shifting the new office to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
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AIDS.gov blog on how to use new media to fight AIDS
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of AIDS Policy website AIDS.gov. has recently launched a blog blog.aids.gov for discussions of effective ways of using new media tools in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Each Tuesday morning they post information from an interview with leading new media and HIV/AIDS professionals, summarize the interview and reflect on ways AIDS.gov and others can implement new media. They invite comments!
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