Het Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) heeft de opvallendste trends uit 2005 op een rijtje gezet. Het zijn Amerikanen, dus de Patriot Act komt in hun top tien uiteraard op nummer 1. Verder onder meer problemen met databanken, met electronische paspoorten, met het screenen van vliegtuigpassagiers en met de surveillance van activisten. Bussiness as usual, zouden we bijna zeggen. Wie er het volledige lijstje wil op nalezen kan hier terecht.
Interessanter voor ons zijn de trends die ze voorspellen voor 2006. Of beter gezegd, de ontwikkelingen waar we in 2006 voor moeten uitkijken. We vatten de trends hieronder bondig (en in het Engels) samen. Meer uitleg vind je hier.
Issues to watch in 2006:
The United States is dramatically expanding the collection of fingerprints, particularly for visitors to the United States.
Increasingly, companies are placing surveillance measures in the workplace, either to provide security or to monitor productivity.
As cameras become more ubiquitous inside and outside the workplace, it will be come more and more likely that some Little Brother will be watching you as well.
Schools are becoming the new frontline in the battle over privacy. Spychip-equipped student
IDs, metal detectors, cameras, and more invasive searches are becoming more commonplace. Students are encouraged to give up their personal information where it is relayed for marketing and recruiting purposes.
Highway administrators are looking for new ways to measure traffic flow and decrease congestion, as well as collect taxes on the use of roads. This has led to the development of many vehicle tracking systems.
Law enforcement is making more use of mobile phone tracking as an investigative tool.
There will be new and surprising revelations about the scope of government datamining and the amount of personal information on American citizens that is being collected by the private sector and handed over to the government.
Police are stepping up efforts to build DNA profiling databases. The danger is that the chance of false positives may be downplayed, and that ordinary citizens would be forced to divulge their DNA profiles with no evidence of any wrongdoing.
In other matters, state regulators are coming to grips with the risk that people's genetic
information may be used to discriminate against them, if their genes show tendencies towards health problems or disabilities.