Personal Privacy or Personal Safety?
Would you surrender some personal privacy to ensure your and your loved ones safety?
The world outside your doorstep is a mix of wonder and uncertainty filled with infinite possibilities within the spectrum of both good and bad. For many of us, life is down to some level of routine from which we draw our comfort or level of well being.
We’re all similar in that we’ll do whatever we can to retain our level of normalcy but sometimes even our best efforts go awry. There are many out there who are literally buried alive as the contents of their upside down world rain down upon them. The sad part is that we’re all susceptible to this type of torment so the question really becomes, how much sacrifice to your personal privacy would you make to ensure your safety?
In fact, a number of interesting questions can be raised when weighing personal privacy against personal safety such as:
- If an option existed to surgically implant a personal monitoring device would you consider getting one?
- How would you feel if a government agency were to mandate laws for everyone to have a personal monitoring device surgically implanted?
- Would you see such a system as an invasion of your personal privacy or a benefit to your personal safety?
We already utilize technologies today that invade our personal privacy in favor of our personal safety such as GM’s Onstar. Onstar is an integrated vehicle safety system that continually relays our vehicle status to an Onstar Call Center via satellite. Onstar has grown from a simple accident reporting system to a system so integrated in your vehicle it can unlock your doors if locked out, advise police of your vehicle location if reported stolen, provide directions, handsfree calling, vehicle diagnostics, and much more.
It is estimated that nearly 1 in 3 people use a cell phone today, many of which incorporate Global Positioning Systems (GPS) each with a unique serial number. Given this statistic is it fair to say that nearly 1/3 of the wold population can already be tracked within one meter of their exact location when using their cell phone?
Maybe your cell phone isn’t on but is that really the only way to keep track of you in todays world? If you’re not on your cell phone the chances are good your sending a signal of your whereabouts by talking on the phone, surfing the net, watching TV, paying by Credit or Bank Card, or simply walking by a mounted camera.
Given these simple facts is personal privacy really all that private anymore?
I recall a particular episode aired on Discovery Channel where the future of airborne reconnaissance will be flying robots no larger than your average housefly. These MAV’s (Micro Air Vehicles) or “Spy Flies” will intuitively penetrate any environment and send data back to a remote location.
I realize this may sound a little Sci-Fi at this point in time but is it really that big a leap from vehicles such as the Hunter RQ-5A / MQ-5B/C Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle already in service?
Enough already, what’s the point?
Assuming it’s taken you two minutes to reach this point in the article:
- 3 children have been reported missing.
- someone in the US has been sexually assaulted.
- 12 cases of child abuse have been reported.
- someone in the US has been murdered.
- 12 burglaries have occurred.
- there were 60 property crimes.
- 4 vehicles have been stolen in the US.
What if a personal safety device could be used to monitor not only your global position but also the position of those around you? Could such a system be used to once and for all identify perpetrators beyond a shadow of doubt via GPS? Would this finally translate human rights finally shifting in the direction they truly belong, toward the victim and the victims family?
Let’s take this idea one step further and incorporate a level of personal health monitoring. In the last two minutes:
- 6 people have suffered heart attacks, 2 resulting in death.
- 3 people have suffered a stroke
- 2 people in the US will have died from Cancer.
…what if a personal safety device could also inform you of a serious impending medical emergency?
In todays world you can pretty much die from anything either health related or due to the negligence of others. What ties these facts together is that much of what kills us can be avoided with some simple knowledge or measure of early detection.
The one thing a personal monitoring system would do that no other system can is eliminate reasonable doubt. For example, an individual is gunned down senselessly and without apparent motive with no clear leads as to who the perpetrator is. If everyone had a personal monitoring device implanted deep within their body (spinal chord for example) it would clearly show who was in close proximity to the victim and who was not.
Changing gears from crime to lifetime; what if a personal safety device could detect cancer, heart disease, aids or other life threatening illnesses early and alert you to facts? Could this mean that mortality rates decline sharply as well as put an end to the spread pandemics, epidemics and STD’s?
While you may think this is a rather silly idea you cannot deny that personal privacy is not so much private in this day and age. More and more technology is invading our homes and becoming so routine that much of what we do is already completely traceable yet few stop to even consider the fact. Is the day really that far off when personal privacy will only be a limited freedom as that freedom can be used to ignore the rights of others?
Discuss privacy or safety in our forums.
Sources:
Rainn: The nation’s largest anti-sexual assault organization.
Childhelp.org: non-profit organization dedicated to helping victims of child abuse and neglect.
fbi.gov: Federal Bureau of Investigations.
robots.org: San Francisco Robotics Society of America.
How Stuff Works: A Discovery Company.
Army-Technology.com: Up-to-date international news and features on the defence industry, covering military projects, trends, products, services and more in the army sector.
EduBook.com
