e-freedom today...

One of my favorite films released in the last year was a film by the Wachowski Brothers (known for The Matrix series) called V for Vendetta. In Vendetta, we are exposed to a totalitarian government that actively monitors and enforces a system of routines and rules on the oblivious British population. The film is shown from the perspective of a fanatical political terrorist and a seemingly naive young woman who works for the country's only media source, which is coincidentally enough controlled by the government. Although there are many social and political parallels I made between the film and our current state, one of the strongest (and eeriest) predictions is in regards to the government's access to and control of media and information. While not a contemporary reality, I undeniably would consider this a probability.

I have always been skeptical releasing information to third parties, even when the school paper came to interview me I couldn't help but feel a few minute pangs of anxiety. Alas The Foghorn's staff was not attempting to steal my identity or catalogue my information for storage or for sale to the highest bidder, but the existence of entities that will is a reality, and it freaks me out. Even though I try to exercise responsibility and restrain when disclosing personal information such as my social security or credit card numbers, I cannot help but feel like there is more I should be doing to keep my information private.

While I may give out this information for the occasional job application, it worries me that various companies have access to a whole lot of me. Internet companies accessing my click stream is perhaps the most frightening concept of e-access, next only to identity theft. The fact that myspace.com (recently acquired by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.) now has advertising targeted exclusively for each user's friend list, interests, and even comments is distressing. Similar phenomena can be experienced by google.com, and just about any other search engine in the web. I'm all for consumerism, but I believe there is a point where demographic information should be only so individualized. Though the concept is frightful, I do feel as though there is a certain level of truth to our government's declaration of protection against terrorism. The internet is too effective a medium of communication and research to not be used by terrorist or offensive interests, however, does that give the government, or corporate entities for that matter, the privilege to monitor my e-activity in the interest of my 'benefit?' Where do my rights as an American citizen grant me privacy above protection? I agree with the call to action to monitor the internet, but when does the concern for terrorist prevention end and the execution of totalitarianism begin? Perhaps the stark reality proposed by V for Vendetta is not so foreign after all.