On Friday 15 September 2006 00:01, Dinesh Shah wrote:
Hi!
On 9/14/06, Devdas Bhagat devdas@dvb.homelinux.org wrote:
I think there is a great misconception between identity and privacy. Establishing an identity does not necessarily lead to lose of privacy or liberty.
I does in very insidious ways. Particularly if the constitution does not gurantee that irrespective of anything. Nice caveats like national security -which means crooked money lending politico shot by half starved farmer.
and walks away or will keep changing ids after every crime. Knowledge of a person's id acts as a natural control over behavior.
And there are perfectly good reasons for anonymous speech. Particularly when you want to criticise the government. I see absolutely no reason to trust a government which goes about banning blogs terming them "anti-national".
The anonymous speech can not and will not be stopped. Having an identity does not mean that you can not have an anonymous or free speech.
That is in fact the prime concern. When governments or society for that matter decides on some arbitary rukes of behaviour - women must wear burkha which is a small shift away from women should dress decently which is a small shift away from all citizens should dress decently and zounds so nice and pious - identity becomes a dangerous weapon.
Citizen Information System sounds like it provides information TO citizens. Instead, it provides information ABOUT citizens. Now, from when do we start wearing the star of david^W^W^Wthe cresent^W^W... ? (I lose here).
We are talking of identity rather than CISS. CISS has got nothing to do with identity.
May I recommend Nineteen Eighty-Four? While you are at it, Brave New World, Farenheit 451, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, The rise and fall of the Third Reich are also good to read.
I would call it pure paranoia.
You cant. Its already happened - Guantanamo, secret prisons in Poland, Afghanistan and who knows where else. Built and run by those who obtained power thru a (almost) legitimate democratic process.
Since electricity gives a shock and it can be fatal one must not generate or use electricity. :-)
Same arguments are given for nuclear, genetic and other technologies .
We must remember that technology per say is never evil. It is the technology in the wrong hands which leads to disaster.
And I think you and many have great distrust in our government. But remember that this is the government elected by you and me. :-) (It does not matter whether you vote or not ;-))
Devdas Bhagat
I hope a system developed under FOSS will have sufficient checks and balances for providing freedom of speech and other constitutional rights to the citizens.
FOSS can ensure that the tech flaws are visible and therefore correctable. Like thevoting machine fiasco in the USA http://itpolicy.princeton.edu/voting/ts-paper.pdf
FOSS cannot change the malicious nature of systems.