Big Brother Dilemma
Speaker: Greg Jackson, University of Chicago
EDUCAUSE 2008 Enterprise Information and Technology Conference General Session, May 2008, Chicago, IL
Podcast available at http://connect.educause.edu/blog/gbayne/podcastthebigbrotherdilem/46893
Notes:
Jackson has been at the University of Chicago for 12 years - in that time he has had 3 presidents, 4 provosts, and 4 CFOs.
He spoke on the many issues surrounding convenience vs privacy issues. There are many things that we want for our convenience but we don't want because they threaten us in some way at the same time.
A key example was ID cards and passports with RFID chips. RFID data can give us convenient access but at the same time that access can be logged.
He noted that Chicago Transit Authority smart cards make traveling the system easy for users but because it traces your activity it has also been used to crack down on truancy.
Keys make no record as smart cards do which raises the issue of data collection and privacy issues. Who gets to see the data? How is it used?
