I decided to wait until today to post this, in hopes after the Zodiac dust settled, people would be less concerned with something that has always been inconsequential (Celebrity Apprentice is a US trending topic on Twitter), and more concerned with something that could impact their daily lives. Sadly, that’s not the case.
My Facebook mini-feed is still alight with Zodiac hysteria and some remnants of The Game statuses from four days ago. Never a mention of President Obama’s next plan of nationalization, his Unique Internet ID legislation proposal. At least the Tunisian riots and the real life passing of Broadcast’s lead singer, Trish Keenan (i never knew who she was), are trending, too.
I’m all for being abreast of pop culture and gossip (except for reality TV shows, i don’t watch those lol), and i understand the supposed Zodiac significance (i have a hybrid “Gemini/Cancer” tattoo because i’m on the arbitrary cusp), but it is unsettling when legislation is proposed and people don’t care, or worse, since it isn’t covered by mainstream media coverage, isn’t spoon-fed to people, it’s garbled amongst the noise.
Take for instance Net Neutrality: there’s been a fight waging over it the past five or so years. Back in 2006 the House rejected Net Neutrality, signaling a death knell. Continuing the plight, this past December the FCC (with Obama’s reversed backing) voted for Net Neutrality, but with several caveats and loopholes, allowing for the likes of AT&T to make beaucoup dollars and increase their power over communication networks. All wireless networks will essentially be the wild wild west, with broadband companies able to charge various fees for consumer access to content and at sufficient speeds. You can read more about it by clicking the “Save the Internet” badge on the sidebar or via this piece at The Atlantic.
Things like this are why i cannot support Big Business-minded Republicans (or any flip-flopping politician, although that’s being hopeful), who kowtow to money, letting it rule everything, thereby undermining basic, conservative principles of liberty, individuality, and freedoms. Us conservative, anti-war Libertarians get lost in the mix, grouped in with our larger-pocket-having cohorts. It’s difficult.
But, moving back to the topic at hand: the issue with Obama’s Unique Internet ID proposal is privacy. The government claims:
“We are not talking about a national ID card,” [Gary] Locke said at the Stanford event. “We are not talking about a government-controlled system. What we are talking about is enhancing online security and privacy, and reducing and perhaps even eliminating the need to memorize a dozen passwords, through creation and use of more trusted digital identities.” (CBSNews)
Right. With the stagnation of the Real ID Act/Pass ID Act i can see where things are going with this Unique Internet ID.
It’s a “slippery slope,” as described by my grade school friend, Maksim Suler, who continues, “Imagine if one day u can get tickets from the NYPD (or whatever) via the Internet for downloading a movie, or game, or song… .” Yes, that could happen.
“Eliminating the need to memorize a dozen passwords” is already present with the adoption of Facebook sign-ins (there are 500 million users, more than 1.5 times the U. S. population) and Twitter and Open ID logins, as well. Sure, these websites won’t be around forever, but do i trust the U. S. government with my single login for the Web, when they cannot even keep hundreds of thousands of variously “classified” documents out of the hands of a military Private? Of course not.
Sure, we already have cookies and IP addresses to track us, but they can be made anonymous through some means or at least more difficult to pinpoint. With the (for now) opt-in Unique Internet ID, i’m sure it’ll be tied into our SS #s or State ID #s, or, if the Real ID or Pass IDs are resurrected fully, one of their #s.
Imagine everything you view on the ‘Net on any computer or mobile device is attached to your singular ID whenever you login to Facebook, Mint.com, ESPN.com, or MailOrderBrides.com.
What the hell happened to privacy? The Internet was designed for the sole purpose of exchanging information and was decentralized to allow for anonymity if desired.
First the poisonous mutation (or compromise as pundits see it) of Net Neutrality and now this.
For people to to not be alarmed by this boggles my mind. It’s a younger brother of the Patriot Act, one that’s not as intrusive, but digital, and seems innocent. Smh.
I’m out.
Peace.
Dude, you sound mad about Big Brother getting Bigger…
Of course, it’s ridiculous. Slowly losing the remaining liberties because of nonchalance and passivity.
I was saying on Twitter yesterday that I disagreed with this. People seemed to agree that it is not as innocent as the proposal makes it seem but that I should just tolerateit because the tracking is being done on a smaller scale already anyway.
smh. People don’t like conflict. They don’t care if they’re tracked or controlled, as long as they have distractions. But take that distraction away, and they’re up in arms (viewers petitioned to get The Game back on air).