Protection Or Privacy

In early 1999 there was a high school shooting that we will never forget. Two young boys killed 13 people, wounded 23 others, then killing themselves. This massacre happened at Columbine High School. It spurred many to go to great lengths to try and develop anything to help us avoid anymore traumatic experiences. Through out this essay I will touch on the ways that they are doing this but mainly determining if they are taking it past the point of protection, to a point of invasion.

Francis Clines in “Computer Project seeks to Avert Youth Violence” is an article about the Mosaic-2000 system. Because of the rampage at Columbine it drove the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to “develop a computer program to help school administrators spot troubled students who might be near the brink of violence” (286). The Mosaic program “promises to provide questions carefully crafted from case histories by two hundred experts in law enforcement, psychiatry and other areas” (288). Although may feel like this going to be a helpful tool, there are still some that disagree. Raymond Vasvari, legislative director of the Ohio ACLU says “we are understandably hesitant about any program designed to classify students or anyone else as potentially dangerous based on supposedly creditable data fed into a black box” (287). Just as one mother brought out we have to know that there is a difference between a kid seeking attention and a kid who is really troubled.

There are programs that are also being used in everyday life to try and protect us. “Trading Liberty for Illusions” by Wendy Kaimer speaks about our privacy being invaded by the use of facial-recognition systems. The American Civil Liberties Union reveled how flawed the program was. Saying “it never identified even a single individual contained in the department’s database of photographs. Instead the system made only false positives, including such errors as confusing what were to a human easily identifiable male and female images”(319). The problem with this system is that even if you’re not in the database your privacy is still likely to be invaded. Cameras scan crowds of people everywhere and the camera operators use the system for their personal use. Looking us female skirts or intimidating citizens. Even though these programs are being designed to protect us it seems that instead they are threating our privacy, liberty, and even physical safety.

“Invasion of Privacy” by Joshua Quittner is an article that talks about having your identity stolen. It seems that as years pass it gets easier for people to get hold of our private information. Carol Lane a paid Internet searchers says that staring with no more then your name and address, she can find all your information, including your occupation, names of your family members and how much taxes you pay on your house. This is a scary scenario but an all