Technology feature creep

August 17th, 2007

This article is an amusing story about a divorce brought on by some electronic toll passes in the USA. It has a serious undertone – I’m sure the designers of the EZPass system were good people and great engineers who never thought that they’d end up splitting up a marriage. Similary the London Underground Oyster pass system which tracks your every journey would never be used by the government to track your moves right?
The traditional argument is that “if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear” but that was the case here – I don’t think people should have affairs, but it’s not illegal and is exactly the kind of thing you’d want kept quiet. If that doesn’t work for you morally, try imagining you call in sick on Monday but drive down to the cinema in the afternoon – you’d not want your boss to have the ability to track that would you?
We’re on the cusp of introducing ID cards in the UK that will make these kind of minor tracking examples pale into insignificance. Every time you use your card – and that could be as simple as showing ID to buy some beer – it will be recorded. There’s no telling how this information could be used.
Technologists understand that promises to “be decent” about this stuff are worthless – you need a law that restricts exactly what you’re allowed to use the information for (and generic sounding restrictions such as “national security” don’t work). I don’t trust the government simply because I don’t know who they’ll be in 10 years time. Even if you think Gordon Brown is a saint, remember he might be succeeded by someone who’s not.

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