Few days ago a friend of mine added this article on Facebook. It talks about the new legislation that makes internet providers to create and store users’ profiles, that include information like credit card numbers and browsing history.
The bill was passed under disguise of protection children from internet pornography, but in reality it is a way of policing internet users. Just the way foot patrol was introduced into neighborhoods for the good reason of protecting community, but ended up to be a surveillance mechanism.
This bill is extension of our debates on how much surveillance is appropriate and on how much we allow government to interfere in our private life. It seems like government takes more and more steps towards tracking individuals. It resonates with the argument of societies of control. Control, unlike discipline, doesn’t require enclosed buildings to limit people’s ability to move in space, in fact, it doesn’t need to to do that, instead it only needs to know where every given individual is at the given time.
The bill discussed above, gives government opportunity to track our location in internet space. State acquires precious tracking mechanism of the space that becomes increasingly important in our society. Many of us spend as much time in online world as in the physical one and many do so because they can escape mechanisms of control. Well, I guess there are less chances to do so now.
