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David Schimke on online profiling

A few months ago, there was this online debate among activist bloggers about the dangers to our right to privacy of unimpeded blogging.  A few days ago, I came across this essay by David Schimke of Utne Reader regarding this very topic. Schimke's essay which I will post here may illuminate partisans in this debate.

Invading Our Own Privacy

Tell-all blogs, digital surveillance, online profiling: Who needs Big Brother?

David Schimke
Utne Reader

It's a good guess that the last thing the newly hired editor of an alternative newspaper would want a grizzled group of journalists to know is that the person he'd most like to meet is Howard Stern. Yet hours after Kevin Hoffman was tapped to take the helm at City Pages, staffers at the Minneapolis weekly, who had yet to meet the 30-year-old in person, were reading all about their new leader's love of Stern, ultimate fighting, and The Real World on his MySpace page and sketching a less than favorable caricature.

That same week in late January, Jessica Blinkerd, a 22-year-old California woman charged with drunken driving and vehicular manslaughter, received a tougher-than-expected sentence, 64 months in prison. Despite having professed deep remorse in court, Blinkerd had posted pictures at MySpace of herself out on the town after the accident, drinking with friends and sporting a shirt advertising a brand of tequila. 'Why would probation get your attention?' the judge asked.

Both cases, one comical, the other life-altering, illustrate a commercially driven cultural trend whose consequences may not be known until well after debates over the merits of wiretapping, the Patriot Act, and digital spying are resolved in Congress. People of all ages, but especially those between 18 and 34, have become so comfortable with online commerce, instant correspondence, and daily confession that personal privacy is being redefined and, some argue, blithely forfeited.

'Young people have already embraced the frenzied commercial environment of the digital marketplace,' says Jeff Chester, founder and executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. 'The prevailing paradigm is a seamless integration of content, communication, data collection, and targeted marketing.'

The technological assault on our anonymity is gaining speed: Surveillance cameras and now cell phones track physical movement; computer 'cookies' transmit buying habits, political affiliations, and sexual proclivities. And now, according to Science News (Jan. 13, 2007), because computer users have 'characteristic patterns of how they time their keystrokes [and] browse websites,' researchers are learning how to use 'typeprints, clickprints, and writeprints, respectively, as digital forms of fingerprints.'

New York magazine (Feb. 12, 2007) points out that people of all ages are susceptible to these intrusive technologies, but it's twentysomethings who are, paradoxically, the most savvy about how they can be watched and the least likely to self-censor. 'In essence, every young person in America has become, in the literal sense, a public figure,' writes Emily Nussbaum, who posits that online differences represent the first true generation gap in nearly 50 years. 'And so they have adopted the skills that celebrities learn in order not to go crazy: enjoying the attention instead of fighting it.'

It's tempting to write off those darn kids as narcissistic or obsessed with fame, as Lakshmi Chaudhry does in the Nation (Jan. 29, 2007). After all, as she points out, 'Celebrity has become a commodity in itself, detached from and more valuable than wealth or achievement.' What's received little attention, though, is the ways corporations are stacking the digital deck.

Young people are now heavily engaged in identity exploration and development well into their 20s, and the Internet has become their primary tool,' says Kathryn Montgomery, professor of communications at American University and author of Generation Digital (MIT Press, 2007). 'Companies build brands by purposely cultivating this process, creating spaces where they're encouraging people to pour their hearts out. It's like a diary -- but there's no key.'

On February 22, ClickZ.com reported that Fox Interactive Media, a division of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., which owns MySpace, had hired a high-tech ad firm to mine user profiles, blog posts, and bulletins to 'allow for highly refined audience segmentation and contextual microtargeting . . . which might put it in more direct competition with the likes of Yahoo, AOL, and MSN.'

'I don't think kids understand the long-term consequences of our surveillance culture. I'm not sure any of us do,' Montgomery says. 'But it's the responsibility of educators and policy makers to make sure we're educating people about the value of privacy and what it really means to give it up.'

In that spirit, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education (Jan. 12, 2007), two professors at Drake University's law school, worried that their students' casual approach to digital correspondence could hinder their careers, started a class stressing online discretion. The lesson, according to one student, is simple: 'If you are not comfortable with shouting your comments from a street corner, you probably shouldn't convey them via electronic print.'

Posted by: kr.guda at 04:55 | link | comments (1)

New Blog for Stories, Reportage, Etc.

I have a new blog for my reportage: www.krguda.wordpress.com. I am currently inclined, though, to maintain this particular blog for personal musings etc.

Posted by: kr.guda at 02:45 | link | comments

Mabuting Tao

May nakapagsabi sa akin na para maging kapaki-pakinabang na nilalang ng mundo, dalawang bagay lang ang kailangan mo: matalas na isip at dalisay na puso. Palagay ko, masusuma ang lahat ng sinulat ni Mao Zedong hinggil sa pagiging rebolusyonaryong tao sa dalawang puntong ito. Madali lang maintindihan kung bakit. Pero napakahirap sundin.

Mas madaling maging matalino, sa totoo lang, kaysa maging mabuting tao. Si sir Nic Atienza, naging ehemplo sa akin kung papaano maging isang mabuting tao. Siyempre, hindi matatawaran ang talas ng isip niya. Matalino si sir Nic, kaya nga sa maagang yugto ng buhay niya natanto agad niya ang dapat na landas na tinatahak ng kabataan, at ito ay ang landas ng paglahok sa makabuluhang pagbabago sa lipunan.

Sa kasamaang palad, hindi ko nakilala si sir Nic sa yugtong ito ng buhay niya. Nakilala ko man siya bilang dalubhasa sa wika at kulturang Pilipino nang maging estudyante niya sa isang semestre sa UP, hindi masyado tumimo sa akin ang mga lektyur niya. Pero sa pinagtagpi-tagping engkuwentro kay sir Nic, nabuo ang isang leksiyong hindi ko malilimutan, pinagsisikapan kong kamtin: maging isang mabuting tao.

Siyempre, lahat tayo may sikreto. Pero hangga’t maaari, dapat maging tapat ka. Si sir Nic, parang bukas na libro ang buhay. Hindi man niya palaging naikukuwento – minsan mas mabuti na lamang tumahimik kaysa magsinungaling – batid ng marami ang mga karanasan niya. Minsan, nagklase kami sa UP Lagoon. Nakaupo kami sa damuhan. Naka-iskuwat si sir Nic, lumalabas ang sugat sa kanyang binti. Sabi niya sa amin, ngayon nakita niyo na itong sugat ko, wala na akong maitatago sa inyo. Hanggang nang mamatay siya, nakabaon pa rin sa binti niya ang balang inilaan ng kaaway sa ulo niya. Bahagyang ikinahiya niya, pero nang makita na ang mga sugat, hindi na niya ito itinago sa amin.

Maging bukas at aboveboard – ito ang leksiyon sa akin ni sir Nic. Kaya siguro laging sinasabing mainitin ang ulo niya, kasi marami naman talagang dapat ikainit ang ulo sa mundo. Hindi niya magawang itago pa ang mga emosyon niya. Nang nakapanayam ko siya hinggil sa bakas ng batas militar sa kasalukuyang panahon, hindi niya naitago ang galak sa mga tagumpay na nakamit ng mga grupong pangkarapatang pantao sa internasyunal na arena: sa wakas, aniya, nailalabas na ang kabulukan! Tagumpay ito dahil lalong dadami ang papanig sa atin!

Sa propesyong pinasok ko, mas pinahahalagahan ang pagiging malihim. Sa peryodismo, dapat lagi kang may itinatagong baraha. Circumspect ka sa pananalita. Hangga’t maaari, huwag mong ilalabas ang emosyon mo sa mga sinusulat mo, kasi baka mapulaan kang biased. Pero ayokong mabuhay nang ganoon. Ayokong maging “propesyunal na peryodista” kung ang ibig sabihin nito ay pagiging malihim, pagtatago ng baraha, pagiging circumspect. Gusto ko lamang, maging mabuting tao, tulad ni sir Nic.

Posted by: kr.guda at 04:23 | link | comments

At Last, One of Them Has Been Found

Despite her three-day ordeal, Elizabeth Principe was in high spirits.

“Tumakbo na lang kaya ako? Dalawa lang bantay ko, andami ninyo,” she kidded her daughter as Elizabeth and some supporters from Karapatan walked from the National Capitol Region office of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) of the Philippine National Police to the nearby PNP Custodial Center inside Camp Crame. She was flanked by a lady police officer, a certain SPO4 Garcia, and one other cop. Aya, Elizabeth’s daughter, laughed heartily, and reminded her mother that they are in the biggest PNP camp in the country.

A couple of hours ago, Elizabeth was as tense as can be. She was in the custody of the Intelligence and Security Group (ISG) of the Philippine Army when presented to media. For almost three days, she had been blindfolded, incessantly interrogated, psychologically tortured. She did not have much sleep. Her wrists ached from being bound for a long time.

Gen. Alexander Yano, Army head, called the press conference in Fort Bonifacio to proudly present to media their latest “big catch.” Elizabeth, according to the general, was the secretary of the Communist Party in the Cagayan Valley region. She has been wanted for rebellion charges, among other things.

PNP Deputy Director General Jesus Versoza, who was also present at the presscon, declared that they are checking on intelligence reports that Elizabeth had something to do with the failed rebellion of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV last November 29. Elizabeth was arrested a day before Trillanes and company seized a posh Makati hotel as an act of rebellion from the Arroyo government.

But Elizabeth was defiant. Her captors was momentarily stunned when upon being presented to media she lost no time shouting at the top of her voice: “Mabuhay ang Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas! Mabuhay ang rebolusyonaryong kilusan!”, then went on to say that she was blindfolded and intermittently interrogated for 48 hours before being surfaced.

Later, in the company of what appeared to be more congenial custodians at the CIDG, Elizabeth related to us that after that act of defiance at the presscon, one of her captors whispered to her: “Nakasigaw ka kanina ah. Kapag nakalaya ka, papatayin ka na namin.” To which she retorted that they may kill her if they wish because she is ready for whatever happens to her.

Her police handlers did not quite know what to make of Elizabeth. A frail-looking, middle-aged woman of about five feet, she hardly looks the part of a “top NPA leader.” In fact, one of her two guards, an affable guy from Naga, admits that Elizabeth looks no more like a “nanay” who is a “good cook”. A chauvinist remark, of course, but he had a point. Elizabeth could have been my mother or my aunt.

She is, in fact, a mother, to Aya of Desaparecidos. She is also a wife to another revolutionary, the NDFP consultant Leo Velasco, who remains missing for almost nine months since being abducted in Cagayan de Oro.

Elizabeth could also have been missing to this day. Since the surfacing and detention of peace activist Angie Ipong in Pagadian City, no other revolutionary of Angie’s stature has been abducted and subsequently surfaced by the military. Other NDFP consultants like Rogelio Calubad (abducted with son Gabriel) in Bicol, Prudencio Calubid, Philip Limjoco and Leo Velasco were abducted in various parts of the country and remain missing. Meanwhile, up to 186 activists and ordinary people have been abducted by suspected elements of the military and have yet to be surfaced.

“Siguro pasalamat tayo (sa ginawa ni Trillanes sa Makati). Kailangan ng gobyerno magpapogi kaya ibinibintang din nila sa akin ‘yung nangyari sa Makati,” said Elizabeth. She believes that if not for government’s efforts to link Trillanes’ protest act to the revolutionary Left, the military would not have bothered to surface her.

Aya, meanwhile, is happy that at least her mother is alive. Members of Desaparecidos who were with Aya at the CIDG were equally happy, some were in tears. At last, they said, at least one of the missing has been found.

Posted by: kr.guda at 15:37 | link | comments