Privacy is a perculiar, and archaic thing

Privacy is a peculiar thing and a longing for it is somewhat archaic and something of an ill-fit in this modern world.

In this quickly emerging connected world, the “internet of everything” through which most everything we do, from shopping, work, travel, and leisure, will be facilitated electronically, privacy will eventually be a disadvantage.

Privacy is subjective with some seeing it as the root of their wellbeing, while others at the extremes of the arc, care naught for what others know or care about them.

And so it is into this malaise of confusion about privacy that Australian Bureau of Statistics have waded, or it is plunged? with its first online census.

It seems that allowing people to complete the census online is not the issue rather that they must not only provide the usual census information but also add their name, age, and address.

The bureau has guaranteed security arguing it will separate those personal details immediately, “anonymizing” the information as it arrives.

However, it notes that the separated off identifying data will be used by the government to better understand the Australian population and so plan for its wants and needs.

Several years ago a CEO of a leading computer company said even then that privacy was a thing of the past and today it is being argued that if we want (and it is not going to be “want” for we will have no choice) to access what is being touted as the “new economy”, then the first thing to go will be our privacy.

Of course, what do we call “privacy” – my life is fairly public, but yet there is  a host of things in my life, about which people know nothing or little, and nor would they care or be interested, I suspect.

The Australian Privacy Foundation defends the right of individuals to control their personal information and to be free of excessive intrusions.

The Australian foundation is aligned with “Privacy International”, a body that investigates the secret world of government surveillance and exposes the companies enabling it.

Privacy as an idea painted by at least these two groups appears as a bulwark against conspiracies by government and corporations designed to entangle people and strip them of their rights.

History illustrates that both governments and corporations have invaded peoples’ privacy, and will again, but looked at objectively and considered in isolation, tomorrow’s census is not something to be feared, rather embraced.

Public is the antithesis of private, but if we are to avoid the travails of exponential population growth and the associated despoliation of our environment, then public must have priority and that probably needs compromises on perceived privacies.

History illustrates, interestingly, that many of the good things in life, including here in the Goulburn Valley, can be traced directly to public participation.