An interesting controversial subject that has grabbed my attention recently is internet privacy. I usually pride myself on being indifferent about such matters until I know enough information, but now I feel I know enough to warrant an opinion. I definitely don't align myself with the radical views of Julian Assange, but I do have a few views in common. In particular, I'm scared that the legal punishment for committing misdemeanors will remain fixed despite a growing transparency in private lives. Let me explain. Laws should ideally be made to prevent immoral activities. So consider, for example, hopping on a bus without a ticket and getting caught by the cops. A fine of $150 seems reasonable (from the states point of view) since it will do very well at preventing you (and others) from hopping on buses without a ticket. However, the number 150 is actually pretty arbitrary and i'd suspect a likely overestimate trying to compensate for all the times you've probably ridden the bus without a ticket but haven't been caught. This is a necessary thing to do since Sydney Transport doesn't have eyes all over the place which can tell them when people are abusing their system.
However, lets say that a sudden recent development in technology allows Sydney Transport to observe every passenger and instantly fine them for not having a ticket. What would this mean? Well, I'd suspect you'd get a lot of fines and a lot fewer people riding without tickets! All good right? NO! This is where the arbitrary origin of the $150 fine really comes into play. Imagine the subset of passengers that forgot to buy a ticket or had no money to pay for a ticket - these people are still victims of the unalterable $150 fine. I'm not trying to say that these people shouldn't be fined at all, I'm trying to say that the law needs to consider what fee is necessary to prevent illegal activity in different situations. Clearly the $150 fine isn't applicable in this hypothetical since a fine just a little bit higher than the price of the ticket itself would be enough of a deterrent. Basically, laws need to evolve with evolving technology.
Don't worry, this isn't a complete side track, this is actually all related to internet freedoms. In fact, I think this analogy is actually pretty accurate at representing the issues with the internet. Except, in this case, the bus fine is $2000 dollars and the cops can choose whether to target your or not.
My life is entirely transparent to anyone who has an internet connection. I check Facebook regularly, the videos I like on YouTube are put on display on my Google+ account, I write a blog, and I don't even delete my browser history. If the Australian government wanted to, they could sift through all the crap I've done and pick me up on a few misdemeanors - like downloading mp3 files off YouTube. Radicals like Julian Assange promote Government openness and individual privacy as a solution to this problem. I don't think we need to have complete anonymity, I think we need legal tolerance. Oh by the way, this doesn't just apply to just downloading movies and textbooks, this extends into all areas of online private life. I've been warned by countless members of my family not to mention any negative experiences about my work on my blog because it would make me look unattractive to other potential employers. In their eyes they see it as so little gain for so much potential loss. I kinda get that, but it's the principal that annoys me. A potential employer shouldn't resort to a highly exaggerated and (lets face it) somewhat fictional blog to find out the work ethic of an applicant. And more importantly, even if my blog was the source of relevant information about my work ethic, it really wouldn't give the employer the information necessary to compare me to other applicants since the other applicants could have cherry picked their online history and built a completely fake version of themselves.
Overall, it annoys me that a growing number of my friends are informing me that they find themselves culling pictures of themselves on Facebook to appear more attractive to a potential employer. Ultimately it probably doesn't bother them too much, but what they're doing is fueling an illogical thought process that's running rampant throughout society. Stahp it!
In other news, I didn't get drunk on Sunday! I know, i know! I got soooooooooo sober! A bloke called Andy who has been crashing on our couch for the last 2 weeks recently won $200 from a sporting bet and spent half of it on booze for the whole house on Saturday. It was fun. I passed out in a bathtub.
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