[April fool's warning, of course... --Declan] -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Things that Fink: For Politech (anonymous posting, please) Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2004 14:24:01 -0500 From: deleted To: Declan McCullagh <declan@private> Declan, I found this announcement on an internal Media Lab mailing list. I thought it might be of interest to your readers. Please remove my name and email address if you choose to post it. Cheers, deleted ==== Embargo: April 1, 2004. Today the MIT Media Lab announced the "Things that Fink" research consortium, a ground-breaking joint academic/industry/government venture to explore the benefits of ubiquitous surveillance in the public and private sectors. The "Things that Fink" consortium is an extension of the Media Lab's successful "Things that Think" (TTT) research consortium, with an emphasis on RFID, data mining, sensor networks, biometrics, and behavior modeling technologies. The involvement of DARPA and the newly created Homeland Security Agency reflects both a new level of involvement by the government in funding Media Lab work and a recognition of the growing synergy between private-sector and public-sector surveillance efforts. "The success of the CAPS II passenger profiling system, and the successors to the TIA (Total Information Awareness) project, depend heavily on the active cooperation of the private sector in the aggregation of personal financial, travel, and other data," said one Media Lab researcher. "Fortunately, privacy invasion has significant economic benefits for our sponsors." The benefits of ubiquitous surveillance are enormous, say TTF sponsors. "Data aggregation is just the beginning. Imagine being able to track every piece of equipment in your lab, or every employee's location. A smart network of tags and sensors can reveal almost everything about your employees' work-place performance, habits, even the most intimate details of their personal lives." said one CEO, "And the cost is so low. The only real expense is personal privacy." But it doesn't stop in the workplace. The real goal of TTF is to extend the benefits of ubiquitous surveillance into the world at large. "This technology is everywhere," said one researcher. "The combination of bank cards, closed circuit cameras, and RFID tags already in use make for an almost seamless web of surveillance. We just have to pull it together --- and access to this data is getting easier all the time." A few researchers have raised privacy concerns, "Privacy just isn't an issue," says Professor Blackbridge, chairman of the Media Lab. "People are giving up their privacy in the workplace, in the market, and even at home without a second thought. If they don't care, why should we?" _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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