While privacy tribunes see active badges as an ominous new development in the brave new workplace, [Roy] Want and his colleagues see them as “a double-edged sword,” with the potential for both benign and malignant uses. “If you can build the system correctly with the appropriate privacy, encryption, and access safeguards, then I think you’ve built an acceptable system.”
Predictor: Want, Roy
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article for Wired magazine, John Whalen does a bit of surveillance at the American Society for Industrial Security’s annual convention, and quotes Roy Want, an inventor of ‘active badges,’ and a scientist at Xerox PARC. Whalen writes: ”Roy Want hails from England, the former empire that gave the world Jeremy Bentham, philosopher of utilitarianism and author of Panopticon, or ‘The Inspection House.’ Published in 1791, Bentham’s treatise described a polygonal prison workhouse that placed the penal/industrial overseers in a central tower with glass-walled cells radiating outward. Mirrors placed around the central tower allowed the guards to peer into each cell while remaining invisible to the prisoners – a concept Bentham referred to as ‘universal transparency.’ Knowing that they were under surveillance – but not knowing for sure whether they were being watched at any given moment – prisoners would theoretically be on their best behavior at all times. More than 200 years later, Want, a computer engineer, has essentially reinvented the Panopticon. More accurately, his brainchild, known as the ‘Active Badge,’ would have made Bentham proud. Want’s active badge, worn by some 50 researchers and staffers in Xerox PARC’s Computer Science Lab, is about a quarter of an inch thick and 2 inches by 2 inches square. Clipped to a shirt pocket or belt and powered by a lithium battery, the black box emits an infrared signal – just like a TV remote – every 15 seconds. Throughout the computer lab at the PARC, infrared detectors are velcro-mounted to the ceiling and networked into a Sun workstation. Because each employee’s badge emits a unique signal, the computer system ‘knows’ where any given employee is at all times. Any other staffer can access that information on his or her personal computer. While privacy tribunes see active badges as an ominous new development in the brave new workplace, Want and his colleagues see them as ‘a double-edged sword,’ with the potential for both benign and malignant uses. ‘If you can build the system correctly with the appropriate privacy, encryption, and access safeguards, then I think you’ve built an acceptable system.’ … Want is eager to stress the technology’s limitations and the ease with which anyone can thwart its abuse. ‘At any point in time, you can take your badge off and leave it on your desk and go shopping if you want. You can also put it in your desk drawer.'”
Biography:Roy Want, a scientist at Xerox PARC, was an inventor of “active badge” technology that allows a person or things movements to be followed and monitored. (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Privacy/Surveillance
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: You’re Not Paranoid: They Really Are Watching You: Surveillance in the Workplace is Getting Digitized – and Getting Worse
Quote Type: Partial quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.03/security_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney