The prediction, in brief:

Computer monitoring challenges traditional expectations of privacy, exposes nearly every facet of an individual’s life to potential public view and commercial use, alters the relationship between employers and employees, and opens the way for unprecedented government surveillance of citizens. For these reasons, concerns about the courts’ vitiating the Fourth Amendment intensify when computer-based communication and surveillance are involved.

Predictor: Levinson, Nan

Prediction, in context:

In a 1992 paper about the Internet that is posted on the Electronic Frontier Foundation Internet site, Nan Levinson refers to points made by Gary Marx of MIT. Levinson writes:”Computer monitoring challenges traditional expectations of privacy, exposes nearly every facet of an individual’s life to potential public view and commercial use, alters the relationship between employers and employees, and opens the way for unprecedented government surveillance of citizens. For these reasons, concerns about the courts’ vitiating the Fourth Amendment intensify when computer-based communication and surveillance are involved. Gary Marx, professor of sociology at MIT, notes 10 characteristics of new kinds of computer-based monitoring that make them particularly intrusive:  They transcend boundaries…that traditionally protect privacy.  They permit the inexpensive and immediate sharing and merging and reproducing of information. They permit combining discrete types of information. They permit altering data.  They involve remote access which complicates accountability issues They may be done invisibly They can be done without the subject’s knowledge or consent.  They are more intensive. They reveal previously inaccessible information.  They are also more extensive and they cover broader areas.”

Date of prediction: January 1, 1992

Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues

Subtopic: Privacy/Surveillance

Name of publication: Electronic Frontier Foundation

Title, headline, chapter name: Electrifying Speech: New Communications Technologies and Traditional Civil Liberties

Quote Type: Direct quote

Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.eff.org/Legal/electrifying_speech.paper

This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney