Computer Privacy Annoyances

Chapter 7. Privacy in the Future

Last August, to dramatize its Total Surveillance Society campaign, the ACLU created a clever, flash-based animation that portrays a future where privacy has been obliterated and data brokers run amok.

In the scene, you hear a man calling a pizza delivery service to order two double-meat pies delivered to his home (see Figure 7-1). You then look over the shoulder of a perky Pizza Palace employee who proceeds to click through a series of screens detailing the customer’s medical records, financial history, library loans, travel plans, and recent retail purchases. Because he’s got high blood pressure, his insurance company insists on a $20 surcharge for ordering a meat pizza (although the submarine sprout combo is available at a discount).

Figure 7-1. Would you like Viagra with that pie? The ACLU’s “Pizza” animation imagines a world where your most highly personal information is available to virtually anyone, even the folks at the local pizza parlor.

He lives in a high-crime neighborhood, so she adds $15 to the delivery charge. She sees that his credit cards are maxed out (probably because he charged those airline tickets to Hawaii) and that he wears a 42-inch waist, which entitles him to $3 off a subscription to Total Men’s Fitness magazine. At the end, the exasperated man orders the sub sprout combo and agrees to schlep down to the parlor himself. (You’ll ...