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Posted by Kraig Baker
David Brin, the science-fiction writer and futurist, was one of the keynote speakers this morning. He was quite interesting and was somewhat provocative for a privacy conference. His greatest concern was the impact of the rise of secrecy on accountability in our society. His point was that we are an enlightened society that is not ruled by the rich, the elites, or the strong, because we have transparency and accountability through markets, science, democracy, and the courts. He views the rise of privacy and security as a threat to that accountability and enlightenment and threatens the framework of American society. Although it takes a while to get exactly where Brin is going, Brin's ideas on accountability as a contrast to secrecy are pretty persuasive and an interesting counterpoint to the remainder of the conference.
What was less convincing was his point that privacy, confidentiality, and security make sense on a short-term tactical basis, but not on a long-term basis and that a tolerant society would take care of things in the long run. While this might sound good in an ideal world, the unpredictable dangers of terrorism and other non-state actors and the increasing reliance on intellectual property (and the attendant trade secrets) for long term economic success at least cast some doubt on this conclusion.
See our earlier coverage of a recent Brin article covering some of these very issues here.