Report warns computers may threaten constitutional rights (1982)
archive.org
archive.org
Good thing they gutted it in 1995, I guess. Congress didn't want the public to find out about such facts.
> Criticism of the agency was fueled by Fat City, a 1980 book by Donald Lambro that was regarded favorably by the Reagan administration; it called OTA an "unnecessary agency" that duplicated government work done elsewhere. OTA was abolished (technically "de-funded") in the "Contract with America" period of Newt Gingrich's Republican ascendancy in Congress.
> When the 104th Congress withdrew funding for OTA, it had a full-time staff of 143 people and an annual budget of $21.9 million. The Office of Technology Assessment closed on September 29, 1995. The move was criticized at the time, including by Republican representative Amo Houghton, who commented at the time of OTA’s defunding that "we are cutting off one of the most important arms of Congress when we cut off unbiased knowledge about science and technology".[1]
> Critics of the closure saw it as an example of politics overriding science, and a variety of scientists such as biologist PZ Myers have called for the agency's reinstatement.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Technology_Assessmen...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejm2zUXgMxo
Never really thought about the name of the game, which involves smashing down buildings.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Fat-City-Washington-Wastes-Taxes/dp/0...
The fourth amendment protects the per-
sons, houses, papers, and effects of in-
dividuals against unreasonable searches and
seizures by the Federal Government.
● Fourth amendment issues may develop
from:
—the use of personal and statistical
data contained in automated informa-
tion systems as a justification for
search and seizure;
—the search and seizure of information
per se as personal property, particular-
ly in electronic form; and
—the use of automated information sys-
tems as a tool for search and seizure
operations.
That's a very thorough report overall, it evens mentions the issue with software patents:
The concern that continuing uncertainty about
copyright and patent protection for
computer software is significantly im-
pairing software R&D and innovation.I prefer the italics.
I don't think that using the * style of quoting breaks wrapping.
"That's the opinion of the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment in a 116-page report released late last year.
"'Extensive data collection and possibly surveillance by government and private organizations could, in fact, suppress or 'chill' freedoms of speech, assembly, and even religion by implicit threats contained in such collection or surveillance,' the report said....
"[T]the use of an electronic funds transfer system to gather the same type of information would be far more intrusive, since much more data, some of it of a highly personal nature, could be collected in secret."
John P. Mello, Jr., writing in 1982.
The tides are turning the other way because American hasn't had a mass-death attack since then, but that clock can very easily reset, unfortunately (as much as I hope it never will).
A powerful and disturbing piece of writing.
Data-as-toxic-waste doesn't discriminate by organisational status.
Here is a direct link: https://ia801705.us.archive.org/12/items/80_Microcomputing_I...
The online reader, if you can read it, is excellent. I'd linked the 2-up version, there's a single-page setting which should work on most mobile devices fairly well.
Intro is a good watch for nostalgia and perspective; relevant Jobs interview starts @ 4:20.
Seriously. Everything Steve Jobs says, whatever point he argues in favor of, listening to it is like letting the dead sell you cigarettes.
"Here, try this amazing thing! Yes it's bad for you in all the ways described by critics, but so what?! I need to live an incredible life right now, before a terminal disease kills me (just as the bad times begin), so give me as much money as possible."
He's been reviewing old computer periodicals, reliving his misspent youth.
It detailed government and business computer use, and was early, closeer to 1970 than 1980 as I recall. Several pages, fairly prescient and well written.
If anyon can reecognize the piece from an admittedly vague description, I'd appreciate a link. I've seen it online, if that helps.
Computers, Personnel Information, and Citizens Rights: https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GOVPUB-C13-4a2389174326d372218...
Privacy and Security Issues in Information Systems: https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/papers/2008/P5684...
Computer Matching Programs, a threat to privacy? http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/c...
It's a popular commercial press article. Might have been a long-form newspaper report, but I think it was within a fairly mainstream magazine. Not Time or Newsweek, but more like a Harpers or Atlantic piece.
I'm pretty sure I've commented on this ... somewhere, sometime, so it may be at one of my usual haunts: here, G+, possibly Reddit, under my usual handles. I'm poking through those.