By Brian Proffitt
Managing Editor
Privacy.
It’s an issue that many in the Linux community seem particularly
sensitive about. Until recently, I was not one of them.
I mean, sure, I was not running around the Internet broadcasting
my social security number, date of birth, or blood type, but when I
ran across a site that had a little registration page, I gave
little thought to filling in some basic data and then moving on to
the content I wanted to see.
In my little office, I support those who do not like to register
even for something like the NY Times Web site by trying my best to
find a wire-service version of the same story to link to. But, I
used to quietly roll my eyes at the whole process, wondering how
much harm could a little info be?
Then I started hearing about RFID. First, just a little trickle
of information. Then, in the last month or so, a lot. It seemed
like everyone was coming up to ask me about it. What was it? What
did I think about it? What could it do? At first, I gave the
standard replies, but as more people kept asking, I began to dig a
bit more.
The thing that came up over and over in my reading was this:
there are many cool convenient things that RFID will let people do.
Like checking out from a grocery store without standing in line.
Like managing a supply chain from manufacturer to store. Like
knowing where your kids are anytime you want.
Hello? Excuse me? Know where my kids are? Does that mean someone
else will know too?
Because all of this convenience comes at a price. You, as a
consumer or a business owner or as a private citizen, are going to
have to give up a lot of privacy. Someone will know how much I
spend on Dr. Pepper. Someone will know when I have left the house.
And so forth.
This all may seem like rampant paranoia, and I assure you, it’s
not rampant. But there is a bit a paranoia there, nonetheless.
RFID is not the beginning of the the loss of privacy. For years,
anyone at the bank, if they really wanted to, could see how much I
spent at the grocery just by the checks I wrote or the debit
transactions I made. But that was not detailed information, and it
was not real-time.
Computers have been getting into this, too. One of my peeves
about the upcoming Longhorn version of Windows is the proposed
automatic updates feature. While I long for faster patches to shut
down all the Windows zombies spamming me, a proactive patching
system from Redmond Central is not the way I want it.
What prompted this bit of wordage today was the very quiet, very
tenative rumblings that someday Linux vendors may go this way, too.
As Linux gets more popular with the non-techs, the theory goes,
more active methods of patch delivery may be needed to protect
systems.
I don’t think Linux will need to go down this path. Commercial
Linux vendors should remember there are other ways to providing
secure systems. Education, better patch announcements, and the
already secure nature of Linux can help avoid an automatic update
system. Developers in the community would do well to keep these in
mind and not trade user convenience for user privacy.
Let users be the judge of what gets updated on their systems,
not the software makers.