Assignment #5

Not at least since the devious terrorist attacks of 9/11 an insidious demise is looming over the our democracies. The influence of Governments on everybody's private life is getting bigger and bigger. Whether in our city centers, underground stations or public fairs, everywhere are surveillance cameras installed. With the cell phone in your pocket you can be tracked meter-perfect at every time. In some European States Governments are allowed to set in spy-programs on your computer to find out if you are involved in any illegal activities. Nevertheless that European countries are making heavy weather of such interventions in their citizen's private sphere the democratic achievements like freedom and independence are on and on going to be circumcised. Sure it is not easy to find the right extent of interventions but I wonder if the price we pay for a supposed security, the loss of civil liberty, isn't too high?

I want to begin with an example from my German hometown Munich. It's supposed to be one of the most secure cities in Europe. I am happy about the fact but the question is why it is so secure. Is it because of the surveillance cameras everywhere downtown? Is it because of the large number of police officers you see in the streets, or is it because of the fact, that Munich is also the richest town in Germany and there are not as many social problems, which are leading very often to a higher crime rate, as in other German cities? To be honest I can't answer these questions myself, but I don't feel more secure, if I see all the police on the streets. In contrast I feel monitored. I think there is no other town in whole Europe where youngsters are that often asked to show their Ids and that with no reason. You feel suspected all the time. The interesting part is that girls never getting checked. So if some smart, really criminal guys just put their drugs, or whatever in the backpacks of their girlfriends, they never get caught. And it's not nice to say, but I have the feeling, that most of the criminal guys are that smart. Unfortunately smarter than the police.

Some people are saying that you don't have to be afraid of surveillance cameras if you don't do illegal things. But to me it seems like the Government, which should work for you because it's elected by you, shouldn't set all it's citizens under suspicion. And surveillance cameras are doing exactly this thing. I agree that in some vulnerable parts of cities such cameras might be useful, like on high frequented train stations, or Airports, but I don't think that they need 360º cameras with zooms, which are making it possible to read the time from your watch, in the city center. Another point connected to all these surveillance cameras, Cell phone logs and savings of your Internet-connection data is that I distrust the way all these delicate data are saved. I guess it's not very hard for computer hackers to imbibe these data.

On the other hand I think people and also I, are to carefree in dealing with our personal data, especially in the world wide web. We are sharing our minds via blogs, showing pictures of us, our political views, our music taste, our relation status, our actual location and our mood on social platforms like Facebook and Myspace without thinking about it how useful all these information are for future employers and not at least for companies.

All in all I think we, the citizens, should stay alert and keep observing our Governments when they are busy with our civil rights but it's quasi important to deal carefully with ones own personal data because I'm sure that we are leaving more traces in the world wide web than we want to.