My Search and Surveillance Submission
Dear Politicians,
As a one of this country’s creative citizens, I hereby submit a short story as part of my submission. I hope that it is refreshing to read a story, rather than a bulleted list of concerns: http://megarillo.tumblr.com/post/1051186621/apples-on-the-dead-seas-shore-a-short-story
Surveillance of the future is going to involve capturing more and more data from our citizens. That is a reality that we all have to get our heads around. Capturing data is neither good nor bad. In the end, it all comes down to how we use it.
We are talking about policing and security in this Bill. But we cannot deny that managing our public infrastructure and services in the days ahead increasingly involves capturing more and more data about individuals. So if we are making decisions about surveillance, we are also beginning to make decisions about how we store and what uses there are for other types of digital data.
I want to provoke you to think very hard about how the Government are going to guarantee that the information that we collect from citizens will always be used in service of the common good, and never in service of corporate interests. No matter how much they will pay us to access it.
Like you, I look forward to a world where innocent deaths from high speed car chases no longer happen because cars have microchips embedded in them and are able to be tracked remotely. But I urge that information that you collect about our people conforms to strict codes of ethics. I want this data protected in perpetuity.
Thank you for considering this submission.
Yours Sincerely,
Megan Salole
Tomorrow (the 3rd of September) is the last day to make a submission. You don’t have to know everything about the Bill - just tell the Politicians what concerns you. You can submit online - its easy:
