Sunday, September 28, 2008

Eagle Eye

Jeremy and I went to see the movie Eagle Eye last night. It was a pretty good movie, some of the camera work in the action sequences was a little too jumpy which made them hard to follow, but mostly the movie was good. The thing is, if you have seen 2001: A Space Odyssey, you'll find this movie predictable. Eagle Eye borrowed extensively from that movie. The story was still pretty good, the overall message was that overreaching technology is bad. I'd have to say I agree with that sentiment, but the real question is where do we draw the line between safety and invasion of privacy? What do you think?

5 comments:

Dana Cheryl said...

The movie looked interesting from the tv spots. Privacy is an illusion...

We just had a two hours at work last week introducing new features that will be launched next month. (Just in case ya don't know I work for at&t wireless.)

One of these new features is called "Family Finder". With this service you can locate any phone on your account without telling the person using the phone.

Of course we've always been able to do this but we needed a warrant or court order to "ping the towers".

Not anymore! Just add the feature and voila... You can track their every movement and they'll never, ever know.

Big Brother is watching us all!

Mary said...

The movie is obviously taking a stab at the wire tapping by the Bush administration. (Which, incidentally, I am not against. It's not like they were listening intently to every inane conversation of every teenager or lover in the country...can you imagine having that job? I'd blow my brains out!)

You're right about privacy being an illusion. Anyone who thinks that they can have all the comforts of modern day life without being on someone's radar is fooling themselves. It's very easy to track just about anyone these days. Especially through their cell phones, cars (with GPS navigation!) or other wireless devices. I would like to think that the govt. would still get a warrant to track an American citizen, but really, do I believe that they always would? Not necessarily. So it's a potential slippery slope. Just don't be TOO interesting, and you ought to be alright! ;)

On the other end of the spectrum, features like this could help us keep our families safe. For example: You have a child. You trust this child, but there's so much out there today that's trying to get at them. I believe that you need to give your children a certain amount of freedom (and more and more as they get older), but I also am not opposed to telling them that you have these features, and that while you aren't using them to spy on your child, you just might check in periodically to make sure they're doing what they say they are. I think in some ways it can keep your kids out of the trouble that is all too happy to find them! How many stories have you heard about children running off and doing something tremendously stupid, and the parent being unable to find their kid until it's too late? A feature like this could prevent some of that. Also if you are paying for a phone, shouldn't you be allowed to track it? The thing is, I know there are people who would abuse this feature, and that would be too bad. There are an awful lot of parents out there with not enough to do, so they watch their kids' every move, and that's not good for you or your kids!

Dana Cheryl said...

The real application of this feature was for businesses keeping track of deliveries. It was an easy move to sell it as a service to parents. Sadly it will end up being misused. We have spouses calling up all the time searching for their wandering partner.

Of course the government doesn't need this service. We can track any cell phone regardless of whether it has GPS or not or whether it has this feature. All we have to do is "ping" the towers and we can triangulate the phone's position. A good number of missing persons are found via their cell phone & this method of tracking. Of course we need a court order to do this but it's done everyday.

Kids are smarter than most parents. They'll start leaving their phones in the location where they're suppose to be and take off without 'em. Unfortunately that's going to lead to bad things...

Still that's the way the world is going. Several states have started putting microchips into the drivers licenses. They will be implanted in the next decade or two. (It's already being done in Japan. AT&T is in an exclusive partnership with NTT Docomo that pioneered the technology. The most popular cell over there requires chip implentation to work. You talk using bone conduction as a medium. There is no handset.) We're all gonna be lojacked before long. lol. It's inevitable but kinda creepy!

Mary said...

No way! That is too freaky! I don't want that much security on myself or my children. A lot of people in the US would probably do it, but they won't be able to really talk a lot of people into it for a long time I think. I think Americans are too independent and suspicious to let people implant them with a microchip. That's something that will have to be quietly and gently brought about. And a microchipped driver's license? Nice.

Mary said...

Well Dana, thinks for participating in this discussion. I think it's pretty safe to say people don't come to my blog to talk politics! :)