We have all practically swooned at the pages of teeny-tiny print that we have to swear we have read (AND agreed to), before we are allowed to the next screen on our computers. Studies have shown that each of us would spend over 180 hours per year if we actually read all of those disclosures! Our loss of civil liberties, privacy and intellectual property is taken for granted these days as the ubiquity of Google, Facebook, Twitter and other "free" social network services surround us. One interviewee claims that this loss has been gradual, sort of like the frog placed in a pot of cool water on the stove. You know the rest...
After 9/11, the fine print became more specific and opened the flood- gates of digital monitoring. One poor fellow (from Ireland) made a bad joke about how he expected to behave when he landed in New York City. The upshot was that he was diverted at the gate and held in a downtown cell for five hours. A little boy made a comment on Twitter and was hauled off to detention; while a man used a "trigger" word and Homeland Security had the NYPD at his door within ten minutes. The most futuristic aspects of these new interpretations have to do with future crimes we might commit. In 2002, Steven Spielberg made a movie about THIS based on a Philip K. Dick short story called "Minority Report."
Legislation has been written and introduced over and over, but no legal protection for the general public has become law. More onerous enforce- ment has increased exponentially under President Obama. Things aren't getting better.
There are many enjoyable episodes in this documentary, like when the home addresses of the CEOs of both Google and Facebook are published. This is a lively and entertaining cautionary tale.
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This U-Tube preview is provided by SIFF:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEO9iLWBWvw
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This U-Tube preview is provided by SIFF:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEO9iLWBWvw
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