Re: <nettime> Echelon, privacy and property

["wade tillett" <super89@bigfoot.com>]

the problem of privacy is not that there is something private to hide. the
problem stems from the fact that a person is expected, encouraged, and
even forced to conform in the future with the image extracted from them in
the past. the map becomes the plan. from criminal records to medical
records to bank accounts to photographs to grocery store discount cards,
the user is subject to the image projected. the user is displaced by his
image, by his communication.

in order for the commodification of the individual as communication to
work as an economy, the individual must imitate his commodification.

politicians, pop stars, etc. being the extreme of this. and these 'icons'
thus must change their commodified identity (image) enough so as to keep
interest, but not too much or the accumulated 'interest' will be lost.
that is, the public economy of communication involves not only being held
to an image of your past as a predictable subject, but the duty to
*produce* new images/commodities on top of this image for present and
future consumption.

there is nothing to hide if we are not to be held to our image. but such a
relation undermines the economy, both the financial and moral economy, by
destroying enforcement of 'responsibility.'


----- Original Message -----
From: Sean Cubitt <seanc@waikato.ac.nz>
To: <nettime-l@bbs.thing.net>
Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2001 9:33 PM
Subject: <nettime> Echelon, privacy and property

> Who wants to retain privacy?. Mainly wife-beaters, child-abusers and
> tax-evaders. Most of us have nothing to lose but our privacy -- the
> compulsory hoarding of data in the form of private property and
private
> thoughts. But a private thought is no thought at all, like a poem
left in a
> drawer is no poem.






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