Agent safety priority in CIA initiative
A few weeks ago, CIA Director David Petraeus delivered a speech addressing how the CIA should approach information that spreads through social media. Petraeus pointed out how social networking websites can be detrimental to CIA affairs, as sites like Facebook and Twitter make it difficult to preserve the privacy of government agents. Petraeus said he wants to find a way to reduce or eliminate the “digital footprints” of agents.
In order to cut down the amount of data circulating on the Internet that could compromise the position or safety of CIA employees, Petraeus said some data storage and trafficking should be moved from computers to other kinds of devices — what he called a move from an “Internet of PCs” to an “Internet of Things.” According to him, 50 to 100 billion “things” will be connected to the Internet by 2020.
There was a small but mighty uproar among certain parts of the public in response to this proposal on the grounds that it was an invasion of privacy. Somehow, people started thinking Petraeus was suggesting the CIA monitor U.S. citizens via household appliances. The proposed “Internet of Things” was likened to iconic examples of dystopian surveillance, and various bloggers compared it to “Big Brother.” One political vlogger even said, “It’s 1984. We have massive screens in our houses ... the leader of the country speaking to us and spying on us at all times.”
But we don’t. And there’s no reason to think we ever will.
Petraeus doesn’t even give an example of what types of “things” will be used for information storage and traffic. He certainly doesn’t say anything about appliances. The majority of Petraeus’ speech just focuses attention on the specific types of intelligence networks that will be used to connect this new “Internet of Things,” like “radio-frequency identification ... tiny embedded servers and energy harvesters.”
These aren’t new government technologies that infringe on public right to privacy. In fact, you probably use them at least once a day. Credit cards work because of radio-frequency identification. Your cellphone’s SIM card? A small embedded server. And your wireless remote most likely uses energy harvesting to charge. The “Internet of Things” will introduce no new technologies, nor will it change the daily lives of Americans in any way. You might lose a few friends on Facebook, but that’s about it.
This running diatribe in response to Petraeus’ initiative only reaffirms his position. He argues that the Internet is a potential source of “invaluable information” that could help the government better and more quickly understand foreign and domestic events in real time. But a lot of information on the Web is unhelpful and, in the case of the anti-Petraeus bloggers, completely made up. As the director said, we need to learn to “swim in the ocean of Big Data” and determine what is and is not important and trustworthy. And bloggers should probably trust cia.gov over word of mouth.
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