
Report warns computers may threaten constitutional rights (1982) - dredmorbius
https://archive.org/stream/80_Microcomputing_Issue_26_1982-02_1001001_US#page/n295/mode/2up
======
mtgx
I wonder if the people who wrote the report were also considered cuckoo crazy
conspiracy theorists then (as Richard Stallman has been since around the same
time).

Good thing they gutted it in 1995, I guess. Congress didn't want the public to
find out about such facts.

> _Criticism of the agency was fueled by Fat City, a 1980 book by Donald
> Lambro that was regarded favorably by the Reagan administration; it called
> OTA an "unnecessary agency" that duplicated government work done elsewhere.
> OTA was abolished (technically "de-funded") in the "Contract with America"
> period of Newt Gingrich's Republican ascendancy in Congress.

> When the 104th Congress withdrew funding for OTA, it had a full-time staff
> of 143 people and an annual budget of $21.9 million. The Office of
> Technology Assessment closed on September 29, 1995. The move was criticized
> at the time, including by Republican representative Amo Houghton, who
> commented at the time of OTA’s defunding that "we are cutting off one of the
> most important arms of Congress when we cut off unbiased knowledge about
> science and technology".[1]

> Critics of the closure saw it as an example of politics overriding science,
> and a variety of scientists such as biologist PZ Myers have called for the
> agency's reinstatement._

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Technology_Assessmen...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Technology_Assessment#Closure)

~~~
Kali909
Reminded me of the Fat City game on the Apple II:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejm2zUXgMxo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejm2zUXgMxo)

Never really thought about the name of the game, which involves smashing down
buildings.

[1] [https://www.amazon.com/Fat-City-Washington-Wastes-
Taxes/dp/0...](https://www.amazon.com/Fat-City-Washington-Wastes-
Taxes/dp/0895266806)

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quadhome
The report in question:

[http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/ota/Ota_5/DATA/1981/8109.PDF](http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/ota/Ota_5/DATA/1981/8109.PDF)

~~~
vmarsy
Thanks for the link. The original post is unreadable on my Android tablet as
you can't zoom. Other comments here mention the threat to the first
ammendment, I find the one about the 4th as relevant to today:

    
    
        The fourth amendment protects the per-
        sons, houses, papers, and effects of in-
        dividuals against unreasonable searches and
        seizures by the Federal Government.
        ● Fourth amendment issues may develop
        from:
        —the use of personal and statistical
        data contained in automated informa-
        tion systems as a justification for
        search and seizure;
        —the search and seizure of information
        per se as personal property, particular-
        ly in electronic form; and
        —the use of automated information sys-
        tems as a tool for search and seizure
        operations.
    
    

All the other issues are depressing, the 6th amendment issue is that computer
models could be used to predict juror behaviors. What is described as a threat
to constitutional rights is depicted as cool in the current TV show "Bull"

That's a very thorough report overall, it evens mentions the issue with
software patents:

    
    
        The concern that continuing uncertainty about
        copyright and patent protection for
        computer software is significantly im-
        pairing software R&D and innovation.

~~~
swsieber
The irony is that I have to scroll back and forth to view the quotes on my
phone because of how quotes are formatted on hn.

~~~
maxerickson
People use pre for quotes, for some reason.

I prefer the _italics_.

 _I don 't think that using the _* _style of quoting breaks wrapping._

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dredmorbius
"Civil rights in the future could be threatened by a bloodless adversary --
the computer.

"That's the opinion of the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment in a
116-page report released late last year.

"'Extensive data collection and possibly surveillance by government and
private organizations could, in fact, suppress or 'chill' freedoms of speech,
assembly, and even religion by implicit threats contained in such collection
or surveillance,' the report said....

"[T]the use of an electronic funds transfer system to gather the same type of
information would be far more intrusive, since much more data, some of it of a
highly personal nature, could be collected in secret."

John P. Mello, Jr., writing in 1982.

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noobermin
I feel like there needs to be a serious and public debate over the bill of
rights and the power of government moving forwards into the future.

~~~
meowface
Unfortunately, any such debate is tacitly pushed aside every time there's
another large attack. 9/11 made the PATRIOT act a no-brainer "yes" for nearly
all politicians.

The tides are turning the other way because American hasn't had a mass-death
attack since then, but that clock can very easily reset, unfortunately (as
much as I hope it never will).

~~~
CamperBob2
Interestingly, the use of fearmongering and misplaced patriotism by the
government to accelerate the other negative impacts of IT on civil rights is
about the only thing the article didn't anticipate.

A powerful and disturbing piece of writing.

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gcr
You can read this issue as a PDF by clicking on the gear icon. This article
begins on page 296 of the PDF (page 294 as numbered by the magazine.)

Here is a direct link:
[https://ia801705.us.archive.org/12/items/80_Microcomputing_I...](https://ia801705.us.archive.org/12/items/80_Microcomputing_Issue_26_1982-02_1001001_US/80_Microcomputing_Issue_26_1982-02_1001001_US.pdf)

~~~
dredmorbius
Right: this is the Internet Archive, and most materials are downloadable in
various formats -- PDF, ePub, DJVU, and with varying degrees of legibility,
plain text.

The online reader, _if_ you can read it, is excellent. I'd linked the 2-up
version, there's a single-page setting which should work on most mobile
devices fairly well.

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tunap
Relevant & cogent discussion from 1981 Nightline I found on Obscure Media sub-
reddit just yesterday. Jobs makes some spot on predictions but managed to
avoid speaking too directly on privacy. The author is not nearly as
charismatic nor accustomed to speaking on camera/in public... and makes some
validated predictions, too.

Intro is a good watch for nostalgia and perspective; relevant Jobs interview
starts @ 4:20.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H-Y-D3-j-M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H-Y-D3-j-M)

~~~
pleboidal
Watching the whole video, you can safely overdub everything Steve Jobs said
with the phrase " _My words are meaningless, because by the time any of these
ideas represent credible threats, I 'll be long dead._"

Seriously. Everything Steve Jobs says, whatever point he argues in favor of,
listening to it is like letting the dead sell you cigarettes.

" _Here, try this amazing thing! Yes it 's bad for you in all the ways
described by critics, but so what?! I need to live an incredible life right
now, before a terminal disease kills me (just as the bad times begin), so give
me as much money as possible._"

~~~
joshu
What the fuck?

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marchenko
The prescience:wordcount ratio in that article is incredible. If I may ask the
OP: how did it come to your attention?

~~~
dredmorbius
A friend posted it to Mastodon.

He's been reviewing old computer periodicals, reliving his misspent youth.

[https://mastodon.social/users/natecull/updates/2311520](https://mastodon.social/users/natecull/updates/2311520)

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dredmorbius
For those interested in early explorations of computers, rights, and privacy,
there was another large survey article published in a magazine ... sometime in
the early 1970s which for the life of me I cannot find now.

It detailed government and business computer use, and was early, closeer to
1970 than 1980 as I recall. Several pages, fairly prescient and well written.

If anyon can reecognize the piece from an admittedly vague description, I'd
appreciate a link. I've seen it online, if that helps.

~~~
DanBC
Maybe one of these?

Computers, Personnel Information, and Citizens Rights:
[https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GOVPUB-C13-4a2389174326d372218...](https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GOVPUB-C13-4a2389174326d37221814701c1a7dc23/pdf/GOVPUB-C13-4a2389174326d37221814701c1a7dc23.pdf)

Privacy and Security Issues in Information Systems:
[https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/papers/2008/P5684...](https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/papers/2008/P5684.pdf)

Computer Matching Programs, a threat to privacy?
[http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/c...](http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/collsp15&div=13&id=&page=)

~~~
dredmorbius
Thanks, but no.

It's a popular commercial press article. _Might_ have been a long-form
newspaper report, but I think it was within a fairly mainstream magazine. Not
Time or Newsweek, but more like a Harpers or Atlantic piece.

I'm pretty sure I've commented on this ... somewhere, sometime, so it may be
at one of my usual haunts: here, G+, possibly Reddit, under my usual handles.
I'm poking through those.

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blazespin
The rich can win trials... "Before a trial, attorneys for both sides routinely
obtain the names of potential jurors on the day of jury selection. It’s now
possible using big-data sources to flag or score potential jurors on certain
factors—fiscal and social ideology, for examply, or on attitudes relevant to
liability or damages—enabling lawyers to make exceedingly nuanced strikes.

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bbcbasic
Freakily accurate predictions of the future.

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valuearb
32K of storage for only $299? Wow, just what my color computer needed.

