Big Brother: Dutch Edition

[OUMoose]

Sorry if this has been posted and I missed it:

Dutch to Open Electronic Files on Children

From the article:

Beginning Jan. 1, 2007, all citizens will be tracked from cradle to grave in a single database — including health, education, family and police records — the health ministry said Tuesday.

As a privacy safeguard, no single person or agency will be able to access all contents of a file. But organizations can raise "red flags" in the dossier to caution other agencies about problems, ministry spokesman Jan Brouwer said.

also...

Every child will get a Citizens Service Number, making it easier to keep track of children with problems even when their families move, said Secretary of Health Clemence Ross.

Wonder if they'll just go the extra step and barcode tattoo it to all the kids.

*sits back down in the corner rocking to-and-fro with his tinfoil hat and hardback edition of 1984*

 

[Kenpodoc]

Scary! Like alot of things the data base can be used for good intentions butis easily manipulated. It's the same reason I won't get a car with Onstar, I don't want GM to know my every waking moment. It's interesting how much Orwell got right in 1984 except that the technology is slicker and people are inviting Big Brother with open arms.

Jeff

 

[Andrew Green]

Crackers everywhere have been looking like a kid in a candy store since the story came out...

 

[Loki]

Scary! Like alot of things the data base can be used for good intentions butis easily manipulated.

...

It's interesting how much Orwell got right in 1984 except that the technology is slicker and people are inviting Big Brother with open arms.

Couldn't have said it better. Technology really does seem to have somewhat a Trojan horse effect. I wonder if they'll ever set solid guidelines for what's off limits due to danger of abuse outweighing usefulness.

 

[Tgace]

I thought the Dutch were THE example to emulate. You know with their enlightened views on drugs, sex, health care and all....:shrug:

sarcasm aside...I wonder if the Dutch are up in arms over the idea?

 

[ginshun]

not all that surpising to tell the truth.

might not happen in our lifetimes, bu you know that sooner or later everyplace will be like this.

 

[mj_lover]

in theory it would be great, but its easily exploited.

 

[andy]

A subdermal microchip would help the plan move along nicely.

 

[Tgace]

With a GPS locator, just in case the kid got lost or something...

 

[Flatlander]

You know, when I actually read the article, it seems much less like something to be concerned about. Some agencies are now talking to each other, as they weren't before. What's the big concern? This is going to help kids before they get too far off track.

 

[Tgace]

Im just enjoying the "this is going on your permanent record" theme....

 

[OUMoose]

You know, when I actually read the article, it seems much less like something to be concerned about. Some agencies are now talking to each other, as they weren't before. What's the big concern? This is going to help kids before they get too far off track.

I read the article as well, and it bothers me that people are that willing to give up their privacy to the state. Is this really going to help kids, or desensitize them to the reality that they will be tracked, profiled, and used as a baseline for the next "generation" of carbon-based units put into production by their progenitors?

I don't know about you, but it would bother me if I started receiving mail/phone calls/home visits as an adult because I read a book/played a game/watched a movie that was deemed "deviant in nature".

 

[Flatlander]

My take on it is that the information is already being collected. The authorities are merely streamlining the storage of it, and by doing so are now able to look for troubling patterns. I think that, provided they maintain the principles of justice and rule of law, then the new program will help more than it hurts. That's my take.

 

[Andrew Green]

It goes a little beyond steamlining things.

All the information may be already getting tracked, but by much smaller and independant sources. To put that much information on everyone into one database changes things a lot.

Even if this is only used for "ethical" purposes, what happens when (not if, but when) it gets stolen?

ok, let's look at it another way. Down there you got 3 powers in gov't right? The idea is to divide the power to prevent coruption right? Suppose one day in order to streamline things it was decided to forget all that and give the President full authority on everything.

Centralization is not always a good thing.

 

[Cryozombie]

Every child will get a Citizens Service Number, making it easier to keep track of children with problems even when their families move, said Secretary of Health Clemence Ross.

How is that really any different than how our SSN is used?