l****z
发帖数: 29846 | 1 by Ed Poll via LawBizBlog
Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill last month that requires all smartphones sold
in California to include a “kill switch.” The purpose of this bill is to
enable an owner who loses his/her smart phone to, remotely, make a
smartphone worthless to a thief. By flipping a switch remotely, the owner
of the phone can “kill” all the data that is on the phone. As one has put
it, the phone will become a “brick” and nothing more.
However, the bill also contains a provision that allows the government to
flip the kill switch as well. One can only imagine the irony of this
technology. As we have become more democratic,, more of an open society,
more easily able to communicate with the far reaches of the world,, we now
have a provision that will enable our government to shut us down. Can you
imagine what would have happened in the Soviet Union had Gorbachev not been
able to communicate with the outside world in the 1990s? Can you imagine
what would have happened in Ferguson, Missouri had the local citizenry not
been able to use their phones, iPads,, twitter accounts and other social
media to describe what was happening there? Now, all of a sudden, the state
of California is able to close down smartphones that might protest against
a given activity.
Although theft of smartphones is a serious issue, curtailing Democratic
action is far more serious.. Public protest is an old form of activism.
Technology has made such activism more widespread and more easily dispersed.
Technology can, should not, be used to curtail active public input. |
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