The disadvantages of an increasingly transparent world outweigh the advantages - opening speeches

Opening proposition speech

This is not science fiction but real: Big Brother is watching you! The latest electronic devices are massively collecting data of its users and powerful algorithms are creating profiles of every one of us. Information technology develops much faster than governments can regulate it. This has fatal consequences for our privacy – we are living like in a glass box! (Continues below the fold…)

by MJ

Opening opposition speech

Good morning ladies and gentlemen and fellow debaters. This week's motion is about how the disadvantages of an increasingly transparent world outbalance the advantages. My team and I believe this statement is false. In that regard, in order to really grasp the topic, we have to define what a "transparent world" really is. To me the most appropriate definition of a transparent world is a world where people's lives are easy to see through, understand, or recognize. However, it is crucial that this transparency doesn't occur at the cost of one's privacy. With respect to this issue, it should be noted that one has to set the boundaries regarding their privacy. One has to choose what limits not to be crossed, because, at the end of the day, everyone is entitled to privacy and freedom. Still, in today's world, a certain amount of visibility has to be provided. (Continues below the fold...)

by HM

Opening proposition speech

This is not science fiction but real: Big Brother is watching you! The latest electronic devices are massively collecting data of its users and powerful algorithms are creating profiles of every one of us. Information technology develops much faster than governments can regulate it. This has fatal consequences for our privacy – we are living like in a glass box!

Our society drifts towards a “transparent world”. People are filmed by security cameras, everybody posts information about its personal life on Facebook, Smartphones locate people via GPS, Wi-Fi and mobile internet and web browsing is used as a source of information about people’s consumer behavior. On top of all that new gadgets speed up this shift towards total observation: Drones can be used by the police for surveillance but prices have fallen so that absolutely anyone can equip these new RC flying objects with a camera. After Google Street View, where photos of the streets of many cities around the world have been made available online, Google’s newest and most controversial project is called “Glass”: voice controlled glasses with a camera and a screen which have almost the same functions as a smartphone.

Even if we don’t want to, information is collected about us. Reality is being superposed by a second, virtual world, a big data cloud, which can tell you everything about anyone if you are just influential enough.

Information flow gets out of control! It has gotten extremely hard to follow the capturing, the processing and the use of data. Every time we surf on the internet, browsing behavior is being tracked without that we even know it (Link). Here is an example: Someone is sick and googles his symptoms. He learns in a forum about a disease he might have and does some further research online. Today’s reality is, that, thanks to “website visitor tracking”, on whatever web site he will go after having looked up this disease, there possibly pops up advertisement for appropriate medicaments, hospitals near to his location that can cure him, even lawyers who can fight for his rights towards his health insurance. Some might consider this as practical information, but what if someone would use this information against us? Health insurances that deny you, because the treatment you need is too costly, companies who don’t accept your application, because they only seek for healthy employees... This list can be continued and shows that the uncontrollability of information harbors a considerable danger that can’t be compensated by the convenience that arises with modern technologies.

Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights guarantees the right to respect for private and family life, one’s home and correspondence (Link). We should not let the increasing transparency erode our human rights! With Google Street View, one can look into everybody’s garden. Smartphones with Google’s operating system Android send its location and information about installed applications to Google. When this all too mighty company has updated its privacy policy in 2012, six European countries have rightly doubted the conformity with EU law and have launched an investigation. The new policy allows Google to exchange information across all its services. For example, Google can combine information about location, videos watched on Youtube, effected requests on the search engine and much more in order to create very exact profiles of its users. This is today’s situation. Imagine all the data that Google Glass can create soon! Face recognition would enable Google to locate even non-Google users who find themselves in the field of view of someone wearing those glasses. Is all this necessary and rightful only for Google’s purpose to better place advertisement in order to earn more money? We have to answer this question with a determined no! Our privacy is worth much more than this!

In Western democracies, political organizations are demanding laws to protect us from today’s threats occurring with increasing transparency. But what about countries like Iran or North Korea which aim for total control of their peoples? Observation through security cameras and drones and mobile phone location sensing represent an enormous potential to create a police state! When my parents had been spied out in communist Eastern Germany, there were still people who had to take photos, follow people in the street, listen to phone calls and read letters. Today’s techniques allow computer based face and voice recognition. Emails and SMS can be scanned automatically for “rebellious words”. The world described by George Orwell in “1984” will likely become true in 2014!

We have to realize that this increasingly transparent world is a threat to our privacy and to democracy in general! So please dear reader, vote for the motion!

MJ

Opening opposition speech

Good morning ladies and gentlemen and fellow debaters. This week's motion is about how the disadvantages of an increasingly transparent world outbalance the advantages. My team and I believe this statement is false. In that regard, in order to really grasp the topic, we have to define what a "transparent world" really is. To me the most appropriate definition of a transparent world is a world where people's lives are easy to see through, understand, or recognize. However, it is crucial that this transparency doesn't occur at the cost of one's privacy. With respect to this issue, it should be noted that one has to set the boundaries regarding their privacy. One has to choose what limits not to be crossed, because, at the end of the day, everyone is entitled to privacy and freedom. Still, in today's world, a certain amount of visibility has to be provided.

That brings me to my first point: The current circumstances we live in make it essential for superior authorities to have access to the most basic information about citizens. It is mandatory so that we can prevent hazardous situations that sadly are beginning to happen on a daily basis. Still, for one mass shooting or terrorist attack, a dozen are being prevented as we can often hear on the news about terrorist or criminal cells being dismantled before they get to carry out their plans. This tells a lot about how valuable a "recordable" world is. Not only does a monitored world can help deter dangerous situations from actually happening, it can also help maintain records that can be retrieved later when needed. For instance, I am quite unsure the people behind the Boston bombings could have gotten caught that fast without these video recordings of them carrying bags that have raised suspicion on them. In other examples of legal cases, an image provided by a CCTV camera can serve as a piece of evidence against a defaulter. Also, keeping track of the history of online message boards can assist in making legal claim against a child molester for instance.

So, to sum up my point, being monitored is essential to our security. Google's CEO Eric Schmidt rightfully said that in a world where we are constantly under threat, "it is too dangerous [...] not to be some way to identify you". But a common ground has to be found between both civilians and authorities to keep this system under control and without pushing boundaries so that abuses of authorities, such as racial profiling, are avoided. Now, let us move to a lighter note. We live in an era where Youtube, Google and other means of exchanging data online have become prominent parts of our everyday life. And for the most part, they are met with criticism because supposedly they lead to the users suffering from a lack of privacy. Facebook is the epitome of that. But one can always have a Facebook account and still keeping a high level of privacy. Users have a total freedom over their accounts. What's more, in light of Facebook's bizarre policy on acquiring rights to its users' data, one has to be very cautious on what photos they should upload. For all we know, by adhering to websites such as Twitter, Linkedin or Facebook, it is mandatory that we maintain a certain control over what we choose to share, so we can enjoy the main perks of social networking and transparency on the internet, which are obviously about retrieving old acquaintances, creating a professional network, having instant contact with friends, as well as the security reasons brought in my first point. Our society is evolving, people need to instantly access to information. We need to accept that change while knowing with certainty that privacy will never be lost.

So ladies and gentlemen, in conclusion, a transparent world is an ineluctable change that is bound to happen. We might as well accept that rather than being in denial. We can still manage to maintain our privacy while enjoying the many advantages this monitoring and instant access to information can provide. This is why we urge to vote against this outdated motion! And thank you for your attention.

HM