PRISM and the Digital Refraction

By their very nature, a prism is a geometric figure that refracts (bends) incoming light and changes the direction of it.

One of the hotter stories in the technology arena the past few weeks is that of the US Government PRISM program and it seems to me that their decision to name the program as such may not have been as deliberate as how I perceive it, but to me, it’s a very appropriate moniker.

PRISM is an electronic surveillance program developed and administered by the National Security Agency in the United States. The intent of this program is to monitor websites, photos, emails, and video and chat sessions in order to protect the country from foreign threats

Last week, an NSA contractor leaked documents which seem to indicate that the scope of the program has far exceeded the original intent and it is alleged that it now has direct access to the servers (and the data contained within) of Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft and other major websites.

The protection of a society is always paramount and many times it’s a delicate balance to afford this, while at the same time preserving the fundamental civil liberties. A program which tramples civil liberties (despite all of its good intentions) is as dangerous as a program where the population is at risk if the government is unaware of plots and aren’t able to intercept them.

What concerns me most is how it appears that the mandate of PRISM can grow, casting a bigger net over democracy. While they may be catching some of the bigger fish, there are too many smaller (and innocent) fish being caught up in the same net.

PRISM is not allowed to specifically target any individual unless there is reason to believe that there is direct evidence of a specific threat or plot.

In addition, there is also a “guilt by association” factor coming into play. If there is a specific “terrorist” where the NSA has significant reason to believe that there is a risk, then part of their online presence will be silently monitored. Further (and for me, this is the scary part), if there are a number of incoming emails to this individual, then the NSA can expand their scope and consider the sender to be a “person of interest” and as such, while they may not specifically monitor that person, at the very least, they could be flagged.

The danger is that with the technological age, the whole concept of “Six Degrees of Separation” has probably become more something like “3 ½ Degrees of Separation”. The number of people that we communicate with has grown exponentially in the digital age with message boards, user communities, social networking and the like.

In my mind, it’s very much like the Phacebook Phriends Phenomena which seems to be that it’s all about the number of “friends” on their profile. I find it hard to imagine that people actually have 500-600 true “friends”. I’m quite happy to keep my Facebook profile very sparse, but I digress.

Much like the prism, the PRISM program seems to be “bending” the data contained within the information superhighway to suit its purposes, assuming malevolence where there is not some.

Whether the large tech companies are permitting NSA full and unfettered access to their data remains to be seen. Even if this scandal turns out to be paranoid hyperbole, I am convinced that government agencies will not be able to resist the electronic breadcrumbs that we lay down.