Been playing World of Warcraft lately? Maybe a little Halo 3, or Call Of Duty? If the answer is yes, then you may wish to re-consider your playing style, especially if your online behavior is in any way betraying the fact that you are, in fact, secretly a terrorist… Yes that’s right, no need to re-read that last sentence, rather enjoy this next one: The US Government is to begin monitoring behaviour in online worlds in order to track and identify those who behave unusually (i.e. terrorists) and investigate them further (all expenses paid trip to Guantanamo anyone?). Now clearly I’m being slightly hyperbolic here, but the point is this; even if nobody ever even gets questioned as a result of this project, its very existence is enough to threaten the very principles which have allowed the web to become the complex and wonderful thing it is today…
Codenamed Operation Reynard, the project will initially research patterns of normative behaviour in online worlds (everything from Second Life to WoW) before applying the results to identify ‘anomalous’ entities within the system. Presumably the next step could involve a parallel real world surveillance of that individual, followed by god knows what else (though obviously only in a minority of cases). However, even if it turns out to be no more than a waste of US taxpayers money (and an unjustified invasion of privacy), it could nonetheless do huge long term damage to the image of trust and security on which the whole online sector relies. This project comes at a time when issues over data protection and ownership are proving to be one of Web 2.0’s biggest challenges, with users reacting furiously to any overstepping of boundaries: the controversy over Facebook’s intrusive Beacon app being one of many recent examples.
The relationship between many web services and their users is highly sensitive, and is often dependent upon users’ willingness to operate in an environment where they may not necessarily have total control over their data. In these situations it is crucial to minimise negative security and privacy experiences. Much of the web’s progress has come from an increase in the degree to which people will ‘live’ online; from initially fraud-wary users who now safely and confidently do all their shopping online, to the success of Facebook in inviting users to upload genuine personal data - full names, e-mail addresses, dates of birth, etc in order to interact using ‘real’ identities. It is important to ask how many of these hurdles would have been overcome if users had not first been able to trust that their data was safe and would not be abused by malicious third-parties? Where would we be now if users still treated the web with suspicion and a reluctance to engage?
The US Government’s latest project threatens to tip the scales of a delicate but broad problem; that many users who do not fully understand the inner workings of online systems they use (and plenty that do) can easily cease to trust that their data is safe in such environments and simply log off. It is absolutely paramount that their trust is respected and recognised as integral to the workings of the online universe. Any invasion of privacy that oversteps what users feel to be their implied cyber-rights will drastically hurt this world - even if no actual legal boundary has been transgressed. No-one doubts that the internet is a sector that should be considered by counter-terrorism agencies, but for the CIA to spy on the doings of a level 37 Mage questing for some magic item or other on one of the thousands of global WoW servers strikes me not only as absurd, but a massively irresponsible use of taxpayers dollars.
Dejan Levi