Patrick Radden Keefe has his first book out. It's called Chatter, and it's a page-turner. It forces us to focus on the longstanding, stop-at-nothing informational ties among Britain, the US, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.
I knew that these countries cooperated closely on consumer protection and policing matters, but I hadn't realized how broad the relationships among the five were, and I didn't know about the unimaginable amount of data they make available to one another. (Constraints on local law enforcement's abilities to spy are dignified and appropriate, but irrelevant — constitutional protections aren't barriers when your cousins across the ocean can spy on your citizens for you.) The US seems to act in a somewhat hoggish manner, taking in more than it divulges, but there's plenty of activity all the way around.
Chatter forces a change of perspective. Most of our disputations about privacy and identity theft and the rest seem like the banter of hobbyists in light of the real information flows that Keene documents. Privacy legislation in the US might mitigate some private company uses of data, but it seems as if there is always a way for the highest levels of national security agencies to get access to whatever they need for whatever purpose. While citizens occupy themselves with the activities of legislators and regulatory agencies — and credit bureaus — the real conversation may be elsewhere.
What effect does all of this have on online life? As groups form happily online, doing their work and padding around chatting amiably, does it matter that they're being watched? Perhaps it doesn't. Perhaps there's just too much to watch, and the patterns that these useful groups create aren't of any interest to the watchers. Or perhaps the watched won't know they're watched until later.