Born on the Net

One of the founding principles of theinformation age is unrestricted access. It may seem a trifle utopian, but it cannot be denied that the world over, even in the most benighted of places, an ever-increasing fraction of the population has access to relatively authentic information through the media in its various incarnations, and from libraries, databases, institutions and government agencies. So far, however, only information in the public domain has been freely available. Sean8217;s birth is a defining event in the gradual blurring of the hitherto sacrosanct divide between private and public domains. Before him, there have been people who continuously broadcast their whole lives to the Internet through digital cameras in their offices, living rooms, kitchens, even their bedrooms. They are routinely dismissed as perverts and exhibitionists, but they are really living signs that man has mutated successfully to survive in the infoworld.

An often catastrophic loss of privacy 8212; Diana8217;s was an extreme case 8212; is the price exacted from everyone inpublic life. Soon, every citizen may have to pay in the same coin as all lives go public.

The US took the first step in this direction with the social security number. In exchange for giving citizens access to the welfare services of the state, it also ensures that all citizens are transparent to the state. Privacy is exchanged for protection. The Indian taxman8217;s PAN number is a small, belated step in the same direction. The way ahead is shown by a legislation which is all but forgotten now: the Right to Information Bill. The information age, which believes that complete freedom lies in complete transparency, is one in which no one is in complete charge. Its foundations are made secure by expelling Big Brother, by universalising transparency. If the head of state has the right to snoop on a citizen, the latter must have an equal right to call for the big man8217;s records. There is one catch to this wonderful world, though. Big Brother is dead, but an even more frightening monster is born: the unwavering,unblinking, inhumanly remote public gaze. Born, like little Sean, on the Internet.

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