Data has a habit of spreading. It slips past military security and it can also leak from WikiLeaks. It even slipped past the bans of the Guardian and other media organisations involved in this story when a rogue copy of Der Spiegel accidentally went on sale in Basle, Switzerland. Someone bought it, realised what they had, and began scanning the pages, translating them from German to English and posting up-dates on Twitter. It would seem digital data respects no authority, be it the Pentagon, WikiLeaks or a newspaper editor. Individually, we have all already experienced the massive changes resulting from digitisation. Events or information that we once considered momentary and private are now accumulated, permanent, public. Governments hold our personal data in huge databases. It used to cost money to disclose and distribute information. In the digital age it costs money not to. But when data breaches happen to the public, politicians don't care much. Our privacy is expendable. It is no surprise that the reaction to these leaks is different. What has changed the dynamic of power in a revolutionary way isn't just the scale of the databases being kept, but that individuals can upload a copy and present it to the world. To some this marks a crisis, to others an opportunity. Technology is breaking down traditional social barriers of status, class, power, wealth and geography—replacing them with an ethos of collaboration and transparency. Leaks are not the problem; they are the symptom. They reveal a disconnect between what people want and need to know and what they actually do know. The greater the secrecy, the more likely a leak. The way to move beyond leaks is to ensure a strong managing system for the public to access important information. We are at a key moment where the visionaries in the leading position of a global digital age are clashing with those who are desperate to control what we know. WikiLeaks is the guerrilla front in a global movement for greater transparency and participation. It used to be that a leader controlled citizens by controlling information. Now it' s harder than ever for the powerful to control what people read, see and hear. Technology gives people the ability to band together and challenge authority. The powerful have long spied on citizens as a means of control, now citizens are turning their collected eyes back upon the powerful. This is a revolution, and all revolutions create fear and uncertainty. Will we move to a New Information Enlightenment or will the strong resistance from those who seek to maintain control no matter the cost lead us to a new totalitarianism? What happens in the next five years will define the future of democracy for the next century, so it would be well if our leaders responded to the current challenge with an eye on the future.
单选题
The story about leak from WikiLeaks suggests that digital data is