DATE: Friday, August 15, 1997               TAG: 9708150035

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B11  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: OPINION 

SOURCE: Keith Monroe

                                            LENGTH:   81 lines

BIG BROTHER LIVES DUEL BETWEEN FREEDOM AND CONTROL TURNS DIGITAL

One of the reasons Tiananmen Square remains an indelible memory for so many is the way it encapsulated the two warring sides of human nature - the urge to freedom and the itch to control. The individual and the tank. The Statue of Liberty and the Red Army.

But that same conflict also played out in the case of the communications technology that brought news of those events. The world learned about the students in the Square in part because of portable, personal camcorders and satellite dishes. But when the crackdown came, the plug was pulled on the ground stations and transmissions were jammed

Optimists claim the individual freedoms conferred by modern technology - e-mail from laptops over the often anarchic Internet, Rodney King on video, smuggled sermons on audio tapes that powered the ayatollah's revolution - can't be successfully controlled by a central authority.

Some cyber experts, notably Esther Dyson, believe even the idea of copyright is anachronistic in a world of bits. When every man is a publisher, the idea of an ownership stake in authorship is imperiled.

Pessimists argue that for every new freedom, there's a new danger of control. If the phone is invented, the first wiretap can't be far behind. Big Brother may not be watching you, but he's surely capable of listening to your calls and counting your every keystroke.

And it isn't only repressive communist states that seek control. The state of Virginia recently tried to crack down on state employees who were allegedly playing games or perusing porn on computers at work. Some of the offenders turned out to be English professors reading Swinburne.

Private businesses, too, take a dim view of employees cavorting too freely on the Internet on the company's dime - and time. They sometimes resort to heavy handed edicts in order to make the point that the freedom of electronic communications is illusory.

The policy where I work regarding e-mail and Internet files is probably typical. It states that all such electronic communications are the property of the company, can be reviewed and monitored at any time, must be confined to business matters and that employees ``have no personal property rights'' in their e-mail or Internet files.

The impulse behind such policies may be understandable, but to many people they will seem like a hairball Catbert coughed up. For employees who have been trying for years to get computers or Internet access, a list of restrictions on their use is like telling a starving man which foods to avoid.

There's also the inevitable temptation of forbidden fruit. As soon as something is disallowed, it's attraction increases. And there's also the libertarian backlash to contend with. As soon as you tell people they can't send personal e-mail, they inevitably fire off a batch. It's human nature, or at least American nature, to say: Oh, yeah? Control this!

On the other hand, such rules are only fair warning that the controlling side of human nature is alive and well. If anyone doesn't know by now that modern communications aren't secure, private and personal, they haven't been paying attention.

Ollie North and friends were caught in the act when e-mail they thought was gone turned out not to be forgotten. Computer networks have long memories. Newt Gingrich was embarrassed when plotting over a cell phone was intercepted and recorded by Democrats. Just as every code can be cracked, so every communications advance carries with it a new threat to privacy. It is probably safe to assume that nothing is secret if there's sufficient interest in it.

When office coups were plotted around the water cooler, even if the talk was overheard it left no record. Now, every syllable of incriminating e-mail by those conspiring against the boss or passing on the latest juicy gossip leaves a trail and can be raised from the dead.

Some companies have tried to restrict e-mail, viewing it as a threat to productivity. Others have embraced total networking and constant communication as a spur to productivity, a way to flatten organizational hierarchies. The votes aren't yet in, but there can't be too many companies outside Silicon Valley who are enthusiastic about workers playing computer games on company time.

But if a company decides to be strict about the misuse of company time by technological means, an old problem arises: Who will watch the watchers? If someone is reading my e-mail to make sure it passes muster, who makes sure the monitor (censor? spy?) isn't misusing his access? One thing is certain, the conflict between freedom and control isn't going away. Instead, it has gone wireless, digital and on-line. MEMO: Mr. Monroe is editor of the editorial page of The Virginian-Pilot.

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