Privacy, Philosophy, Facebook and the War on Terror
What are you prepared to put up with to protect yourself from terrorist attack? Taking your shoes off to be x-rayed, having your emails analysed or going through a virtual strip-search in a scanner at an airport?
And if you are happy to put pictures of yourself streaking through a student party on Facebook do you have less of a right to moan about a scanner that can see through your underwear?
These and many other questions are being examined by philosopher Professor Tom Sorell from the University of Birmingham. As part of a European funded project he's meeting with manufacturers, government agencies and the police to discuss the impact of this new technology on all our lives.
He's the man from DETECTER which stands for Detection Technologies, Counter-Terrorism Ethics and Human Rights.
Professor Sorell works to make sure the technology being introduced to prevent terrorism doesn't violate the rights we all enjoy. The very rights that terrorists want to attack and that this technology is supposed to protect.
Chewing the fat in his book lined office on the Birmingham University campus I put it to him he's the very definition of an academic in an ivory tower. But he's refreshingly direct and also a practical man. Indeed he introduced me to the idea of "practical Philosophy". Philosophers wrestling with very concrete modern problems.
This particular project will end with suggestions for our Government and for Europe on the sorts of surveillance technology that is appropriate for certain threats and what isn't. And also how laws covering this area should be framed.
In the end what's the point of destroying our freedom with invasive technology that's actually supposed to be protecting it?
Philosophy on the front line of the war on terror.
I'm David Gregory, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Science Correspondent for the West Midlands. My first law states: "Science is the answer." There is no second law. Feel free to drop me a line: 
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