Changing Face of Privacy

Whose camera is it? This one is at the corner of 44th and Broadway in New York City. (Photo: Rekha Murthy © NPR Online)

July 25, 2001 -- With the explosive growth in the Internet, people are thinking more about privacy issues. While we may be accustomed to seeing videotape surveillance cameras in banks or at local convenience stores, how do we feel about face recognition software, putting personal information on the Web, or having our stroll through Times Square broadcast on the Internet?

Reporter Bob Garfield wants to know what we should worry about -- and what might be good for us. He talks with private investigators, marketing consultants, and a guy who is acutely aware of the number of surveillance cameras in Manhattan's Times Square. Bob searches the Web for his own identity, and wonders how "permanent" his "permanent record" -- the one they warned him about in grade school -- really is.

The Changing Face of America is an 18-month long NPR project that tells the stories of regular, everyday Americans and the issues they face at a time of rapid and dramatic change in the U.S. This special series can be heard on NPR's Talk of the Nation, All Things Considered and Morning Edition.

The Changing Face of America series is sponsored by The Pew Charitable Trusts.