Ethnic profiling is the use of someones ethnicity, nationality, sexual preference or religion to target them and label them as a specific group as mentioned by (Blom, 2006) It is labeling a group purely on certain characteristics rather than looking at the person itself. It is mostly used by police and law- enforcements to prevent crimes and in ‘the war against terrorism’ [as they might like to call it themselves]. It is mostly used by the police for security checks.
By looking at someone’s appearance they decide whether it matches their risk profile. However, I would like to introduce the term ethic profiling. Because unlike ethnic profiling, ethic profiling often can not been seen by the looks of someone. It includes ones ethics. Their believes in what is right and what is wrong. Something that in ‘real life’ is not often presented when first met but seems rather normal online.
LGBTI Empowerment
Internet can empower people and especially minorities. If we look into the LGBTI world we can see that there are great initiatives for this. On websites like R U Comingout people share their personal coming-out stories. They share their intimate story and they often post a picture and their first name. Due to this the story gets more personal and readers can connect more to it.
Especially young people have the opportunity to express themselves and find support when needed on sites like R U Comingout. This is one of the positive sides of the use of internet and helps the LGBTI emancipation and acceptance under gays themselves. Nevertheless, there are also some dangerous and negative sides to the internet openness.
One of the most popular apps among gay men is Grindr. On this app gay men can find each other and date either for relationship reasons, or for sex dates. By using this last option gay men meet each other and make an appointment at their house, a hotel or an other location. However since last year (2013) multiple incidents occurred whereby the person was mugged either after having sex or instead of having sex. This information was shared with me by a friend [who’s name is not to be mentioned] who had to experience this negative moment twice.
Websites with a focus on a specific minority can create a false sense of security. I can imagine that people feel like a website is intimate due to the stories and the interests shared.
Tricked into violence
These are all examples of situations which can be avoided by taking the right percussions. However recently other serious events took place whereby people were tricked into violent situations. as can be read in the blog post of Day (2013). In Russia several cases have been reported whereby extremist created profiles on gay websites to browse through the members to see if there are any gays located near them. After doing this they either faked conversations which lead to meet-ups or they found out where they lived by other information given. This resulted in severe attacks and injuries as can been seen in the video about Russia’s gay violence by the reporter Campbell (2014). These victims were insulted, beaten and raped.
International travel
All of these examples mentioned show situations of locals having a clash with other locals. But what if governments have access to all your information and build an ethic profile of you? When entering a country they will instantly know if your belief matches that of the country visiting.
Customs and other law-enforcements already screen social media for suspicious entries. An example of this are the two Brits who got in trouble when entering the USA after a tweet which was meant to be funny about destroying the USA which was published by Hartley-Parkinson (2012).
All of the examples mentioned in this essay are incidents on a relatively small scale. But I wonder what it would be like if technology improves and the possibilities to access personal information by governments increases.
Power to the government
No one can really predict the future but lets imagine that the people will get less power over the internet and governments more. This will mean that they will be able to track more of our data. The more data they can collect the better profiles they can build of us. Take for instance Europe, it’s 2020 and imagine that almost every citizen is profiled. This data is not only available for your local government, it is available to every government that is interested, and they all can look up your information. In 2022 the world cup is held in Qatar, I decide that I want to visit the match of the Netherlands. Upon my arrival customs will check my profile and discover that I am gay. They have a law against sodomy [also for women?] and I am either directly send to prison or send back on the first flight home. Were as currently I could move freely around the globe and keep my sexual preference to myself.
Transparency will force people to step out of their protected cocoon and could therefore lead to more friction. Because when minorities are visible, friction could occur. It means that the risk of being different could come at a heavy toll. People will know it, in some cases judge you by it, or if the gap between the norm and your beliefs is too big it may even become dangerous. Due to this people will lose the freedom to choose. They will no longer be able to choose how they want to live and if their online identity matches the one in real-life. People could get a false identity and profile due to what they said and did in the virtual world. This could radiate onto someones real identity without them wanting it.
Researching is thinking
By creating these kinds of profiles governments instantly can see if someone is different and does not share the same beliefs, norms and values. Whereby earlier people could keep this private and share their norms and values when they believed it was safe. In believe that the future even having a opinion or thinking instead of acting can lead to danger. Sometimes you need to doubt and by doubting you do research about your beliefs. In this case the internet can help you with your doubts and help you do research about your beliefs. This means you have to look up both sides to the story as a good reporter would do. This therefore automatically means you have to look up the things which you later conclude you do not like, believe, or see as right. A boy growing up can at a certain point google information about being gay to exclude the thought he is. This does not mean he actually is. This could be a downside of creating ethic profiles because the things you search online are not always in line with who you are and what you beliefs are. This means that not just I will be held up at customs but also someone who may have searched for gay information online. It therefore could also lead to a situation in which governments think somebody is gay but actually is not.
My online identity
Whereby at first I was pro openness and transparency even about my sexual preference I now have become hesitant of it. When I consciously think of what could happen if governments can access my personal data I get more hesitant. I think it will be in my interest if I start removing all information about my sexual preference within the upcoming months. With my activistic thinking I believe this is no option for me. However hopefully it is not too late for those who need to reshape the image of what they want to present to the world. Because for some the online risks are bigger than for others, and why let get your online freedom in the way of your personal/ offline freedom? I guess that is a decision which everyone has to make for themselves.
Campbell, E. [Journeyman Pictures]. (2014, January 14). The terrifying reality of life under Russia’s anti-gay laws [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=2ltG3y4tTk4
Day, A. (2013, Augustus 8). The 20 most shocking anti gay news stories from Russia so far [Blog post]. Retrieved from http:// www.pinknews.co.uk/2013/08/08/the-20-most-shocking- anti-gay-news-stories-from-russia-so-far/
Greenwald, G. (2013, June 12). NSA collecting phone records of millions of Verizon customers daily [News Article]. Retrieved from http:// www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/nsa-phone- records-verizon-court-order
Hartley-Parkinson, R. (2012, January 31). ‘I’m going to destroy America and dig up Marilyn Monroe’: British pair arrested in U.S. on terror charges over Twitter jokes [News Article]. Retrieved from http:// www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2093796/Emily-Bunting- Leigh-Van-Bryan-UK-tourists-arrested-destroy-America- Twitter-jokes.html
Kosinskia, M., Stillwella, D., and Graepelb, D. (2013, February 12). Private traits and attributes are predictable from digital records of human behavior [Research paper]. Retrieved from http://www.pnas.org/content/early/ 2013/03/06/1218772110.full.pdf+html.
Rushe, D., Ackerman., S and Ball, J. (2012, October 30). Reports that NSA taps into Google and Yahoo data hubs infuriate tech giants [News Article]. Retrieved from http:// www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/oct/30/google- reports-nsa-secretly-intercepts-data-links
