Consider one example of function creep. The Electoral Commission of Uganda has retained Viisage Technology to implement a face recognition system capable of enrolling 10 million voters in 60 days. The goal is to reduce voter registration fraud. But Woodward notes that the system might also be put to work fingering political opponents of the regime. And Uganda probably isn't the first country that springs to mind when someone says "due process" or "civil rights."

The central question raised by Amato's story is: Who will decide which functions of a dramatic new technology are acceptable and which are just too, well, creepy? As Amato's story and others that have recently appeared in TR suggest, we all need to think carefully about how new technologies are implemented and used. And after we've thought about it, we need to do something about it. If we don't, then the decisions will get made by those with deep pockets and deep vested interests. We need to wake up to these issues soon, because "the technology is developing at the speed of light, but the privacy laws to protect us are back in the Stone Age," as Barry Steinhardt, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union, put it to Amato.