25A032 Privacy in the ZGS by Jim Davies, 8/12/2025

After all government employees have walked off the job in disgust, it will cease to exist; a Zero Government Society will have begun. Since all laws are written and enforced by government, those too will be history; there will no longer be any crime, for that consists of breaking laws. There will still be some krime - though not much - that is, acts which do damage to a real person, who will expect justice - ie, restitution.

So there will be a demand for that proper kind of justice; therefore the free market will provide a supply; competing detectors, apprehenders, lawyers, arbitrators and executors in an industry briefly described on the "Justice" page of The Anarchist Alternative. The detectors, particularly, will want to use the latest available techniques to identify the aggressor when he is not already known. And that raises the question of our subject here: privacy.

125 years ago fingerprints were at the cutting edge of detection; but is your fingerprint yours? - your property, part of "you", which you're entitled to keep private? How about DNA, which became an amazing and powerful tool for detectors 30 years ago? Surely that is even more part of "you"? And what of facial recognition, now rapidly evolving as a tool of detection and surveillance; doesn't that grossly violate privacy? So how far, if at all, are these techniques valid for use in the coming ZGS?

It's worth thinking through such questions, and quite probably there will be differing answers from good anarchist people - so I'm getting mine in first . It is that certainly, all those attributes are yours, and therefore you should guard them and keep them as private as you wish; the responsibility is yours, and you have grounds for complaint only if they are stolen despite your reasonable attempts to protect them.

So if you don't want fingerprints found, don't scatter them around! Wear gloves, or super-glue on the fingers, etc. Likewise, DNA; don't leave spittle on the soda can or wine glass, nor blood on a knife handle. Does this apply also to facial recognition? - now, that's an example that really requires reflection.

Humans (and animals?) have been scanning each others' faces ever since our species evolved, to tell whether we recognize the persons we encounter. The only new thing about this is the system of measuring facial characteristics, the storage and retrieval of those measures at a button's touch; but that database merely imitates what our brains and memories have been doing since the year dot. If we wish to keep our faces private, stay indoors or wear a mask! - not feasible, in normal interaction with friends and acquaintances, and never has been.

What, then, is so objectionable about these ways of telling who we are, even today? - just this: the data collection is being done by those with power to do us harm; ie, government. The scale of surveillance and privacy violation is massive; a detailed profile is being constantly built up for each of us, using every way they can including the huge dragnet on our phone calls and emails, by people whose purpose is to exploit us, and who presently have the power to do so with impunity.

But in the ZGS, that will be true no longer. If some krime detector finds your fingerprint and accuses you falsely, you'll be free to hold him fully responsible for the error; he will have no immunity. So he will be very careful.

What of compelled provision of DNA, as is done sometimes today by government snoops? - of course not. It's yours, and if they take anything of yours without permission you'll have grounds for claiming restitution.

Otherwise, though, if you cast away a fingerprint, it's not yours any longer and so any loss of privacy is your own doing. And as I see it, such loss is entirely unimportant... unless you were engaged in krime. One reason why there won't be much.