Will nanotechnology and other ambient technologies make privacy protection obsolete? - NanoWerk, USA
Last week, Forbes magazine ran a commentary by Robert Ellis Smith, publisher of the Privacy Journal newsletter, titled "Scay Stuff".

Smith argues that a new environment of ambient technologies may render obsolete the three decades' old regime for protecting privacy, which merely gives certain rights of access to citizens

Surveillance systems require huge investments, which require government backing, and so it's important for taxpayers--not to mention consumers and parents--to stay up to date on these trends.

Drinking at the champagne bar of modern science - Andrew Maynard for SafeNano, UK
The need for a strong risk-focussed research program to underpin safe emerging nanotechnologies is almost universally agreed on. But as decision makers use a generic set of criteria to direct and evaluate risk research, it seems we become increasingly vulnerable to favouring projects that are innovative and profitable, over those that reduce the chances of harm occurring. More than once, the sentiment has been expressed that nanotechnology risk research proposals are just not up to the mark. Knowing the quality of researchers in this field around the world, and their struggles to obtain adequate funding, I can only assume this is a mark that is more relevant to exploratory and applications-driven research, rather than preventing harm.