On Wednesday, June 18, 2003, at 05:17 AM, Adam Shostack wrote:
I wasn't arguing, I was quipping.
I find the many meanings of the word privacy to be fascinating. So when someone commented that the car's tattle-box is or isn't a privacy invasion, I thought I'd offer up a definition under which it is. Its a definition that lots of people use, as John points out.
Perhaps better than 'right' would be 'ability,' 'The ability to lie and get away with it.'
I wasn't picking on you or your points, that's for sure. In fact, I barely noticed whose message I was replying to. My point was a larger one, that nearly all such debates about privacy eventually come round to issues of "what have you got to hide?" and issues of truth and lies. This is why I like the "Congresss shall make no law" and "shall not be infringed" absoluteness of the original Constitution. The language does not natter about "truthful speaking shall not be infringed." And this is why more recent legislation allowing government to regulate "commercial speech" or to decide which speech is true and which is false (as in advertising claims) is so corrosive to liberty. --Tim May "The great object is that every man be armed and everyone who is able may have a gun." --Patrick Henry "The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." --Alexander Hamilton