On Fri, 13 Jun 1997, Declan McCullagh wrote:
Oh, and at least read the whole article.
-Declan
Privacy? What Privacy?
by Declan McCullagh June 12, 1997
I have a confession to make: Unlike many of my civil libertarian colleagues, I believe you have no general right to privacy online. Sure, you have the right to protect your personal data, but you shouldn't be able to stop someone else from passing along that information if you let it leave your computer. That's your responsibility.
I still disagree, and not just online. There is plenty of information that you have no control over but should. Your credit card transactions for instance can be looked up by any scumbag willing to pay money to TRW and it's ilk. Your DMV records, your health records. In theory only those that need to know this knowledge should be able to access it, and in practice what have we seen so far? If I give XYZ corp any info I expect them not to sell that info without my permission. Verily, that information is valuable, therefore if they want to sell it, they should get my permission, and should pay me for it. I don't necessarily want government restrictions on privacy, however I would want a constitutional amendment to privacy that says: all I do is private unless I explicitly share it with others, and if I do share it, they may not pass it on to others without my permission. This is on a personal level, not on a corporate or governmental level. Why I feel this way is an excercise for the reader. Hint: Uncle Sam works for us since we pay him from our income. We don't work for him (most of the time.) How many loons have used DMV records to stalk their victims? How about the nice Netscape hole that allows sites to surf your hard drive as you're surfing their sites? Yes, I do take privacy seriously, and I do protect it. But to say anyone has the right to snoop my machines and see what I have there is NOT cool. What I leave on my computer is my private business, and NOBODY HAS THE RIGHT TO SURF IT WITHOUT MY PERMISSION. Whether or not they have root. As for Radio Shack weasels, I don't give them info, or give them misleading info. What's on my hard drives and in my machine's RAM is NONE OF ANYONE'S BUSINESS! At the last PC Expo, I registered as H.P. Lovecraft. When I buy things that are purchased by credit card I know that info will leak out, and don't do this unless I'm willing to leak it out. So, I still disagree with your view. Even after reading the whole article. =====================================Kaos=Keraunos=Kybernetos============== .+.^.+.| Ray Arachelian | "If you wanna touch the sky, you must |./|\. ..\|/..|sunder@sundernet.com| be prepared to die. And I hate cough |/\|/\ <--*-->| ------------------ | syrup, don't you?" |\/|\/ ../|\..| "A toast to Odin, | For with those which eternal lie, with |.\|/. .+.v.+.|God of screwdrivers"| strange aeons, even death may die. |..... ======================== http://www.sundernet.com =========================