Computing Privacy Outlook Cloudy

[Hooch Tan]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://techdirt.com/articles/20100118/0232247789.shtml' target='_blank'>http://techdirt.com/articles/201001...232247789.shtml</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"The paper does a good job separating out the thinking here, and explaining why the Fourth Amendment absolutely should apply to information you store online. As it notes, while the Smith case said that phone numbers dialed might not be private, that did not extend to the contents of the phone call itself. And that's key"</em></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The only way to keep a secret is to not tell anyone.&nbsp; That is the general principle I have when it comes to information.&nbsp; If I do not want the world to know of my hidden love for Japanese hip hop, that I believe that bacon should be its own food group or that I think that the Carebears franchise deserves a "reboot" I do not tell anyone.&nbsp; Anything that I tell a company, I accept the fact that they might share it with someone else short of any privacy policy they have posted.&nbsp; The only exception to this for me, would be data stored by the government.&nbsp; As a critical part of life that functions for the community, information that the government stores about me (whatever that is) should be considered private.&nbsp; I am sure that some of you out there believe that this should be imposed on companies as well, but why?</p>

[stlbud]

I accept the fact that they might share it with someone else short of any privacy policy they have posted.

Privacy policies are fluid. They change subject to the whims of the policy holder. The policy holder can change as companies are bought out, management changes or a new monitization scheme comes into view.

Forget the Fourth Amendment, it's dead. We gave it away, cheaply after September 11, 2001. Government doesn't need a warrant, all they have to do is ask your bank, your phone company or your ISP for information. If they roll over and give it "like a good citizen", your done. Worse yet, companies offer your information to any and all comers if the price is right.

[Hooch Tan]

Security or convenience is the constant choice. With technology though, part of what it does is ebb away at our ability for privacy. Sure, it's enabled us to have faster financial transactions, talk to friends and family around the world and make our lives (arguably) easier, but it also means there is a wealth of data that is just that much more easily compiled about us.

The truth is though, I don't think that most people really care that much about their privacy, or at the very least, recognize how much of it they are giving away. Twitter and Facebook alone kind of demonstrate that.

[Reid Kistler]

Forget the Fourth Amendment, it's dead. We gave it away, cheaply after September 11, 2001. Government doesn't need a warrant, all they have to do is ask your bank, your phone company or your ISP for information. If they roll over and give it "like a good citizen", your done. Worse yet, companies offer your information to any and all comers if the price is right.


An important topic, with no clear answers. Alas, would agree that "With technology though, part of what it does is ebb away at our ability for privacy."

Of course, the openness of the internet, and the inability of electronic record keepers to keep those records private, are not the only culprits here: GPS systems in our phones, "black boxes" in our cars, video cameras almost everywhere one looks.... "1984" may be some 26-years past, but yet seems closer all of the time. :(


In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew…. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.