From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lee@piclab.com)
Date: Mon Dec 16 2002 - 11:08:40 MST
> (Eugen Leitl <eugen@leitl.org>):
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2002 19:06:19 -0500
> From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
> To: politech@politechbot.com
> Subject: FC: Hurrah for Total Information Awareness!
>
> [The below essay is posted through an anonymous remailer. I have a
> queue of other TIA replies I'll post later tonight or
> tomorrow. Briefly, the essay highlights two different ways to protect
> your privacy: (a) Maintain control over your information and use
> technology to limit disclosure and linking with past behavior. See,
> for instance, Stefan Brands' work I wrote about nearly three years
> ago: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,34496,00.html or
> (b) Allow the Feds and companies to collect your information and rely
> on laws and government forbearance to protect your privacy. David
> Brin has written about some of the problems with (a) -- though I do
> not find his arguments persuasive -- and TIA shows us the problems of
> (b). Laws can change in a moment at the whim of Congress or the
> courts; technological methods won't. --Declan]
It would be a mistake to characterize the "transparency" school of
thought by this false dichotomy: neither Brin nor I would have any
use for scenario (b) here. We have problems with (a) because it
automatically assumes that one places value on others' not having
certain pieces of true information about you. I contend that this
is an irrational fear, and not something to be valued. Even if we
grant people the ability to hide information about themselves, the
fact that they value "privacy" in this way is a disadvantage to them.
It is something they value that others don't, and so they become net
consumers of an expensive commodity with little real benefit. Far
better to simply choose not to value such privacy, and spend one's
energy elsewhere.
I don't deny that there are very good historical reasons for valuing
privacy, most notably powerful, intrusive, and repressive governments.
And we certainly haven't solved all of those problems even today.
But looking forward into the technological future it's important that
we fix the real problems and not just carry along our old band-aids.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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