Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!mit-eddie!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!ai-lab!life.ai.mit.edu!guest From: guest@geech.ai.mit.edu (Guest Account) Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk Subject: Re: Information Control Message-ID: Date: 21 Mar 91 23:18:13 GMT References: <3622.27d4c133@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com> <1991Mar11.070712.4223@cs.ucla.edu> <3778.27dd2150@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com> <1225@airs.UUCP> <17230@venera.isi.edu> <17246@venera.isi.edu> Sender: news@ai.mit.edu Organization: Guest at MIT Lines: 38 In-reply-to: woolf@isi.edu's message of 21 Mar 91 02:24:32 GMT In article <17246@venera.isi.edu> woolf@isi.edu (Suzanne Woolf) writes: I'd like to see the default assumption change from "You can do whatever you want with information about me" to "Information about me belongs to me, and you can't propagate it outside our business transaction without my consent". I'm more than happy to start with "You have to tell me." I don't agree with the idea that "Information about me belongs to me". I have information about you right now. I know that you like to read comp.org.eff.talk. That could be valuable information to the publisher of a magazine for activists. I don't have your permission to have this information and since you are claiming to "own" all information about you, I must be breaking the law. Clearly, that is not the current state of the law. You want to limit the scope of the law to business transactions but that makes the law complicated and hard to enforce fairly. It will also make goods and services more expensive for everyone whether they care about privacy or not. Personally, I feel all the necessary tools are already available. You want to make a business transaction which involves divulging some information to another party. You don't want the information to propagate beyond this transaction. You have the party (by some sort of contract) agree not to propagate the information. Later, you find out they did propagate the information. You sue the pants off 'em. I hear your argument that there are no companies willing to operate this way but I believe in a free market system. If enough people demand privacy, it won't be long before some enterprising company figures out a way to make a profit by giving them what they want. Maybe you could collect names of people who want more privacy and tell some credit card company that they are all interested in having "private" accounts. I know the IEEE allows people to limit the propagation of personal information. Daniel Guilderson ryan@cs.umb.edu