Xref: utzoo comp.org.eff.talk:1871 alt.privacy:80
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From: mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk,alt.privacy
Subject: Re: The end of privacy... and so what comes next?
Message-ID: <1991Apr1.180311.5557@eff.org>
Date: 1 Apr 91 18:03:11 GMT
References: <63473@bbn.BBN.COM> <10777@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM>
Organization: The Electronic Frontier Foundation
Lines: 29

Bernie Cosell's posting seems to me to be an excellent
articulation of the anti-privacy position (which he makes a
point of saying he does not necessarily share, by the way).

I believe that John Gilmore's speech at the Computers, Freedom,
and Privacy conference in San Francisco last week addresses
at least one of the anti-privacy arguments. John pointed out
that we live in a society in which each of us breaks laws,
knowingly or unknowingly, all the time. The easy accessibility
of personal data makes it easy for the government to exercise
its discretion to prosecute us or otherwise make our lives 
miserable.

It may well be that privacy is "just a cloak for illegal activity"--
the illegal activity that, as fallible human beings, we cannot help
engaging in.



--Mike




-- 
Mike Godwin, (617) 864-0665 | "You gotta put down the ducky
mnemonic@eff.org            |  if you wanna play the saxophone."
Electronic Frontier         |  
Foundation                  |