Hello again,
Today I'm writing about privacy and the sovereignty of personal data.
To some extent, privacy is a right, to the extent that others using it
is an infringment of rights.
Privacy is a broad issue, affecting many diverse areas.
For a summary of my views on privacy rights, note:
http://www.tomco.net/~raf/rights.html
Over the past ten years or so, legislation has been introduced that
concerns privacy. One of my favorites so far is the Privacy Protection
Act of 1993, but not necessarily those of other years. This can be
found online at http://thomas.loc.gov/.
Each of us, every day, has some of our personal data used without our
knowledge. This is how they e- or postal mail tax forms, which is a
requirement of citizenship, and how they send anonymous bulk e-mail,
which is an invasion of privacy. Taxation without representation is
unconstitutional, but that is a different topic.
Your personal data is in the hands of myriad diverse parties that have
absolutely no qualms to use it however they would, and no right to it.
One thing I advocate is some kind of "privacy preference profile."
Using such an item (prototypes exist), one could select what data to
share with these obnoxious marketers, and then they could pay you for
the privilege of using your personal data.
--
Ross Andrew Finlayson
202/387-8208
http://www.tomco.net/~raf/
"C is the speed of light."