Re: Transparent society

From: Michael S. Lorrey (retroman@turbont.net)
Date: Fri May 12 2000 - 07:04:35 MDT


Zero Powers wrote:
>
> >From: "\[ Robert-Coyote \]" <coyyote@hotmail.com>
>
> >If privacy is property, as are all other Rights, how can my property be
> >taken without due process?
>
> You have no right to privacy when you are in public.

Says who? Perhaps not out there in Hollywood where everyone's life is
for sale all the time, but not elsewhere. People have a right to be
respected and treated considerately wherever they are.
>
> >Is asserting that only criminals value privacy, the same thing as saying
> >privacy is contraband?
>
> Perhaps, I don't know. But that's not *quite* what I have said. What I
> *have* said is that if your deeds are admirable, usually you don't fear
> being observed doing them.

Except when they are nobody's damn business. You don't need to know who
I am sleeping with, you don't need to know where I do business, and
where I work, or what I do on the weekends.

>
> >If privacy is only to be held by the govmnt for national security purposes,
> >then is it not munitions as encryption is?
>
> Perhaps. But as with other "munitions" the government can only use them
> against her own citizens under *very* limited circumstances.
>
> >If my personal information has value, and that personal information is made
> >use of, where is my payment for the use?
>
> I would agree that if someone makes a profit from merely disseminating your
> personal information, you should be entitled to a cut.

They you would go on to say that the money government makes off of your
information reduces the amount that government has to tax you, assuming
you have any other say in what you get taxed.

>
> >Can the govment take responsibility for any damage that may be cause
> >because
> >of dispersal of my property to those who would do me harm?
>
> Except under certain specified circumstances, the government *can* certainly
> be sued for damages it may cause you.

The government gets to decide who it lets sue it. Hardly an unbiased
venue, eh?

>
> >If disclosure of some information that is not volunteered by me causes me a
> >harm, who is liable?"
>
> Assuming you are damaged by a tortious or criminal disclosure of information
> about you, then the discloser would be liable to you for those damages.

Or the corporate entity in whose name the disclosure was made. You
privacy gets compromised every day by government, mostly at your state
DMV. How many times do you think the Privacy Act is used to prosecute a
government bureaucrat? Rarely.

Mike Lorrey



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