Privacy
Steve Bates found a gem of an essay by Bruce Schneier on privacy.
I’m sick of this “if you have nothing to hide” attitude. We all have something “to hide”: our real feelings about people we deal with every day.
Do you really want people to know what you really think of their children’s behavior? Do you want people to know whether you really think they’re “good looking”? Do you want people to know what you really think of their gifts?
There are a lot of “white lies” in this world that make society possible. Being “brutally” honest is just that, brutal.
Most of the time only feelings would be hurt, but the fact that you think your boss is an obnoxious jerk with the IQ of a brick could result in homelessness if it became public knowledge.
This case is an extreme example of what happens when private information is available to the wrong people. This happened is spite of all of the changes put in place as a result of a 1989 case, to protect privacy.
When do they outlaw curtains and blinds?
4 comments
I’m totally for the NSA program to monitor, listen to our conversations, and make them public… As long and George and Dick are the first ones on the cue…
When they outlaw curtains and blinds, I will give them an eyeful.
Then, they’ll be sorry!
Welcome, CDaDS. We can’t get them to file the reports they are required to keep. Actually the thought of hearing the Shrubbery without a script is pretty scary.
Anya, that was actually a law in Geneva under the rule of Calvin. French lawyers have the oddest ideas.
Calvin, with great regret, ordered one of my most famous spiritual forebears… Michael Servetus, whom most UU’s claim as a source of inspiration… burned at the stake. He really was sorry he had to do it. Really.
If Calvin’s religious descendants in America order the blinds taken away, I’ll point more than my middle finger at them.