Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!maytag!looking!brad
From: brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton)
Subject: Re: Lotus Marketplace
Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd.
Date: Mon, 19 Nov 90 06:23:44 GMT
Message-ID: <1990Nov19.062344.2222@looking.on.ca>
References: <1990Nov16.205011.10348@uncecs.edu> <1990Nov17.074534.8751@looking.on.ca> <48514@cornell.UUCP> <4960@rsiatl.UUCP> <1990Nov19.000849.23021@math.lsa.umich.edu> <JMC.90Nov18190919@Gang-of-Four.stanford.edu>

I think John is right.  We can't pass laws telling people what they can
store.

We might be able to get away with regulating what people can do with data
they have, but I am wary of how such laws will be written.

The use of libel law to protect against bad database entries is an excellent
idea.  That body of law may be expanded slightly to deal with this.

That does not, however, deal with "privacy" in any way -- some people
have expressed a desire not to have demographic information collected
about them, or worse than that -- merged.

Unfortunately, laws to deal with such questions are very difficult to
enforce.  And I am against laws that are difficult to enforce.

We may have to come to grips with the fact that we are going to have
less privacy of certain types.  We can, fortunately, regulate what the
*government* does.

Consider the net, and its successors.   I have been on the net for over
ten years.   I have probably written a couple of thousand postings.
From those postings, you could figure out a great deal about me -- where
I've lived, where I've worked, who I know on the net, what my political
opinions and philosphies are, what I invest in, what software I develop,
what computer products I buy and use, what causes I support and what
jokes I think are funny.  (The net knows *far* too much about that.)

All this is public, and how can I claim it is anything but public?  Yet
I feel uneasy about somebody doing a database query on that, and getting
all of it at once, or a quick summary of it.  (Particularly some of those
earlier writings :-))

Likewise I am uneasy that even today a database search of newspaper
full-text will bring up my name as associated with racism, with few
pointers to articles that indicate the truth.  (For those who don't know,
I support free speech, and thus "support" racist speech the same way the ACLU
"supports" Nazis in Illinois.)

But I think I am just going to have to live with it, and as nets become
bigger and swallow the educated world, we may all have to.  I can copyright
my net postings and forbid their storing in archives, but I can't forbid
summarizing.  Besides, just try to make such a copyright restriction on
your net postings today!)

Perhaps we can look for ways to stop information from us from changing
hands without our permission.  That is analogous to copyright, and might
be safe enough.   Right now my bank knows all about me, but the ethics of
banking forbid them from broadcasting it to the world.  Perhaps more things
like this need to be codified, in standard contracts, or if that fails, in
law.
-- 
Brad Templeton, ClariNet Communications Corp. -- Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473
