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I am moving from merely bored by the continuous privacy outcries to annoyed by them. There are some legitimate (my point of view) reasons to maintain some data as private. Chief among them is the need to protect against criminal activity like bank fraud and identity theft.
I really don't want private-sector businesses to gather data on my consumer habits. (Not that I have many consumer habits, mind you). I don't care that they have the information, but I don't like being advertised at. And that is more or less the extent of my privacy concerns.
It is not that they have the information that is the issue. It is what they do with that information. I can usually get behind the call for greater control of the accumulation of private data by private companies. I'm defining "private data" as any data that is not: part of a public record or contractually agreed to.
On to the government. The government (at many levels) has a great deal of knowledge about me. They know how much money I make (assuming I have declared it all), they know where I work, my job history, my criminal history, the number of children I have and where they go to school. They know where I live and what political party I support. The government has my fingerprints on file. They know how many times I've been married and to whom. They know my medical status and history for my entire adult life. There are records about my involvement in protests and the human rights organizations I have supported financially. The government knows a great deal and with little effort, they can find out anything they want about me. I don't care. If I can't trust my government with this data, then I can't trust them with anything at all. I don't always agree with what my government does, but I do generally trust the government.
I care about that they might do with that knowledge. That is different. I want some protections and some lines drawn about use, but I don't care that they have it. I think some of the lines Congress has drawn are entirely in the wrong place. For instance, I think all the agencies of the Executive Branch should be freely sharing the information they have. The "privacy curtains" make it much more expensive to investigate anything. Different agencies have the same information stored in a giant case of ridiculous redundancy.
I spent the first 20 years of my adult life in the US Navy. That meant that anyone in the world could easily find out how much money I made. And anyone can find out how much my retirement pay is (a bit harder because you have to know when I retired and how the pay changed every year). When I left the Navy, I was amazed that I was expected (and in one job, required) to keep my pay secret. I think it is not legal anymore to demand that an employee not reveal compensation.
I have lived most of my life with a "leave me alone, damn it" attitude. I can't help but assume that is the biggest reasons people jump up and down about privacy.
Enough belly aching about Facebook et al.
I really don't want private-sector businesses to gather data on my consumer habits. (Not that I have many consumer habits, mind you). I don't care that they have the information, but I don't like being advertised at. And that is more or less the extent of my privacy concerns.
It is not that they have the information that is the issue. It is what they do with that information. I can usually get behind the call for greater control of the accumulation of private data by private companies. I'm defining "private data" as any data that is not: part of a public record or contractually agreed to.
On to the government. The government (at many levels) has a great deal of knowledge about me. They know how much money I make (assuming I have declared it all), they know where I work, my job history, my criminal history, the number of children I have and where they go to school. They know where I live and what political party I support. The government has my fingerprints on file. They know how many times I've been married and to whom. They know my medical status and history for my entire adult life. There are records about my involvement in protests and the human rights organizations I have supported financially. The government knows a great deal and with little effort, they can find out anything they want about me. I don't care. If I can't trust my government with this data, then I can't trust them with anything at all. I don't always agree with what my government does, but I do generally trust the government.
I care about that they might do with that knowledge. That is different. I want some protections and some lines drawn about use, but I don't care that they have it. I think some of the lines Congress has drawn are entirely in the wrong place. For instance, I think all the agencies of the Executive Branch should be freely sharing the information they have. The "privacy curtains" make it much more expensive to investigate anything. Different agencies have the same information stored in a giant case of ridiculous redundancy.
I spent the first 20 years of my adult life in the US Navy. That meant that anyone in the world could easily find out how much money I made. And anyone can find out how much my retirement pay is (a bit harder because you have to know when I retired and how the pay changed every year). When I left the Navy, I was amazed that I was expected (and in one job, required) to keep my pay secret. I think it is not legal anymore to demand that an employee not reveal compensation.
I have lived most of my life with a "leave me alone, damn it" attitude. I can't help but assume that is the biggest reasons people jump up and down about privacy.
Enough belly aching about Facebook et al.