Re: Philosophy of information ownership

[Sandy Sandfort <sandfort@crl.com>]

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                       SANDY SANDFORT
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C'punks,

At 10:55 PM 5/27/96 -0700, Bruce Baugh wrote:

>What specifically bothers me is the reselling of information that I chose to
>reveal for a specific transaction, most especially when I did so with an
>assumption of privacy.
 ^^^^^^^^^^
The magic phrase in law is--and should be--"reasonable
expectation of privacy."  The world is full of unreasonable
assumptions about all sorts of things.  One certainly has
the right to feel bothered about acts that violate one's
assumptions, but this hardly gives one the right to compel
others to comply with those whims.

>...I'd feel much ground
>for complaint if I learned the list owner were selling credit histories
>gathered during the subscription process. (Unless, of course, I assent to a
>clause to the effect that the list owner can do anything he wants with my
>credit info, as opposed to the specific purpose of getting payment for the
>list.)

Every day, merely by existing, we give other people 
information about ourselves.  is it reasonable to expect
these people to no release nor use that information unless 
we specifically give them permission?  I don't think so.
In most situations, we must take positive steps to assure
that our privacy will be maintained.  Generally, it is 
incumbunt upon us--not others--to secure our own privacy.


 S a n d y

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