Re: The Utility of Privacy

[Sandy Sandfort <sandfort@crl.com>]

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                          SANDY SANDFORT
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C'punks,

On Sun, 17 Nov 1996, Huge Cajones Remailer wrote:

> >> Informally, I don't know anybody who has suffered due to a loss of
> >> privacy.
> >
> >Your circle of associations must be limited.
> 
> Examples [of people who have suffered due to loss of privacy]?

Phil Zimmermann often tells the story of a woman whose marriage
was destroyed by the revelation of a long-past indiscretion. 
After her husband divorced her, she committed suicide.

Any number of celebrities have been stalked, attacked and even
killed by obsessed fans who found them through public records.

Every year, children and business executives are kidnapped for
ransom.  The proximate cause of these kidnappings is a breach in
privacy about the whereabouts and schedules of the victim.  

Hitler's gun registration in Germany allowed the Jews to be
disarmed.  I'm sure you are aware of the ultimate consequences
of that little invasion of privacy.

The US Post Office co-operated in the identification and 
imprisonment of people of Japanese ancestry during the second
world war.

The problem with having a whole lot of private information about
you floating around in public is not what damage it can do to you
now, but rather the problems it potentially could cause in the
future.  Just about everyone on this list has been to university.
Not long ago, a college education was essentially a death warrant 
in Cambodia.  Prior to that, a degree was considered a good thing
there.  People saw no reason to hid the fact that they had been
in school.  Trouble is, things changed.

And the trouble today is that things can change now, too.  Think
about the things that you have publicly done or advocated.  Even
if they are as legal as church on Sunday NOW, how comfortable 
will you be about them if there is extreme right or left takeover
in the future?  Start to get the picture?


 S a n d y

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