Re: There's no general right to privacy -- get over it, from Netly

[Declan McCullagh <declan@pathfinder.com>]

I suspect the scare about privacy has led to muddled thinking.

Free speech is a right that strictly limits the government's ability to
control what you say. We should have a similar right of privacy from the
government.

But I give up my free speech "rights" when I attend a college with a wacky
speech code or go to work at a company with workplace speech policies. My
choices in those situations are governed by my free speech preferences. 
Similarly, I give up my privacy "rights" when I go to unknown web sites,
apply for a loan, or post to Usenet, etc. These also are preferences. 

I'm surprised not to hear more from other folks here: my position is one
cypherpunks have advocated for years -- controlling what data flow from my
computer is my responsibility.

-Declan


On Thu, 12 Jun 1997, Jim Choate wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> Forwarded message:
> 
> > Date: Thu, 12 Jun 1997 18:58:37 -0400
> > From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
> > Subject: There's no general right to privacy -- get over it, from Netly
> 
> > likes to say "Privacy is not an absolute right, but a
> > fundamental right." But in truth, privacy is not a
> > right but a preference: Some people want more of it
> > than others.
> 
> A right is not a question of popularity or amplitude, it is a question of
> existance. It is or it isn't. Some people want more guns than others
> (obvious even to you) so you seriously hold that there is no fundamental
> Constitutional right to own firearms? Or speech, we don't all want to use it
> to the same amount, we therefore don't have a right to free speech? Or (oh
> my god!) crypto, we don't all want to use it to the same degree therefore we
> don't have a right to use crypto?
> 
> Serious boo-boo.
> 
> I hope it ain't gone to print yet...
> 
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>