Re: "Matchcode" technology sparks privacy flames.....

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

There is, I'm told by reliable sources, a forthcoming Cato Institute report
on electronic privacy that will help put this in perspective -- and
buttress my and Tim's position. Someone from the Competitive Enterprise
Institute, too, took this stance during a bunch of panels at the FTC June
privacy hearings that Will and I attended.

Simply put, you do not have any right to know when people are talking about
you behind their back. It happens all the time and, even though people may
not like it, it is a staple of society.

I spent the weekend in West Virginia, where folks are more than happy to
gossip with (and about) their neighbors. Nobody would try to shut them up
through force of law. This principle does not disappear when the
information being shared is digital.

-Declan


At 00:48 -0700 9/22/97, Tim May wrote:
>At 12:14 PM -0700 9/20/97, Will Rodger wrote:
>
>>One of the main assertions made by both sides in the privacy battles
>>is people must be informed when a third party is gathering "personal"
>>information about them.
>>
>
>I don't know which two sides are the "both sides" you'r describing, but "my
>side" believes no such thing.