Re: Privacy: Law, Custom, and Technology

[Bill Frantz <frantz@netcom.com>]

At 8:52 AM -0700 7/22/97, Unprivileged user wrote:
>Custom is determined by evolution, not by specification.  And that cannot
>be accelerated, and will be a problem until everyone has been on the net
>long enough to establish a common set of manners.  How much information
>does someone retain?  Enough so that a web page presents your desired
>configuration without having to retype it?  Should they pass this on to a
>sister site?  A different company?

I'm not sure I agree that the evolution of custom can not be accelerated.
If we actively discuss the proper limits to use of private information, are
we not accelerating the development of consensus about what are reasonable
policies.  It is precisely the lack of such discussion, and the lack of
trust that accompanies it that leaves us in the situation we find ourselves
in; between the well defined Netiquette of the ARPANET days, and whatever
our commercial net will evolve.

There are a lot of choices.  For example:

(1) Don't remember anything about me as an individual.
(2) Don't share any individual data.
(3) Feel free to share, but leave my name off.
(4) Sell the data, but give me a piece of the action.

I can imagine that any of these will be acceptable to some people.


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