Project for someone to do

Andrew C. Greenberg werdna at gate.net
Thu Feb 17 10:53:02 UTC 2000


>Now, before anyone goes out and destroys my credit rating, I'm a little
>curious about where people feel the privacy line should be drawn.

At the line of informed consent.  Where else?

I have no problem with someone using information about me garnered 
from private communications, with my consent.  If they are sneaking 
around me, taking information under circumstances that would surprise 
a reasonable person, then they have crossed the line.

In the united states, there is a very well-developed legal concept 
known as a "reasonable expectation of privacy."  Surprising to most 
laypeople, the law doesn't try to draw the line brightly, but relies 
upon the notion of the expectations of a fictitious "reasonable 
person."  This is a process that works fine.  Many cases are clear as 
a bell, one way or the other, and folks who decide to tread in the 
gray areas do so at their own risk.  Things done in a town square are 
different from things done in the home.  Likewise with internet 
communications.  It works in fourth amendment law, in right to 
privacy cases and other arenas.  It would work fine here.

Under circumstances in which the user has a reasonable expectation of 
privacy, a   person may not use private information without obtaining 
the individual's informed consent.

That's where *I* would draw the line if I were king.





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