Judge+on+privacy%3A+Computer+code+trumps+the+law

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You missed the point entirely: Right, people are responsible for statements they make in public, no argument. What you missed the point on is the balance of power. In the eyes of the law, you and a corporation are exactly equal, since a corporation is "An artificial person or legal entity created by or under the authority of the laws of a state" (Blacks Law Dictionary). But of course you are not equal, corporations can be effectively immortal, with assets beyond your wildest dreams in both cash and manpower.

You seem to think that what could be used against you would be something like a blog statement where you literally typed in the statement that you are an alcoholic. But what if you never made such a statement, but a company inferred as much from data mining your search queries about AA meeting locations combined with credit card purchases of liquor at restaurants and grocery stores? It's not hypothetical, auto insurance companies are testing this system as we speak. You would probably think that's okay for the insurance company IF you were in fact the heavy drinker, but what if it's really not true and you are just the designated driver? Doesn't matter, you get screwed and you never even know how or why it happened.

You have a little bit of control over what you say, but not as much over what you do. And now companies can track what you do as easily as anything else. Your life is open to them, but there is no reciprocity: the inner workings of corporations are "confidential and proprietary". And they work hard to keep it that way. There's a well-known toiletries company that has an interesting database: if you are a lower or middle class person, it likely knows the menstrual cycles of the women in your household. It was once commented that the company could know about a pregnancy before the husband/boyfriend/parent ever had a clue. Their current uses of the data is for long-term planning and marketing (coupons, etc.), but there is nothing preventing them from putting up a web interface to the world allowing boyfriends, husbands, and random strangers from looking up a girl to know if she's "hot or not" this week. How's that for an invasion of privacy? And the only thing that anybody did as a "public" disclosure was to redeem a coupon or buy a box of tampons with a credit card ...; Posted by: terry flores Posted on: 02/24/08 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use