Sunday, October 07, 2007
Why privacy matters
Private organizations and the government are both accumulating lots of information about you. Some people trust the government more, since it's supposed to be working for us.
But "the government" isn't the one looking at the personal information. Government employees are. There's nothing about cashing a government paycheck that improves someone's character.
Unless the government puts privacy safeguards on your personal data like restricting access or not collecting it at all, then your fate is in the hands of government employees like Benjamin Robinson, indicted for using a Homeland Security database to stalk his ex-girlfriend
.
The good news is that there are laws in place to forbid that kind of misuse of a government database. The bad news is that he (allegedly) started in 2002 and only just now got charged.
Privacy is not an enemy of public safety: it is necessary for public safety.
via Techdirt.
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But "the government" isn't the one looking at the personal information. Government employees are. There's nothing about cashing a government paycheck that improves someone's character.
Unless the government puts privacy safeguards on your personal data like restricting access or not collecting it at all, then your fate is in the hands of government employees like Benjamin Robinson, indicted for using a Homeland Security database to stalk his ex-girlfriend
.
The good news is that there are laws in place to forbid that kind of misuse of a government database. The bad news is that he (allegedly) started in 2002 and only just now got charged.
Privacy is not an enemy of public safety: it is necessary for public safety.
via Techdirt.
# posted by Frederick @ 4:57 PM Email to a friend:
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