-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: [Politech] EPIC letter compares Gmail to FBI's Carnivore, Total Information Awareness [priv]
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 09:16:54 -0400
From: Adam Thierer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Declan McCullagh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Oh brother, I can't take this lunacy from the privacy absolutists anymore:
(1) What part of VOLUNTARY is it that these privacy fundamentalists do not understand? How many times and in how many ways must it be said: YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SIGN UP FOR THIS FREE SERVICE!
(2) Second, these privacy absolutists persistently attempt to equate private sector privacy concerns and government privacy violations. There is a world of difference between the two and it basically comes down to the fact that governments hold guns to our heads and coercively force us to do certain things against our will. That is the real Big Brother problem. Google, by contrast, isn't holding a gun to anyone's head and forcing them to sign up.
(3) If you're concerned about how government might co-opt this service for its own nefarious ends, that is not a Google problem, that is a Big Government problem. Let's work together to properly limit the surveillance powers of government instead of shutting down any new private service or technology that we feel the feds might have to chance to abuse.
(4) Final point about these privacy fanatics: Do they not believe in freedom of contract? Do I or do I not have a right to contract with a company to exchange certain forms of personal information for a the right to free e-mail access and storage? Can I not VOLUNTARILY agree to such a deal? If not, then I fear that there are a heck of lot of things in this world that these people would make illegal in the name of "protecting privacy."
Do they believe that companies like Google will - - out of the goodness of their hearts - - just hand over free e-mail services and massive storage capacity to everyone without anything in exchange? There is no free lunch in this world but Google is giving us about the closest thing to it. And yet, the privacy fanatics want to reject that offer on the behalf over everyone in society. Well guess what EPIC... you don't speak for me and a lot of other people in this world who will be more than happy to cut this deal with Google. So do us a favor and don't ask the government to shut down a service just because you don't like it. Privacy is a subjective condition and your value preferences are not representative of everyone else's values in our diverse nation. Stop trying to coercively force your values and choices on others. We can decide these things on our own, thank you very much.
- - Adam Thierer, Director of Telecommunications Studies, Cato Institute
_______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
