Anthony Weiner and no one. Hey, this isn’t one of those riddle emails where the answers are at the bottom. So when did privacy become such a big issue? It didn’t used to be, or at least I didn’t perceive it to be a big deal if it ever was. It seems like private things were well, private and other things were shared openly without fear of exploitation. Now there are so many ways that people who are so inclined can hurt you that most folks feel everything with the possible exception of their genitals and sex life has to be kept on the down low. That’s just the opposite of how things used to be. We used to share everything except pictures of our genitals. It wasn’t until the Polaroid Camera was invented that pictures of genitals were even possible. The drug store was the only place in town to take film to be developed. If you took a film with any kind of lurid pictures there you could pretty much rest assured that most everybody in town would see them before you did because there were no privacy laws. That’s what kept us honest. People tout the internet as the fastest means of mass communication available. Well those folks didn’t grow up in a small town. There wasn’t much difference between the gossip net and the electronic version. No one really understood how it worked or how things got started on it but the speed at which a juicy item would travel was immeasurable. And by juicy item I’m not referring to anything as attention grabbing as a picture of genitals. Things like so and so bought a new car, or farmer Brown’s cow had a calf with two tails were things of wonder in those days. Pictures of your genitals, why that could get you labeled as a pervert at best or perhaps probation or jail time at worst. But nobody worried about it because nobody did it.
So when did privacy become such a big issue? It seems it was about the time that the Congress started passing laws about it. I guess you could look at it like a “chicken and egg” situation. Did Congress attempt to regulate privacy because it became an issue, or did privacy become an issue because Congress attempted to regulate it? I guess the life of a politician, the huge sums of campaign money that have to raised and distributed, the aphrodisiacal nature of the power of the office, long periods of time spent away from home can present a lot of temptations to sample forbidden fruit. Politicians probably need a larger rug of privacy than the rest of us because they have more dirt to sweep under it. So I think that privacy became an issue in Washington long before it was an issue anywhere else.
But the laws that were passed don’t really seem to deal with the problems from my point of view. I’m glad that it is illegal to sell my credit and account information, but that law wasn’t passed for my benefit. It was passed to protect the credit industry, the foundation of capitalism. Without secure credit, the whole system would collapse. The history of my purchases, banking records or browser history is not going to reveal a love child, show anything illegal or perverted (unless you consider blogging), or reveal anything about me that will sell a newspaper or light up a web page. In fact it is going to be so boring that you won’t be able to get anyone to review it, so you will have to write a program to allow a computer to add me to the statistical flow so you will know what junk mail to send me or what pop-up to blast onto my computer screen or what spam to email. Privacy laws aren’t stopping that.
It seems like almost every day I get a copy of some outfit’s privacy policy. They are mandated by privacy legislation to send out a copy of their policy regarding the information they collect about me. I try to read it but mostly it is so boring and vague that I really can’t get my head around it. What I do understand is that they can give or sell most of my information to about anybody or anything as long as they have a “business relationship” with that entity. Besides, I don’t believe them anyway. These are creditors charging usury interest rates and willing to raise it at the drop of a hat. I got a letter from my credit card enabler right before the new laws went into effect that actually said that they were raising my rate to the maximum for my own benefit. I’ll bet you already know how much I appreciated that kind of consideration which is a good thing because I don’t think my heart could tolerate the blood pressure rise I would experience trying to explain it. The point is I don’t like them. I don’t trust them. And I don’t need another copy of their stupid privacy policies. Even if they are trustworthy they’re going to get hacked some day and lose control of all my data anyway. Where’s the law that says I’m not responsible for the financial disaster that might accompany that?
Privacy laws are like prohibition, they’re just not going to work or protect the common man. Will Rogers said, “It’s a good thing we ain’t getting all the government that we’re paying for.” In this case though, I’d say we’re getting plenty. But for every law there’s a loophole and a leaker or at least someone willing to take advantage. The only way you will ever get any privacy is to be dead, and even then there will be people sifting through your online data looking for something to sell to you or some cause that might attract your donation. And of course, I’ll still be blogging trying to attract your interest. But if there really is Heaven after this life, you won’t have to read it.
1 comment:
Try it now.
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