April 14, 2005
Computers, Freedom, and PRIVACY
One disappointment I have about CFP is how privacy (step two of the privacy chain I talked about last post) is overshadowing discussion about freedom. I think privacy is important and worth fighting to protect, but I mostly see privacy as a way to keep others from gaining power over me (and thus becoming able to harm me) rather than as an end in itself. Sure I'd rather not have people posting nude pictures of me on the net, but I'm a lot more concerned that information collected about me isn't used to steal my identity or deny me a loan, employment or insurance. The debate between privacy-as-means-to-an-end folk like me and privacy-as-intrinsically-valuable folk has played itself out several times over the past few days.
Posted by bug to Big Brother at April 14, 2005 10:41 PM | TrackBack*nod* I think a lot of the privacy-as-intrinsically-valuable people are that way because they feel that ANY personal information gives people power over them, and it scares them. Or at least a lot of the ones I've met have been that way. They've also been the ones who make very paranoid reserved friends.
I, on the other hand, am sort of a fan of living out loud. I think that things like mis-profiling people based on their activities is actually thwarted, the more people are up front and honest. Fer instance, if you were to profile the poly community based on the few that are vocally open about it, you'd assume that they were mostly high-risk emotionally needy types who needed their egos fed by multiple partners. On the other hand, the majority of the poly people I've met who are more discreet (misspelled that as discrete the first time through, and then found it very funny) are far less emotionally broken, and could sway that profile to something more realistic.
There's still the potential for misuse, but I think that privacy is the wrong place to start attacking these sorts of social problems.
Regarding insurance and risk pooling...
I actually think that the insurance companies may be shooting themselves in the foot with the cherry picking. I think as people realize that the whole reason they are allowed to buy insurance at all is because they consistently give the company more money than they get back, and that they are getting screwed, that things like medical investment accounts may start taking the place of having insurance.
Posted by: Aleatha at April 15, 2005 10:47 AM