RE: [gentoo-user] [OT] Mozilla & Google behind the scenes payola

["Michael Kintzios" <michaelkintzios@lycos.co.uk>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Holly Bostick [mailto:motub@planet.nl] 
> Sent: 11 August 2005 15:08
> To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org
> Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Mozilla & Google behind the 
> scenes payola
> 
> 
> Matt Randolph schreef:
> > Holly Bostick wrote:
> > 
> >> Surfing the Internet is a lot like walking down the street.
> >>  
> >>
> > 
> > Do you think Jane and John Doe computer users know that?  
> Do you think
> > they know that what they do in Word and Outlook is private, and what
> > they do in Internet Explorer is public?  It's only the 
> distance of an
> > inch on the computer screen between the icons.  How could 
> they possibly
> > know it makes a whole world of difference?
> 
> Don't get me started on how responsible I 'should' be in terms of
> protecting others from their own stupidity. I am, generally, 
> not for it.
> You can't learn from your mistakes if you don't make them, 
> and the lack
> of learning is what makes Jane and John Dingbat dingbats in the first
> place. Admittedly, there are some mistakes (the fatal kind), that you
> don't want people to make as a learning experience, but there is a
> reason that they say "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." And I
> think there is no way that we can stretch "cookies deposited on your
> computer by non-visited sites" to "something that could kill you".
> 
> If John and Jane Dingbat don't have a clue, well, that's not 
> so good. If
> they don't have a clue that they don't have a clue, well, that's
> hopeless. If they have a clue that they don't have a clue, but choose
> not to get a clue, then they need to protect themselves in their
> voluntary 'blind spot', and that's their responsibility, not mine.
> 
> > 
> >> You can see me. The fact of my existence is not private.
> >>
> >> Because you can physically see me, you know a lot of 
> things about me
> >> already.
> >> ...
> >> All of this information is *personal*, but *not* "private",
> >>  
> >>
> > 
> > If you saw someone following you in the street, writing 
> down your every
> > action, documenting what you bought and at which stores you 
> bought it
> > at...  If you saw someone recording public but personal information
> > about you as you went about your business in public, would 
> ing used for. I desire to entertain myself, or
> practice my artistic skills (photograpy, drawing, writing), or my
> specific observational skills (maybe I'm a cop aiming for promotion to
> detective, or a budding psychologist), so I actively observe 
> people, and
> record my observations. I have the "right" to observe, and I also have
> the "right" to record my observations, and my observation does not
> interfere with whatever you may be doing in any way. But you 
> apparently
> have the right to choose not to be observed (despite being in 
> public or
> offering an 'easement' to the public, by opening your curtains, which
> allows me to observe you). So whose 'rights' win?

I think that a lot of this argument hinges on the parallel drawn by
Holly above: "Surfing the Internet is a lot like walking down the
street" which is 'almost' correct.  Unlike your average street the
Internet is selectively transparent with regards to our movements.  This
is so because the Internet does not automatically and uniformally
provide information about everyone's presence and movements.  Anyone
walking down the street can see others and others can see them.  On the
Internet the same information needs to be gleaned and perhaps deciphered
using more than your average browser, mail client and IM.  It's not
automatic and unintentional for all participants, it presumes intent and
ability.  So, it's not exactly like walking down the street.

My angle/wish is simply this.  I find the Internet invaluable for
providing access to information.  I would like this access to remain
unimpeded and as free as possible.  I suggest that this can be so if no
one can monitor the type and content of information people seek in a
personally attributable way.  Furthermore, I would rather that people
had a choice of remaining totally anonymous in their search and
consumption of information and were in no way penalised for exercising
it (think of it in the context of being a citizen in a country with a
totalitarian regime and you'll get my drift).  I suspect that this
freedom to access is increasingly and gradually being reduced.
-- 
Regards,
Mick

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