Big Brother, version 43.0

[geoviki]

I haven't seen much online discussion about the Bush administration subpoena for internet search records from Yahoo, MSN, and Google, which only Google is fighting (the other two caved rather easily). Justice Dept. lawyers will use this info, ostensibly, to concoct internet anti-porn laws that won't be struck down by the courts (unlike all their last efforts). I just read a terrific article on the deeper issue: why are these companies keeping records tying each IP to each search in the first place?

Keeping Secrets - by Tim Wu, professor at Columbia Law School.

It all goes back to this basic point: How free you are corresponds exactly to how free you think you are. And Americans today feel great freedom to tell their deepest secrets; secrets they won't share with their spouses or priests, to their computers. The Luddites were right—our closest confidants today are robots.

Comments

[idlerat.livejournal.com]

The question of "perceived privacy" on the Internet is an interesting one, which I've thought about quite a bit. Even when people know that others are reading them (e.g. members of an active circle of LJ friends), they will say things online that they'd be inhibited about saying anywhere else.

One possible line of comparison might be the analyst's couch, where you are supposed to be less inhibited because you can't actually *see* the person you're talking to. But "uninhibited" is one thing in analysis, quite another in other types of interaction where more inhibition might be desirable :).

Hi, BTW (*waves*)

I am thinking of running away from Yahoo. Not only are they reporting to the feds, I can't get my yahoo mail at work.

[scoradh.livejournal.com]

The Luddites were right—our closest confidants today are robots.

That is so true that I can hardly process it.

Anti-WHAT-porn, exactly? As long as it's not kids and people get proper wages, why is there such a hullabaloo?

[kupukello.livejournal.com]

The debate isn't exactly new but it's interesting that it still continues. I don't know if you remember the Big Fuss about anon.penet.fi about ten years ago. That time I was ready for barricades, the whole thing was so outrageous all in all. And these days, well, I guess anonymity or even the illusion of privacy is long gone, so I hardly bother anymore. Bah.

(Hee, I just came across my 15 year old button saying "Internet is full. Go away!" :) Oh, the times, the times!!)

[tm-nicholas.livejournal.com]

-friends-

You were fun to talk to during slush!chat.

♥