[governance] Social networking and privacy

[Karl Auerbach]

Paul Wilson wrote:
> For the interest of those of us who use these social networking services:
> 
> <http://albumoftheday.com/facebook/>

It is very interesting to compare the fears expressed there with the 
report that was made in, I believe 1973, by the US Dept of Health 
Education and Welfare (HEW) on Privacy.

It does seem that what was feared in 1974 has matured into a reality.

For years that report was hard to find, but it is online now:
http://aspe.os.dhhs.gov/datacncl/1973privacy/tocprefacemembers.htm

That HEW report was written when the net was composed of only a few IMPs 
and the kind of data linking that is routine today was only a futuristic 
glimmer.

The authors of that report, as some seem to have done recently, thrown 
up their hands in submission and abandoned hope of privacy.

The report, and its European counterparts, contain reasonable principles 
that, if we were to consider how they might apply in an internet 
context, would be worthwhile.

We should add one more principle: teaching.  We teach children that it 
is dangerous to cross streets without looking or to get into the 
automobiles of unknown people.  Yes, children still do it, but with 
teaching they do it less than they would.

It certainly would make sense if we were to discover some mechanisms to 
help those, mainly younger people, who disclose too much, to be aware of 
the dangers.

One technique that was suggested way back in the 1970's was fuzzing data 
- so that information is not recorded with perfection but rather, is 
stored in ways that lose precision and even erode over time.

		--karl--


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