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And when I’m done doing that, I should probably check my sanity, because I have to be imagining this thread. It’s absurd that someone thinks that they have an

And when I’m done doing that, I should probably check my sanity, because I have to be imagining this thread. It’s absurd that someone thinks that they have an expectation of privacy when they voluntarily choose to send a message to someone else. I know you can’t satisfy everyone all the people all the time, but this idea is just bonkers.

newman8r 9y ago
It could still be a copyright violation if a third party is scraping/distributing and profiting off of something you wrote. Here's an interesting opinion on how forwarding private messages could be considered copyright infringement: http://nulawreview.org/extralegalrecent/do-not-forward-why-passing-along-an-email-may-constitute-copyright-infringement http://nulawreview.org/extralegalrecent/do-not-forward-why-p... So perhaps it's not an expectation of privacy, but more of an expectation that your private messages won't be distributed by third parties for profit.
uw_rob 9y ago
> It’s absurd that someone thinks that they have an expectation of privacy when they voluntarily choose to send a message to someone else. How does this world view reconcile with the fact that many different states have 2 party consent? Or the fact that considerable money and effort have been spent on concepts like OTR? People expect others to have some discretion in what private information they pass on to others. Most applications have this assumptions built in mind. You can easily forward a single email to someone in gmail, but there is not 1-click solution to send all of your emails to someone else.
- downandout 9y ago
  You can easily forward a single email to someone in gmail, but there is not 1-click solution to send all of your emails to someone else. That’s actually wrong. Right now, today, you can write apps for the Gmail platform that could have this ability as soon as someone authorizes it [1]. So everyone is down on Facebook, who disabled this ability 4 years ago. What about Google? [1] https://developers.google.com/gmail/ https://developers.google.com/gmail/
  - musage 9y ago
    > What about Google? Well, when that is criticized you probably just say "what about Facebook?" or "what about the NSA?" and so on. Unless someone positively stated that Google or NSA or whatever should be exempt, bringing that up is just a red herring that doesn't deserve answer one.
- tzakrajs 9y ago
  You are missing the point I am making. People are bartering with Facebook and using your private conversation with your contributions to do it. They ought to have no right to that data for their economic prosperity. This isn't your nana forwarding chain mail.
jpambrun 9y ago
People with moral compass (and possibility sanity) such as yours pretty much show that self regulation is poised to fail and support the need for broad legislation.
- bmelton 9y ago
  Moral compass or not, that is the current state of the law. Sending an email to a second party and then expecting them not to do whatever they want with it is as naive as hanging a billboard and expecting nobody to look at it when I don't want them to. The world doesn't just give you privacy. If you want any, you have to work at least a little bit for it.
  - jpambrun 9y ago
    That might be the state of the law for you, but most of us don't live in the US.
- dang 9y ago
  You crossed into personal attack in this subthread. We ban accounts that do that, so could you please not do that? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

newman8r 9y ago

It could still be a copyright violation if a third party is scraping/distributing and profiting off of something you wrote. Here's an interesting opinion on how forwarding private messages could be considered copyright infringement: http://nulawreview.org/extralegalrecent/do-not-forward-why-passing-along-an-email-may-constitute-copyright-infringement http://nulawreview.org/extralegalrecent/do-not-forward-why-p... So perhaps it's not an expectation of privacy, but more of an expectation that your private messages won't be distributed by third parties for profit.

uw_rob 9y ago

> It’s absurd that someone thinks that they have an expectation of privacy when they voluntarily choose to send a message to someone else. How does this world view reconcile with the fact that many different states have 2 party consent? Or the fact that considerable money and effort have been spent on concepts like OTR? People expect others to have some discretion in what private information they pass on to others. Most applications have this assumptions built in mind. You can easily forward a single email to someone in gmail, but there is not 1-click solution to send all of your emails to someone else.

downandout 9y ago
You can easily forward a single email to someone in gmail, but there is not 1-click solution to send all of your emails to someone else. That’s actually wrong. Right now, today, you can write apps for the Gmail platform that could have this ability as soon as someone authorizes it [1]. So everyone is down on Facebook, who disabled this ability 4 years ago. What about Google? [1] https://developers.google.com/gmail/ https://developers.google.com/gmail/
- musage 9y ago
  > What about Google? Well, when that is criticized you probably just say "what about Facebook?" or "what about the NSA?" and so on. Unless someone positively stated that Google or NSA or whatever should be exempt, bringing that up is just a red herring that doesn't deserve answer one.
tzakrajs 9y ago
You are missing the point I am making. People are bartering with Facebook and using your private conversation with your contributions to do it. They ought to have no right to that data for their economic prosperity. This isn't your nana forwarding chain mail.

jpambrun 9y ago

People with moral compass (and possibility sanity) such as yours pretty much show that self regulation is poised to fail and support the need for broad legislation.

bmelton 9y ago
Moral compass or not, that is the current state of the law. Sending an email to a second party and then expecting them not to do whatever they want with it is as naive as hanging a billboard and expecting nobody to look at it when I don't want them to. The world doesn't just give you privacy. If you want any, you have to work at least a little bit for it.
- jpambrun 9y ago
  That might be the state of the law for you, but most of us don't live in the US.
dang 9y ago
You crossed into personal attack in this subthread. We ban accounts that do that, so could you please not do that? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html