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Perhaps the most worrying thing regarding email monitoring is that not only is it likely that the NSA is simply intercepting and archiving for later a lot of em

by acabal 14y ago

Perhaps the most worrying thing regarding email monitoring is that not only is it likely that the NSA is simply intercepting and archiving for later a lot of email traffic, but also that even if you "delete" an email from a host like Google or Yahoo, it's probably not actually "deleted". Even if it is 100% fully deleted, you probably still have a copy of at least a fragment of the email thread in your sent mail folder--and the recipients kept multiple copies too. Just like the digital cat is out of the bag for media companies trying to stop their movies and music from being copied by everyone under the sun, so are our email communications able to be copied, archived, and distributed with almost shocking ease.

vy8vWJlco 14y ago
Which is why (IMHO) privacy must trump non-personal information monopolies: because we simply can't have both. The right to pursue a living is meaningless without the right to live. The all-or-nothing nature of communication, as you note, is palpable and it is pressing us to preserve those monopolies and give up our rights to privacy and physical safety in order to go on doing business as usual. However well-intentioned, copyright and other "disembodied" (state-owned, or corporate-owned, etc) idea-monopolies have become arguments against privacy and basic physical rights... So, what will it be: today's copyright (or national security, and so on), or tomorrow's freedom-of-thought? Do you prefer group-rights or individual rights? If groups, the information flows too fast to permit independent though. If you prefer individuality, the speed of communication is obviating the need for groups and corporations and proxy-voting and governments that like to do things for us. There's still a way to go mind you, but I bet this is what a fetus feels like when it's cells are multiplying and eventually one mind emerges (or things don't cooperate, and one doesn't), all while the autonomic systems emerge enslaved to their rhythms, all the way down to the cells that are just trying to take the bus back to the lungs for a little fresh air on their breaks... Wait, what was I saying? Oh yeah, so who's ready for the hive-mind?

by acabal 14y ago

vy8vWJlco 14y ago

Which is why (IMHO) privacy must trump non-personal information monopolies: because we simply can't have both. The right to pursue a living is meaningless without the right to live. The all-or-nothing nature of communication, as you note, is palpable and it is pressing us to preserve those monopolies and give up our rights to privacy and physical safety in order to go on doing business as usual. However well-intentioned, copyright and other "disembodied" (state-owned, or corporate-owned, etc) idea-monopolies have become arguments against privacy and basic physical rights... So, what will it be: today's copyright (or national security, and so on), or tomorrow's freedom-of-thought? Do you prefer group-rights or individual rights? If groups, the information flows too fast to permit independent though. If you prefer individuality, the speed of communication is obviating the need for groups and corporations and proxy-voting and governments that like to do things for us. There's still a way to go mind you, but I bet this is what a fetus feels like when it's cells are multiplying and eventually one mind emerges (or things don't cooperate, and one doesn't), all while the autonomic systems emerge enslaved to their rhythms, all the way down to the cells that are just trying to take the bus back to the lungs for a little fresh air on their breaks... Wait, what was I saying? Oh yeah, so who's ready for the hive-mind?