Data Retention and Google, et al.

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
Date: September 3, 2006 11:20:12 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: lauren () vortex com
Subject: Data Retention and Google, et al.


Dave,

We're perhaps spending too much time on the "evil" thread but
there's an important fact underlying all of this that's worth noting
again before we move on.

If you genuinely don't want to enable evil things to be done with
your data by outside entities, you either (a) don't keep the data
around, or (b) anonymize the data so that it cannot be easily abused,
or (c) some combination of (a) and (b).

If you insist on maintaining a data hoard (albeit for what you feel
are sound business reasons), that will be attractive to outside
abusers, it is likely to be abused.  Absent government-mandated data
retention requirements (which are another major concern), this makes
you complicit in the abuse.

If you're not required to save the data, and you decided to save the
data anyway, and people who want to do evil things with your data
demand access and get the data -- then you were the enabling agent
in the process, whether your *intentions* were evil or not.  Q.E.D.

The question then becomes under what circumstances, and to what
extent, it is reasonable or justifiable to save such data, and how
to forge reasonable compromises that allow for appropriate use and
access to data but still limit abuse potential (the basic point of
my recent call for an Internet working group to explore these issues
formally ( http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000188.html ).

"By their fruits you shall know them -- evil is as evil does."

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren () vortex com or lauren () pfir org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
   - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, IOIC
   - International Open Internet Coalition - http://www.ioic.net
Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
DayThink: http://daythink.vortex.com




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