Privacy Prtection on the Internet

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Atkinson, Robert" <rca53 () columbia edu>
Date: August 13, 2008 8:47:04 AM EDT
To: <dave () farber net>
Subject: Privacy Prtection on the Internet

Dave,

For IP? From an article in today's Wall Street Journal, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121860037764836165.html 
 (the on-line headline is from another article on the same page of  
the print edition) concerning the YouTube-Viacom dispute:

>Nonetheless, some experts say the Web has never been a place where  
privacy is protected.
>Lawrence Lessig, a professor at Stanford Law School, says that the  
average Internet user is living increasingly >in a "panopticon-like"  
environment, where Web users can be observed without being able to  
tell whether they >are being watched. Internet protocol addresses are  
extraordinarily efficient fingerprints, says Mr. Lessig. "So >anybody  
who thinks you're going to get on the Web and be anonymous is just  
ignorant about the way the >Web functions."

I'm not sure that Prof. Lessig's quote supports the reporter's  
conclusion that "the Web has never been a place where privavcy is  
protected" but it does raise the question about whether citizens  
should reasonably expect privacy on the Internet.  The implication is  
that the "reasonable expectation of privacy" on the web is (or will  
be?) no greater, for example,  than the expectation of privacy in  
public areas.  That would be a problem.  I'd be interested in hearing  
from privacy advocates how to stop the internet from sliding on the  
"slippery slope" of expectations to being the electronic equivalent of  
the public street (or village green).

Bob





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