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Unmasking The Internet - Privacy Is History
from the we-know-who-you-are dept
There have been a number of legal cases lately that suggest the idea (if it ever really existed) that you have some amount of privacy online is rapidly disappearing. This article covers the famous Verizon-RIAA case, among other samples where companies and the government have actively worked to uncover who an "anonymous" user was. One of the more amusing cases was a situation where Dell took Microsoft to court to get the identify of someone who sent confidential information to a Hotmail account. Dell quietly dropped the case when they discovered it was an internal employee who was sending material to his home account, so he could work there.
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Anonymity
The issue being discussed in the article is (mostly) anonymity, not privacy.
The two are separate concepts. You can have privacy without anonymity, as when your doctor keeps your medical records confidential. You can have anonymity without privacy, as when you walk along a bustling sidewalk in Manhattan.
Confusing the two confuses the issues. Anonymity is primarily of interest for "freedom of speech/press". Privacy is primarily of interest for conducting our personal lives.
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