[107867] in Cypherpunks
RE: Sun and Privacy
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (lcs Mixmaster Remailer)
Tue Jan 26 21:11:18 1999
Date: 27 Jan 1999 02:00:05 -0000
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
From: lcs Mixmaster Remailer <mix@anon.lcs.mit.edu>
Reply-To: lcs Mixmaster Remailer <mix@anon.lcs.mit.edu>
> The chief executive officer of Sun Microsystems said Monday that consumer
> privacy issues are a "red herring."
>
> "You have zero privacy anyway," Scott McNealy told a group of reporters and
> analysts Monday night at an event to launch his company's new Jini
> technology.
>
> "Get over it."
Amid the kill-the-messenger furor caused by McNealy's comment, everyone
seems to be studiously avoiding the question of how much privacy we
actually do have today.
The fact is, McNealy is fundamentally right, albeit exaggerating somewhat.
Most people today have very little privacy. That's the polite way to
put it. McNealy's bluntness just drives the point home a little harder.
(Sure, there are a few nutcases out there who won't get a driver's license,
who only pay with cash, who won't sign up for discount programs, who
get together and swap prepaid phone cards. They even use PGP now and
then. But they are a tiny minority, lost in the noise.)
The IRS is at a point today where they could compute the taxes for 90%+
of taxpayers. There would be no need to send in a tax form at all.
The IRS would simply send out the refund check automatically (or, if no
refund is due, automatically instruct employers to increase withholding).
They've actually proposed something like this, but the same sort of
reaction ensued. No one wanted to be confronted squarely with how much
privacy has been lost already.
Mail order and now online purchases are exploding in volume. All are
done via traceable payment mechanisms. VISA knows more about you than
your mother does.
Supermarket and drug store "preferred buyer" programs are a great
success. Every detail of your purchases, the coupons you use, the
discounts which lure you to change brands, all are recorded and archived.
The supermarkets are happy to offer small discounts and promotions in
payment for this kind of information. They know that it is not only
valuable today, but for years go come.
Add the effects of government databases, medical insurance records,
credit reporting agencies, and the notion that the average person has
any significant amount of privacy left is laughable.
Oops, but we aren't supposed to say that, are we? Scott McNealy has
shouted that the emperor is naked, and our reaction is to stone McNealy
to death.
