Online privacy? Forget it!

peeterpaul@motskula.net (Peeter P. Mõtsküla) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Let me start from a bold prediction and a daring statement.

The prediction is that in 2020, online privacy will be more or less in the same place where digital copyright is today: there will be a growing majority of people who knowingly violate the respective laws on the grounds that the legal system has remained inert while the real life has moved on.

The statement is that privacy laws and copyright laws have nearly nothing to do with the interests of their alleged subjects — the individuals and authors, respectively. Instead, they serve the interests of the “big guys” in each scene. In case of copyright, this means the “copyright industries” — record labels, movie studios, “old school” software companies, publishing houses, etc. In case of privacy, this means the institutions who are the biggest processors of personal information today — national, state, and local governments as well as banks, insurance companies, telecoms and utilities.

Twitter Panic in Elbonia

peeterpaul@motskula.net (Peeter P. Mõtsküla) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Sten Tamkivi tweeted:

If this tax change happens, Estonia can say goodbye to any new international tech companies: http://bit.ly/2UVEC7 Outrageous!

This sparked a serial outrage of retweets and Facebook comments. Many people became heavily opinionated about an opinion leader’s opinion about a journalist’s opinion based on a [possibly, but not necessarily] out-of-context quotation of a tax lawyer. But few, if any, took the trouble to dig out the original source — the draft law containing the proposed changes to the income tax law.

Opinion on @ppmotskula

Online privacy? Forget it!

Twitter Panic in Elbonia