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From...
How much privacy do you really want?
August 18, 1998
Web posted at: 10:45 AM EDT
by Stephen Manes
(IDG) -- The one sure thing about privacy in the United States is that you don't have much of it. Unless you deal only in cash, refuse to drive, and make all your calls from pay phones, your preferences, habits, and financial profile are fair game for anybody who wants to know about them. Here as elsewhere, the Internet is merely an extension of the rest of life, where privacy has become a casualty of a capitalist paradise where we trade personal information for cash, convenience, and goodies.
It's not always a bad trade. When I refinanced my house a few months ago, the bank trusted me with a sizable sum based on data about me it bought on the open market. But that was possible only because I long ago gave up any pretense that my finances were private. Agreements I accepted let lenders share my personal data with just about anybody. The alternative -- passing up credit entirely -- is impractical in a world where plastic money is a virtual necessity.
Dig and you shall find
Any reporter knows how much information can be unearthed with a little digging. In hours, you can find out everything about your neighbor, from the price she paid for her house to her run-ins with the law. The difference in the digital age is that more data is available, it's easier to sort and store, and keeping it to yourself is impossible.
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The worst part is that your privacy is eroding without your knowledge. Take that toll-free call you just made: Even if you block Caller ID, the other party can tell where you're calling from. Sure, that can let a database identify you as a repeat customer and speed up the transaction. But nobody tells you it's happening, and you can't do anything to stop it.
On the Net it's even harder to know who has access to your personal data, and any information you provide can be instantly retransmitted. Give out your e-mail address, and it's likely to become a publicly traded commodity. That's why I detest having to supply one in exchange for information, as Microsoft demands on its support site.
The privacy of e-mail hinges on the honesty of strangers. What else stops the system administrator at your Internet service provider from sifting through your messages, except fear of getting arrested or, more likely, getting fired? At most workplaces, the e-mail system belongs to the corporation, so the boss can snoop around correspondence you consider private -- and with the help of high-powered search tools, do it years after you leave.
You: Just another commodity
In this era of free-market capitalism, where your dossier is just another set of salable information, only laws and encryption are likely to help you retain a modicum of privacy. But don't hold your breath. Most privacy laws will be opposed by businesses that want to market to ever-narrower targets -- in other words, most of them. The sensible Smith junk e-mail bill (H.R. 1748) would work like the junk fax law that restored sanity to our fax machines. But as I write this, the bill has met with lukewarm response. And though strong encryption could keep private correspondence private, the government is still demanding a back door, a gaping hole that would render encryption useless.
Technology may someday offer cashlike electronic payments that can't be traced to the buyer. Consumers could boycott companies that refuse to protect their privacy. But social, commercial, and technological history in America suggest a future with less privacy, not more. Even those who pay cash for groceries blithely accept cards that track their buying habits in exchange for a few cents off a six-pack. Because I use a credit card in pursuit of frequent-flyer miles, my travel patterns and purchasing preferences are an open book.
The rules are different in Europe, where permission is required before data about you can be sold. And European law may well spur us to adopt stronger privacy protections. We Americans may think we cherish privacy, but we're too willing to swap it for bargains or convenience. Until that attitude changes, the best way to think about privacy is to behave as though you don't have any.