Big Brother vs Big Buck?

dcs writes "Is the Big Brother the new champion of privacy? Unlikely as it sounds, that is what this article on Intellectual Capital suggests. Alas, the issue is not clearly cut, and one could argue both ways about this legislation. "

Comments

A few good points, but Etzioni shows his biases...

[isaac]

The title of his book - _The_Limits_of_Privacy_ - is a pretty good indicator whence he's coming from. Having read it, I think he's either intellectually sloppy or a shill. Statist to the core.

The chapter on encryption is particularly enlightening. Pretty infuriating stuff, and not in the good "makes-you-think" way, but rather the "is-this-fellow-being-deliberately-obtuse-or-does- he-fail-to-grasp-the-fundamental-issues- involved" sort of way. Rather apropos that he's teaching political science in the heart of DC.

-Isaac

Big Brother rides on...

[SnakeStu]

This isn't about Big Brother advocating or protecting privacy rights. It's about keeping power in the hands of Big Brother (instead of Big Money), and about ensuring the government has full access to every bit of information about us. Think government access to health care information won't be misused? Right... and drug raids never burst into the wrong house.

This issue probably belongs in the Politics section of my Decay area...

Big Bro Vs. Big Biz

[technos]

While in most cases Big Brother==Big Business, because as we all know cash==power. In this case it seems that government has just sided with a high $ industry group advocating privacy. They are not the purveyors of right, they just like to look like it from time to time.