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Accidental Privacy Spills
ahem writes "A journalist attends the World Economic forum, and writes an email to a few friends. It's a chatty, casual conference report. The conference is a gathering of the 5,000 most powerful people in the world. The report gives a breezy insight into how stuff gets done at that level, and what the concerns are that keep the world's leaders up at night. That email was intended only for the journalist's friends. That email winds up getting plastered all over the net. Here is a very interesting discussion of the implications of this "privacy spill." Make sure you read down to the Epilogue. Here is the email itself." The Lawmeme discussion is quite thoughtful and in-depth, very good reading.
gathering of [...] most powerful people in the world
Well why the hell wasnt I invited???
This is my sig. Its pathetic.
How the hell do all these people know I have a small penis?
Redistributing is an even bigger no-no. . .:)P
You are not the customer.
From the original email: "...various insundry countries...".
S/he's a reporter but thinks "insundry" is a word? The phrase is "...and sundry".
But wait, it gets funnier, I googled (tm) for "insundry" and got more than 100 hits. I guess a lot of people hear "and sundry" as "insundry". Is there a word for that? It's like a meme, but it's something you've heard. A heme! Oh, wait. Taken. A misspelleme?
// todo: implement sig
Not so much the length, but the elegance of her writing is way above what I'd think most people would send in an email like that. Not that you'd expect a journalist to comment: "a/s/l j00 3 me" though from reading her work it seems a little too convenient that this was leaked.
:)
Conspiracy? Sure. Would you listen to Bill Gates if he publicly came out against the war or would you rather get an insight in a sneaky and naughty way?
Sincerely,
-Matt
--- Need web hosting?
But just so you know, I too later discover grammar errors in my writing, and I too use my writing skills professionally. My most common mistake is to use "to" where "two" or "too" belongs.
You might want to check for other common mistakes in your rightings.
Sorry. I had to.
Wow check out what he said
[original message]
This is a symptom of what has become all too common in todays email society - the trivialization of communication.
The "forward" has become a replacement for an actual composed email message. Its easier to maintain the illusion of staying in touch by forwarding some insipid crap rather than taking the time to actually *gasp* drop someone a personal note.
As a result, most email is not private, or more importantly, personal. I can easily imagine what went through the recipients mind - "wow, this is cool, let me forward it to ____". Why wouldn't he ? After all, we foward crap to each other all the time, why should this very interesting email be any different ?
You get something that looks interesting, you forward it. It couldn't POSSIBLY have been intended for ONLY you.
I would bet that had this letter been handwritten, the recipients would not have shown it around.
Welcome to the global communication era.
I spent a week in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum. I was
awarded a special pass which allowed me full access to not only the
entire official meeting, but also private dinners with the likes the
head of the Saudi Secret Police, presidents of various insundry
countries, your Fortune 500 CEOS and the leaders of the most important
NGOs in the world. This was not typical press access. It was full-on,
unfettered, class A hobnobbing.
You can be sure he'll never get that again. Of course though it's his own fault.
..There's a-dooin's a-transpirin'
New US Policy Towards Iraq
Friday February 28, 2003.
WASHINGTON (Repos) - The United States on Friday dismissed Iraq's pledge to destroy missiles and said the move will still not stop the ongoing march towards war.
Iraq's vow to obey U.N. orders to destroy its al-Samoud 2 ballistic missiles, whose 90 mile range exceeds the U.N. limit set in 1991, set off another round of denunciations from the White House.
"That's the problem with Saddam Hussein. Every time we find something like evidence that we can jump on, he gives in and leaves us making even more outlandish demands." White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
The U.S. comback was that the missiles represented only the tip of a massive iceberg and that Baghdad was still hiding a massive stores of weapons of mass destruction it is required to disarm under U.N. resolution 1441. To date, the US has come up with no evidence.
"If Saddam insists on staying in power, the only way we will cancel our invasion of Iraq is if Saddam submits to a complete sex change. The works. Chop-chop. Breasts, big ones. And estrogen treatments. This is now official US policy towards Saddam," Fleischer said.
"We think this is reasonable and fair," said Condoleeza Rice. The new sex change procedures will become the new US foreign policy towards all heads of state that the Bush administration decides are unacceptable. "It's much better than assassination. This is a part of our new "Compassionate Americanism" initiative that I am pushing," said Rice.
is Bush's current interpretation of Compassion?
I don't know about two birds, but a swift kick in the Bush is worth quite a bit more than a harlf dozen Quayles.