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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.