Congressman wants laws to protect privacy


Will it really work, or will it only encourage people to stop worrying about their privacy?
Another situation where I am torn.

Rep. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said Wednesday that AOL's disclosure of the search habits of more than 650,000 of its users demonstrates that new laws are necessary. AOL has apologized for the disclosure.

"We must stop companies from unnecessarily storing the building blocks of American citizens' private lives," Markey said.

Markey's proposal, called the Eliminate Warehousing of Consumer Internet Data Act (EWOCID), was introduced in February after Google's courtroom tussle over search records with the U.S. Department of Justice.

On the one hand, I am glad to see that people are beginning to see what privacy risks are out there.

But on the other hand, legislation is not the solution.

That will only invoke the Somebody Else's Problem effect. If the laws are passed, people will assume that their government is watching out for them and protecting them. But there is no evidence that will happen, and considerable evidence to the contrary.

You can't trust government to watch out for you. But I am willing to bet that free market solutions will emerge as soon as there is enough demand.

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— NeoWayland

Posted: Thu - August 10, 2006 at 02:36 PM  Tag


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