[Air-l] Google is watching !

Ulf-Dietrich Reips ureips at genpsy.unizh.ch
Thu May 20 11:26:24 PDT 2004


Danah, thanks for adding to my thoughts.

At 11:03 Uhr -0400 20.5.2004, aoir.z3z at danah.org wrote:
>   I actually believe that the
>responsibility lies far more in the hands of the technology creators.

I agree that the technology creators bear their share of 
responsibility. However, they are not responsible for what I meant in 
my earlier posting to be the senders' and the receivers' 
responsibilities regarding expressions on the Internet.
Otherwise, btw., you would legitimate censorship.

>It
>is they who have the ability to reflect how data is and can be used
>(transparency) and they who have the ability to enable users to control
>how data can be spread.

For principal reasons (e.g., pluralism of technologies and protocols, 
network character, future changes in data handling and search and 
retrieval techniques), the technology creators can't do that. If they 
could (if we would allow them to control all ways of Internet 
communication), then the net would be dead.

Charles writes:
At 11:36 Uhr -0500 20.5.2004, Charles Ess wrote:
>By the same token, then, to say that we can eliminate any realistic
>expectation of privacy through contemporary technologies, beginning with a
>Google or other search engine search, does not automatically imply that we
>ought to do so - and/or, that we are relieved of any responsibility to
>protect an increasingly illusory and threatened sense of privacy.

My point is that any sense of *complete* privacy of any expression on 
the Internet is illusionary *per se*. An "increasing" perception of 
the fragility of privacy of expressions on the Internet (empirical 
evidence for that statement?) would be just healthy and an 
appropriate reflection of the status quo - and the ultimate aim of 
the educational campaign Charles is demanding. So please don't use it 
as an argument to hinder researchers in doing their work.

Best wishes, --u




More information about the Air-L mailing list