Regular readers know that I have a love/hate relationship with the power of the web. In a few well chosen keystrokes, people today can learn more information about more topics more easily and more quickly than ever before. That's power. But there is also another side to this: the rapid and continuing destruction of privacy. What do I mean you say?
Consider:
- My own experience last year
- Google's reverse lookup of US telephone numbers
- Microsoft Research (MSR)'s system to search digital images by GPS coordinates
Sure, Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun Microsystems, is quoted as saying nearly five years ago that "You have zero privacy anyway," "Get over it."" But as Slashdot posts at the time and various debates today suggest, not everyone likes the notion of having already lost their privacy.
Somewhere in the balance of this issue, the State of Washington has quietly entered the fray, having published a statewide database of more than 6,000 sex offenders who have been released from prison. Want to see who might be living near your relatives in Seattle? You can here.
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