Privacy, the person, would be sighted around cool parts of Manhattan in torn layabout gear and big shades. It would have developed a serious drug habit and would possibly even be friends with Michael Jackson - and all from a life lived in the public eye.
Thanks be to the Internet.
Privacy would be dreaming of a day when its name wasn't bandied around the clock willy-nilly by businesses trying to sell "secure" e-commerce gear. It would be dreaming of a day when individuals and hi tech lobby groups didn't use its name as one of about three key "issues" when expressing anger at the government.
It would be dreaming of a day when its name was used only to describe the concept of life conducted in anonymity - the original meaning of the word. What does it matter what Web sites people visit?, Privacy would ask. Are the world's one billion Web users actually concerned that they will be noticed if they visit a porn site? And why are email-equipped employees suddenly less trusting of their bosses when phonecalls have been tapped for decades? Likewise with credit card details: Why are people so worried about compromised privacy when giving credit card details over the Web when any old shonk can pinch $2000 a day from the Visa coffers from details given over the phone?
And anyway, since when did privacy become synonymous with security?
The Internet is a tool, Privacy would say, not a way of life. And if we keep things that way, there's no way we can be spied on.
