Quote:"Live and let live" are not just empty words that mean you may do whatever you like. "Let Live" includes the notions that you need to respect what I might consider my life, my property, and "the pursuit of happiness" in a free society. Thus, society itself is an accommodation of the "self interest" to the communal good, whereas we can agree to a minimal set of ground rules which protect me, my property, and to as much as is possible my well being.Sure, although I doubt you actually believe in protecting your "well being" "as much as is possible". But all this is perfectly compatible with a free internet.
Quote:For example, are your various records at medical, dental, credit, employers, or the government, your property, or theirs? I would argue that you and that entity have an agreement to share information for the duration of your contract with them, whereby you have the right to protect your private information. Meaning, they cannot disclose it without your permission.Of course. But that's a set of protections that has nothing to do with the internet, fundamentally. If I go to the doctor, and tell him about my recurrent problems with gonorrhea, and he then shares that information with the world, then that's a breach of my privacy. But he could do that with a low-tech file folder, or just by word of mouth.
On a side note, it's actually it's kind of disturbing what you can learn about Americans once they're dead. I was at a cliometrics seminar where a historian was presenting a gigantic database project to figure out the statistical effects of all sorts of life factors. He knew just about every relevant personal fact about a truly staggering number of people: medical histories, cause of death, divorces, income, family, employment, you name it. But that's only dead people.
-Jester