- From: Roy T. Fielding <fielding@gbiv.com>
- Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:56:20 -0800
- To: Karl Dubost <karld@opera.com>
- Cc: "public-tracking@w3.org Group WG" <public-tracking@w3.org>
On Feb 27, 2012, at 2:09 PM, Karl Dubost wrote: > sorry for being slightly off-topic. > The summary being: > > Privacy issues will not be solved by DNT. > Privacy issues will be solved by changing the business model. I don't see why you expect use of the Internet to view online services and occasionally purchase things to be comparable to walking into a shop in the "real world", buying something with cash, and then walking out the door with that physical item purchased. It is more like using a telephone. The access is recorded. Cash is not exchangeable, so we are limited to transfers of virtual funds that also have to be recorded. Many of the purchases online are for electronic content that is easily reproducible for fraud, so that too has to be recorded. Recording these things is not an issue because access to the trail collected by them is protected by law. Yes, none of that is as private as walking into a bookstore, flipping through a few books, and then buying one you like with cash. OTOH, bookstores do take pictures of customers when they walk in the door and can keep those images for a reasonable period of time to combat normal store thefts. Consider what would happen if you rolled a scanner into a bookstore and started scanning the books instead of just reading them. The owner would kick you out and might report you to the police. So, yes, privacy does suffer on the Internet. If it were not for the extreme risks of unlawful behavior, people could get around that by hiring a service to make purchases for them. Because such a service is effectively impossible due to widespread illegal activity whenever one is introduced, the user is limited to half-measures like buying pre-loaded debit cards and browsing in private mode, neither of which requires DNT. Industry does not consider this to be a problem because the vast majority of customers do not see it as a problem. Some privacy is always lost when a person interacts with the rest of the world. ....Roy
Received on Monday, 27 February 2012 23:07:43 UTC