'No Company Is So Important Its Existence Justifies Setting Up a Police State' [telecom]

"No Company Is So Important Its Existence Justifies Setting Up a Police State"

A conversation with legendary programmer Richard Stallman on the real meaning of "privacy rights" and why he only ever uses cash.

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Reply to
Monty Solomon
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Unfortunately, as the author notes, in order to survive (i.e. get health care, travel, a place to live, etc) one is mandated to provide personal data.

Short of much better privacy laws, there isn't much that can be done. Privacy laws add costs to businesses, and they fight them very aggressively.

A big problem is that everyday consumers _like_ the Internet and networks. They like the convenience of being able to get instant credit at a retail store. They like the ease of ordering on-line. They like sharing their personal lives on social media. Heck, I must admit that when I order on-line, I like the fact that my info is already stored and I don't have to retype it, even though that risks it [being] stolen, as happens a lot.

My doctor upgraded his computer and they asked me to review my profile. Thank goodness they reviewed it, as the upgrade created lots of significant errors in my record: my address was wrong. They had an obsolete phone number. My medications were wrong.

Anyway, how much erroneous crap is out there on our medical or financial records that will come back to bite us in the butt at some point?

(Side note: I carry a wallet card I created with my capsule medical history and medications on it. It is most helpful and I recommend everyone have something like it--easy to do on the word processor.)

Reply to
HAncock4

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