NEGATIVE-PRIVACY-SOLVENCY-GENERAL 109

LOSS OF PRIVACY IS INEVITABLE

THE LOSS OF PRIVACY IS INEVITABLE -- GET USED TO IT

THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC, May 16, 1999 SECTION: ARTS & IDEAS; Pg. E1 TITLE: GOODBYE, PRIVACY; IT'S DOOMED IN A WORLD AFTER FASTER, CHEAPER, SAFER STUFF // acs-EE2001

In a way, the future may be like the past, when few except the rich enjoyed much privacy. To earlier generations, escaping the claustrophobic all-knowingness of a village for the relative anonymity of the city was one of the more liberating aspects of modern life.

But the era of urban anonymity already looks like a mere historical interlude. There is, however, one difference between past and future. In the village, everybody knew everybody else's business. In the future, nobody will know for certain who knows what about them.

That will be uncomfortable. But the best advice may be this: get used to it.

IT IS INEVITABLE THAT YOUR INFORMATION WILL BE FOUND OUT

Robert Scheer, the editor of USC's Online Journalism Review, The San Diego Union-Tribune, July 15, 1999, SECTION: OPINION Pg. B-13: TITLE: Turning our privacy over to commercial interests // acs-EE2001

There was a time when that information would have remained buried and rarely disturbed in dusty vaults. But in the day of the wired world, such information is translated, in excruciatingly refined detail, into consumer profiles and sold as an invaluable marketing tool. Cross-references among all your accounts are a few computer keystrokes away from prying eyes, and it's inevitable that such information will make its way through the Internet to an army of waiting telemarketers and private investigators who are not entitled to this data.