Aaron Swartz, Edward Snowden, Target Breach, Privacy and Data Security — What Do We Really Want?

Please follow me for a moment to think big-picture about a few important privacy and data security issues. Don’t over analyze, just read this and then close your eyes and think about it for a minute or two. Think big-picture.

• Aaron Swartz believed information should be liberated — that is, free for everyone to access and have — regardless of whether the owner of that information intended for it to be kept secure.
  • The people love him and believe they believe in his cause.
  • The people believe they want the law changed so that people are free to do what Aaron did — liberate information intended to be kept secure — without criminal prosecution.
  • The people are demanding a change in the law to reflect these beliefs.

• Edward Snowden believes that information intended to be kept secure (other than the NSA’s classified information) should be kept secure and even the NSA does not have a right to access that information in defense of the country. Because the NSA accessed this information Snowden tattled to the world and disclosed a mother lode of classified NSA documents to show what it was doing.
  • The people love him and believe they believe in his cause.
  • The people believe they want the law changed so that even the NSA does not have a right to access information that is intended to be kept secure.
  • The people are demanding a change in the law to reflect these beliefs.

• Target, Neiman Marcus, and a host of other merchants suffered a data breach that compromised payment card information for millions and millions of people. In essence this means that hackers devised a way to access and liberate information that the merchants and customers intended to keep secure — the information was liberated to the Dark Net where others will now use it to improve their own financial station in life.
  • The people are outraged at Target, Neiman Marcus, and the other merchants because they allowed this information to be accessed and liberated.
  • The people believe they want the laws changed to have increased punishments for those who allow information intended to be kept secure to be accessed and liberated.
  • The people are demanding a change in the law to reflect these beliefs.

Really?