--On 26 June 2009 18:02:11 +0200 Alessandro Vesely <vesely at tana.it> wrote:
Even if we may be skeptical about the effectiveness of meatspace laws for limiting spam, we should give them credit for defining and describing a number of useful terms. Privacy laws are aimed at protecting people against undiscriminated usage of collected personally identifiable information, a.k.a. personal data.
You're missing an important definition of "privacy" - the right to be undisturbed (for example, by unsolicited advertising in your INBOX or on your doormat).
Many people consider privacy to be simply the right to remain unobserved (secrecy), but the right to be let alone is the basis of the UK's "Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003". Those regulations are subsidiary to our Data Protection Act of 1998, but don't arise from it.
Once upon a time, the two aspects of privacy were entwined by mass illiteracy and slow communications. Nowadays, near ubiquitous communications mean it's harder to voluntarily avoid interference by keeping your location secret - partly because it's harder to keep it secret, and partly because for many modern communications methods your physical location doesn't matter.
-- Ian Eiloart IT Services, University of Sussex 01273-873148 x3148 For new support requests, see http://www.sussex.ac.uk/its/help/