Page 104 - Privacy in a Cyber Age Policy and Practice
P. 104
THE PRIVACY MERCHANTS 91
legislation, to cover new technological developments (e.g., social media).
If such dual progress is possible, there will be much less reason to prevent
the government from drawing on the data banks maintained by the pri-
vacy merchants, because the government would be limited to less sensitive
information, and PVT of innocent Americans would be banned. Without
such progress, one must assume that what is private is also public in two
senses of these words: First, that one’s privacy, which includes sensitive
matters, is rapidly being corroded by the private sector and second, that
whatever the private sector learns is also available to the government.
