[sbov]

Privacy is important because people are assholes.

My wife has an ex-boyfriend who went to prison. She was pretty terrified when there was an internet trail to our current home address (which I have since closed). Largely because of our Macy's wedding registry which showed up when you searched her name, which had my name, and there's only one of me in the US.

We know he found the registry because he emailed her about it. But he had to be a bit technical to connect the rest of the dots, and I don't think he did.

[miguelrochefort]

Do you seriously believe that we can (or should) reach a point where nobody can be identified or located?

Instead of getting rid of the bad guys (or preferably get rid of incentives that motivate actions you don't agree with), you seem to be suggesting that we should hide from them. I can imagine this would lead to a world with more bad guys (because no effort exists in preventing them), a lucky minority of people who have the skills to remain hidden/unidentified (not mentionning the constant worry and utilitarian trade-offs) while letting those who don't have this chance be vulnerable to this threat.

What I hear is "let's keep marijuana consumption illegal, as long as it's easy for my fortunate white self not to get caught smoking it". No wonder so many visible minorities go to jail for crimes that white people commit just as often, ethnicity is hard to conceal. I have yet to see a movement helping black people look white so that society treats them more fairly.

[TeMPOraL]

> Do you seriously believe that we can (or should) reach a point where nobody can be identified or located?

People believing such a thing probably don't understand the fundamental nature of reality. Everything forms a web of causality; all your actions spread outwards at the speed of light, affecting everything else around you. Quite often one can correlate back those effects to their original cause. This is what science does - figuring out new ways to correlate observations with their causes. Progress of technology only means we're getting better at it. I don't see how you can revert back to the pre-industrial levels of privacy without rolling back the industrial revolution.

[sbov]

You're putting a lot of words in my mouth here. That said:

When people serve their time we let them out of prison. But it also doesn't mean people may not still be afraid of them because of what they've done in the past. You cannot lock someone up just because someone is afraid of them. "If they do it again he will go to prison" isn't exactly comforting.

As my father would happily point out, you cannot always lock someone up for being an asshole. Not all asshole behavior is prison worthy. But that doesn't mean that I want to have to endure it because I have an unpopular point of view.

No, I don't think Marijuana consumption should be illegal. If I did it, even if it were legal, I would probably not particularly care to have everyone in the world know about it. That said, making Marijuana legal will do little for the black community. The problems are much deeper.

Bringing up a 300+ year long struggle against oppression isn't exactly a point in your favor of having no privacy.