Comments on: Zoli’s Blog :: AOL Just Did the Unthinkable

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By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 18:35:56 +0000

But I really don’t want to extend legal protections to metadata, first and foremost because there is not a defined risk. You need to be very careful about going down this spider hole because it leads to regulatory creep but also because the metadata IS the primary asset that many of these firms have and if you take away their rights to it you may adversely impact the ability for new and innovative services to be created in the first place.

Most importantly, there is nobody that can reasonably take the position that anonymized data is a threat to any consumer. If you insist on regulation, then simply force companies to strip out IP and other identifying elements before releaseing any data about how their users are using their services.

Also, I would be remiss in pointing out that when you use google, AOL, or flickr you are agreeing to their terms of service. If you don’t like the terms, don’t use the services. There is not expectation of privacy other than those things that are considered private communications, email and IM (which is shaky)… the expectation of privacy cannot and should not be applied to other aspects of public services if in fact there is no right or guarantee of privacy.

By: Andrew Fife

Andrew Fife — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 18:26:39 +0000

To clarify, I was suggesting that these regulations could be looked towards as a framework for something that protects metadata.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 18:04:36 +0000

Yes, but 1950 and 1386 have very specific (and legitimate) risks in mind, identity theft. The healthcare provisions are also covered by HIPAA.

By: Andrew Fife

Andrew Fife — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 17:44:23 +0000

Jeff:
California regulations AB 1950 and SB 1386 protect personal information such as financial account, social security and or drivers license numbers. In some cases AB 1950 can also apply to personal health information. However, these regulations don’t protect metadata and they don’t yet have enough teeth to encourage proactive security measures to be put in place. The problem with IT security is that its value proposition is based on risk reduction, but the risk is difficulty to quantify and even harder to explain to non-technical executives, particularly when even the most “secure” networks are still hackable.
-Andrew

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 14:35:47 +0000

Andrew,
I think this is exactly the point. In order for government regulation to exist to the extent you would prefer it would be required that metadata be owned by the person under the protection.

I agree that there is a social contract that exists between these services and their customers by which the expectation of privacy is present, and maybe we do need an independent group to verify privacy and have that mean something (current systems don’t). I am very much against extending legal protections to metadata for the reason stated above.

By: Andrew Fife

Andrew Fife — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 08:15:06 +0000

Jeff:
I disagree. Data ownership isnâ€™t a key question here. For example, does it matter who owns my voting data, or my library usage records? Yet, the government has the obligation of protecting this information. The external costs of consumer metadata security/privacy part are of the costs of doing business.
-Andrew

By: vinnie mirchandani

vinnie mirchandani — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 01:48:33 +0000

actually I have honed my database of queries I get on my blog to now become a “Precog” a la Minority Report. So I knew about AOL’s coming gaffe way before Zoli broke the news -)

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 01:37:50 +0000

a very good point Andrew, however this brings up the interesting question of whether or not the metadata that is being created about you belongs to you. Do Flickr tags on your photos belong to you or to Flickr?

By: Andrew Fife

Andrew Fife — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 01:27:28 +0000

Jeff:
actually, it was kind of interesting to look at your browsing history… thanks for sharing. However, your browsing history is pretty benign. Some people may not want their others to know that they are looking up information about extreme political parties, porn, hacking, terrorism, etc. I think that this issue, like many other principles of democracy, is about protecting minorities from issues that donâ€™t necessarily affect the majority.
-Andrew