Ian Eiloart wrote:
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).
No, I'm not. Since email addresses and doormat locations are part of a
recipient's personal data, recipients can exercise their right on
whether that piece of information may be used to deliver that piece of
advertising.
Let me exemplify: my email address is on my town's public directory,
and some used cars sellers want to advertise by email special deals in
each town. An interpretation of "privacy" may imply that when the
sellers copy my address into their list, at the same time notify me
the details of their data processing. I don't want an email for that
notification, just a machine readable note at my MX server. That note
should arrive _before_ any email message, so that I can automatically
delete my address from the sellers' list even before they send me any
advertisement, if that's how I've configured the server.
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.
They are too abstract to be useful for any practical purpose.
Nevertheless, they provide guidance.
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.
It's not secrecy, it's usage. I have the right to allow my address to
stay on one list and delete it from another one. Even if both lists
are public, my data is mine.
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