DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

One of the most irritating arguments I hear against efforts to increase privacy is beautifully summed up, and eviscerated by Dan Gillmor (SJ Mercury News columnist) in Want Privacy? Take Action:

Another scenario is the “forget about it” system, which holds that privacy is gone and we might as well get used to it. In this world, you do have a choice if you don’t enjoy having your every move tracked, and your data dispersed widely. But the choice is absurd, since it prevents access to the benefits of society, not just the drawbacks of lost privacy.

(The choice, which Gillmor does not describe, is to pull a Kaczynski — basically, move to a remote shack in Montana and live a somewhat bad-smelling life among the wildebeests and lack of plumbing. To be clear, it is not necessary to send explosives through the mail to adopt this pro-privacy stance.)