> N.B.Hubble:
> >A point concerning the privacy of e-mails:
>
> >Is Morgan's privacy more important than the public right to know
whether
> >a major newspaper editor is engaged in what appears to be a form of
> >insider trading perpetrated at the expense of his own readership
>
> >offers?
>
> Bob Askwith:
> That depends on whether the message was obtained reasonably, which
seems
> fairly doubtful. If he had an expectation of privacy then his
privacy should
> remain. Of course what defines 'an expectation of privacy' is
clearly
> debatable.
I fail to see how it can depend on his expectation of privacy. I think
this is clearly a situation where the rights of society as a whole
outweigh the rights of the individual. It's not clear to me of what
use the concept of 'expectation of privacy' is when the technological
scope of surveillance is increasing on an almost daily basis.
Empirically, there is going to come a point when we no longer have any
expectation of privacy - clearly we have to adopt other strategies
than relying on the individual right to privacy.
I should make it clear that I certainly don't want to defend RIPA.
However, I think the root of the problem is the powers that companies
can use in a capitalist society - not invasion of privacy.
Nick Hubble,
GRC Humanities,
University of Sussex.
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