The FTC Wants to Play Spy vs. Spy
It's disturbing when government officials suggest that they need more power to investigate Americans in secret. Even if the Federal Trade Commission is going after spam, couldn't they just do it without having special exceptions to privacy and financial records laws? I hate spam, but I hate erosions of civil rights more. In addition to asking for exemptions to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and Right to Financial Privacy Act--delaying the required notification to a spammer that they are being investigated -- the FTC wants to have more control over common carriers, which means dictating what can or cannot be carried on the Net. Bad news for Net users, if you ask me, because it means content restrictions (and dedicated processors for enforcing them) will become commonplace -- once you can enforce spam restrictions it is a short hop to banning other content, like that nefarious book, Huckleberry Finn.
Posted by Mitch Ratcliffe at June 11, 2003 12:30 PM | TrackBack