“Privacy 2.0 – Cleaning up the mess Web 2.0 left behind”

What is Privacy 2.0 you might ask? I’d like to start the explanation with a bit of background. Two years ago I founded a startup social network that was a mashup of Facebook, Myspace, Meetup and Yelp. Continue Reading

Perhaps a built-in effect of living in a democratic society is the fact that our government is a reactive one on major issues. Something has to go terribly wrong before our lawmakers react and try to correct it by enacting legislation. Katrina and FEMA (a 2′fer in natural disasters), The dot com bust and SOX regulations (which now are arguably costly and inefficient), and the list goes on.

When it came down to writing law to stop spamming, well guess what, we ended up with laws that followed the same track record. The latest example comes out of Virginia, where the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that the states own anti spam law violates the First Amendment right to freedom of speech.

The gist of the finding is simple, the Virginia law was not descriptive enough as to the contents of the spam, therefore it could be applied to content that is protected under the first amendment, particularly political or religious speech. So, if a spammer sends out mass mailing that could be interpreted as political speech (join the McCain campaign and get a free Ipod), well, that communication is protected under the first amendment and cannot be deemed illegal by the states current anti spam law.

I guess my only question is, when will our politicians learn to write good law? talk to consultants, look at past case law, your professionals, cant you write a law that covers all angles? But then again, we already know the answer to that.

Do yourself a favor, don’t rely on your government to protect your identity, privacy, anonymity or apparently…your Inbox.