Push Button Paradise

My last post got some interesting responses, online and off. Increasingly companies find challenges as they add a larger presence in places where important things like freedom of the press and freedom of speech are restricted or nonexistent.

Complaining and ranting are easy. Coming up with useful alternatives is harder, but I'll give it a try.

Guideline: Any company that handles user data should make it as difficult as legally possible to turn over this information to the authorities. Any appeal or quash process should be automatically initiated. When forced to turn information over, do it as slowly and with as much red tape as legally possible.

Guideline: Treat all users the same. It's a tempting thought to maybe add extra layers around those at high-risk of getting subpoenaed, but that just creates more data sources that could be seized. It's probably better to minimize the amount of sensitive information kept (in any country). A necessary side-effect of this is that reporters wouldn't get special treatment--ideally the system would have no way of even knowing who is a reporter.

Any more? -m

posted at: 00:38 | under: 2005-09 | 0 comment(s)