In-House Counsel

August Thoughts on Privacy

In the Washington Post yesterday, Jeffery Frank described DC in August as deceptively sublime, and really quite contemplative (Cheers to You, August ). I think he?s right. DC gets hot and sticky, members of Congress go home and test the mood of the country, the crowds lessen, as does the hustle and bustle. Much of that opens-up the city, in a nice, easy, way, and while we?re here sometimes we have time to think.

This week I?m thinking about privacy, globalization, and very old hills. Tomorrow night I?m heading up to Boston to join the symposium faculty and give a talk at the 2007 Privacy Symposium at Harvard. Since it?s an academic setting we are supposed to think big thoughts. I?m not sure I have one; but I?ll slog on.

A few things are clear to me. We do not want privacy rules that stifle the ?Interactions-Based Economy,? either as technical matter, or with regard to emerging, and yet undiscovered business models. We don?t want privacy rules that by their terms pick technology winners and losers by government fiat ? instead of market demands. In matters of security and privacy, policy affects architecture ? so much so, that really, policy is architecture. And we don?t want to create a single situs (or perhaps worse, multiple situses) for techno-regulatory-arbitrage around security and privacy regulation that spirals us out of the cycle of innovation.

Full post as published by Cisco High Tech Policy Blog on August 21, 2007 (boomark / email).