The first was Tim O'Reilly weighing in on The Fuss About Gmail and Privacy: Nine Reasons Why It's Bogus. I get it. I do. I'm starting to come around to the prevailing geek attitude towards the Gmail product. But I still don't trust the current administration, and I think things like Gmail are a good vehicle for raising larger concerns over privacy and whether or not our government cares one whit about it. I also really liked Tim's point that one of the things people *should* be asking about Gmail, or about any product that "lives on the network" as opposed to your own desktop, is who owns the data?
The second article, Big Brother Gets Wired, assured me that my paranoia over how low the government will go is *not* paranoia at all. The article is about *my* ISP, the most popular local one in my town, and the fact that the owner of it would rather close up shop than kowtow to the recent FBI proposal that the FCC "require all broadband Internet providers to rewire their networks to support easy wiretapping by police." I am really glad I live in a granola-eating kind of town that cares about this stuff. The article caused me to surf over to EFF, where I found this form where you can register your displeasure with this insane idea. As soon as I submit the form I'm going to stick my ostrich head back in the sand because, geez, it's a scary world out here.
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