CONVENIENCE TRUMPS PRIVACY

Convenient communication trumps privacy. Who would have thought? It was not too long ago that privacy was a hot topic with the public and the government. Getting information from the government, or a private corporation about an individual is nearly impossible. Take Ontario Hydro for instance. I wanted to know whether my tenant, in my building, is paying his hydro bills. Not possible! It is illegal to give out information about a private person. My wife called Bell Telephone to see if I had paid our phone bill. Since the account was in my name and not hers, she had to bring me to the phone to get the information.

But the computer and e-mail are making a mockery of the fetish of “privacy”. For people who are computer savvy, and more young people are learning the skill, if you have a computer, use e-mail or an I Phone, forget about privacy. The restaurants you frequent, holidays you take, stores you visit, are an open book. I make my point by bringing to your attention “the affair of the generals”.

Can you believe that general David Patraeus, a very competent soldier, was having a quiet, long-term sexual relationship with Paula Broadwell, a writer who had completed a biography of the general. It appears that Broadwell was very possessive of Petraeus, and when she found out that another woman, a Ms. Jill Kelley was barging in on her territory, sent a threatening e-mail to Kelley to stand aside. Ms. Kelley was frightened and took the e-mail very seriously. She called in an FBI agent who investigated the e-mails of the three persons involved. At that point the whole story came out, except a new person, another general, no less, was found to be having a friendship, of sorts, with Jill Kelley. He turned out to be the head of the U.S. forces in Afghanistan. His name is John Allen.

The lesson I learned from these e-mails is “don’t send out an e-mail that contains information that you want kept private.” Period!