There is so much happening with privacy right now that it is enough to make my head spin. What is clear though is that individuals, companies and government all want it both ways.

Some parts of government want private enterprise to do a better job of protecting individuals’ information from other individuals and companies. At the same time other parts of government are looking for wholesale access to individual data bypassing any and all privacy policies and constitutional rights. Sorry, you can’t have it both ways.

Similarly individuals want to be able to share information with more than 500 of their best friends on Facebook and yet have it be private. Sorry, you can’t have it both ways.

Companies want to gather tons of information about their customers but not disclose much or anything about their own activities or have third parties collect that information. Sorry, you can’t have it both ways.

We are entering unchartered territory here because of our amazing information gathering and sharing capabilities. As I have said before we need to start with a discussion of values first. I don’t believe that privacy is a value in and of itself. If you want to see my own grappling with this complicated topic, here are all my past posts on privacy.