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J. Willard wrote:<BR>
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"However, in reality, nothing that is sent out over the Internet is ever<BR>
totally confidential. My sister, who writes on children's Internet safety<BR>
issues, Cyber-bullying and net-etiquette, has always said that you should<BR>
not sent anything over the Internet that you wouldn't want to hear repeated<BR>
on the 6:00 news....."<BR>
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And with modern techniques of surveillance and snooping of various kinds nothing anyone says on the phone, in their bedroom, in a sealed paper letter (opened secretly and resealed) is ever totally confidential. So based on your logic, in all of these cases a person should not make any statement that they don't want repeated on the evening news.<BR>
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Just because there are numerous methods of taking what someone intends to be a private communication and making it public, does not mean we should give up on the assumption that a private e-mail should be kept private, or on privacy rights in general. The logic you are employing resembles the thinking of a citizen of a surveillance state. The example you offer also appears to ignore the fact that a media outlet that took a private e-mail of a private citizen and revealed the contents on the evening news could be sued for damages, and most media outlets realizing this would not announce the contents of someone's private e-mail carelessly, without a full examination of the legal consequences.<BR>
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It is a simple matter to check the addresses of an e-mail to see if it was sent privately. And if someone can't read the addresses, they may just as well overlook the word "private" in the subject heading. <BR>
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I cannot count the times there has been an accidental or not so accidental posting of a "private" message to the V2020 list. You must be new to this list.<BR>
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But consider that someone could write "private" in the subject heading and STILL accidentally leave a V2020 address that might cause a private message to be posted anyway, unless the responder to the "private" message checked the addresses to verify! <BR>
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So checking the addresses is still the way to go to ensure no mistakes.<BR>
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Ted Moffett<BR>
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