July 07, 2007

A not so transparent someone else’s life

Sir in “A transparent life” July 7 you mention that “privacy is so last century” and comment about how the new internet technologies risk us losing our privacy. That may well be so but simultaneously you just need to go to any of the millions of web based discussion forums to notice that very few speak in their own name but hide out behind strange pseudonyms and avatars. I myself have opted for always using my own name, as the best way to assure I will never forget who I am and start talking in someone else’s name. And so, while we definitely must help to assure the right to privacy for the right private person we also need to simultaneously deal with the multi-personality disorders created on the web.