[LINK] Big corporations and who owns our privacy now.

[Roger Clarke]

At 11:18 +0200 17/10/09, Kim Holburn wrote:
>The other day I was talking to an acquaintance from another country.

It would be helpful to know the country, Kim.

Even if it's, say, Andorra, it's not *directly* exposing the individual.

There's an implication that it's not the most obvious country, i.e. 
the one that breeds national security extremists, and that happens to 
have the most to gain from a policy like that.  And I don't go there 
any more, so I don't know what the border's like these days.

Now, which nation is a really, really good friend / lapdog to the 
country that has the most to gain from a policy like that?  Well, we 
don't have the junior sheriff running Australia any more.  Apart from 
which, your words "another country" and "his country" seems to 
preclude it being Oz.

Canada?

Poland?

Israel?

Taiwan?


PRC?

(Well, we have to allow for a country that might use the excuse of 
'relations with the USA' when they really mean 'chilling factor on 
behaviour of our citizens').


What, me paranoid?  Just because I'm flying into Canada next weekend 
carrying a laptop??  It's okay though.  It's a Mac.  So the border 
guards won't know what it is anyway, let alone how which files are 
software.


>He told me that if he went back to his country with a laptop, on entry
>to his country, he might have his laptop searched and have to prove
>ownership of each item of software on the laptop.
>
>I find this worrying, that corporate licensing of software is
>overriding personal privacy.  I have heard that laptop searches were
>getting nasty in the US but this seems as invasive.


-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
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Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University