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

[Kim Holburn]

On 2009/Oct/17, at 12:18 PM, Roger Clarke wrote:

> 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.

I can tell you it is a non-English speaking country in Asia and it  
surprised me a bit as I'd only heard of this happening in the US,  
Canada, Australia and the UK.  I'm not sure of how much they do it nor  
under what circumstances it can happen.  I tried to find out if this  
is public information but on the web all I see is info about laptops  
being searched in the US, UK, Canada and Australia.  People from the  
US complain about it most, Brits, Canadian and Australians just put up  
with it I suppose because we're more obedient.  The world seems to  
follow the US lead in computing matters so I wonder if many countries  
are doing this or starting to do it or planning to do it but not  
talking about it.

> 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
>                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
> mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/
>
> Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of  
> NSW
> Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National  
> University
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-- 
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
Ph: +39 06 855 4294  M: +39 3494957443
mailto:kim at holburn.net  aim://kimholburn
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