Fergie's Tech Blog

Spokane mayor urges privacy online after 'brutal outing'

An AP newswire article by John K. Wiley in USA Today reports:

After what Mayor James West called his "brutal outing" by a newspaper that published transcripts of his conversations from a gay chat room, he complained in an e-mail to the city's commission on race relations. West asked: "Should we all fear that our private conversations will be splashed publicly and out of context for all in our sphere to see?" The answer, Internet privacy advocates say, is "yes."

"Online anonymity is kind of hard to come by," said Beth Givens of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a consumer information privacy group in San Diego.

"You cannot count on anonymity in virtually any online communication, unless you are an expert at using encryption and do a lot of research on the service you are using," Givens said.

posted by Fergie @ 6/20/2005 12:04:00 PM