Quote:
Originally Posted by BoldlyDubious
This is not true. If my computer connects to a server of yours and they exchange data, these data are *not* public. They are known to me and you alone. If they are encrypted, even sniffing the IP packets cannot lead (without effort) to the original data. So: things done on the internet are generally not public, unless you want them to be.
If you and me are talking on the sidewalk, this does not mean that the things we are saying are public, i.e. that it's legal for someone else to record our voices from afar, then use or sell or distribute the information gathered this way.
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It would be foolish to assume that any communication on the internet was private. If you are applying encryption you are obviously aware of that fact.
As to a sidewalk conversation; What is legal depends on jurisdiction and varies greatly. But if you can show where someone used such a recording and you were damaged by such use you could recover damages, even if that jurisdiction had no law against making such a recording. Now that could be effected by the interpretation of the First Amendment that deals with public figures, that limits their ability to recover damages in such cases.
Am I to take it, from this series of posts, that you feel that the mere collection of certain data is or should be a criminal act? Not all people see it that way.
Luck;
Ken