I am not so much concerned with the state of the law as I am with what we, the technically inclined members of society, think of these people's right to privacy. We cannot allow ourselves to abuse our position and justify preying on those who are less skilled.
Claims from within our community that "Privacy is dead." concern me more than any warrantless wiretapping the FBI may be enjoying. It confuses the ability to secure your own privacy with the right to enjoy it. I expect law enforcement to live by the letter of the law, but I expect better of us. I expect ethical behaviour, not just merely legal behaviour. We innovate too quickly for the law to keep up with us.
Claims from within our community that "Privacy is dead." concern me more than any warrantless wiretapping the FBI may be enjoying.
-- This is an important point, because the notion of "reasonable" will ultimately be a relative point. so, in this case "a sinking tide sinks all ships" (to bastardize an old phrase). This is arguably a 21stC disease.
But, If you have school debts to pay, those facy granite countertops, or a promotion on the line, etc people will revert to: "I'm smarter than XYZ, I deserve PQR, all these other people are [naive, dumb, suckers]...etc. So I'll do [whatever morally grey area thing] will be [instrumentally useful].
So, at the end of the day, root cause is (1) greed; and (2) entitlement. You could also throw in (3) moral haze. But in my experience, (3) often is a byproduct of (1) and (2) coming into conflict. There is also likely a component which is just "lack of imagination" in the pre-9/11 sense. You just won't believe tha people will do certain types of things, until its too late. Confronting the problems is too disruptive, etc.
Claims from within our community that "Privacy is dead." concern me more than any warrantless wiretapping the FBI may be enjoying. It confuses the ability to secure your own privacy with the right to enjoy it. I expect law enforcement to live by the letter of the law, but I expect better of us. I expect ethical behaviour, not just merely legal behaviour. We innovate too quickly for the law to keep up with us.