Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> Of course, the bit of "let's watch everyone always who is in public, and 
> record any data leaving or entering their private house" is also 
> troublesome, but certainly easier to get around.

  In Finland there are quite restrictive privacy laws.

  For example, it's prohibited to create (and especially distribute) lists
which link numbers (such as social security numbers, car license plates,
student numbers in universities, etc.) to the persons assigned to those
numbers. For example at universities when they publish course results,
they can only print out to public view either the student number or the
student name, but not both. (Most prefer printing only the student number
because it's more "anonymous".)

  Sometimes executing this law goes a bit to extremes. For example there
was a website which collected photographs of cars with amusing license
plates. It received a cease-and-desist order from authorities because
it effectively was a listing of license plates and photographs of the
cars they belonged to. This is a no-no.

  I'm quite certain that likewise it would be prohibited to photograph
people leaving their homes, because such photographs would effectively
be a list connecting people with their homes.

  I'm not sure what is the interpretation of the law with regard to the
police spying on internet traffic, though...

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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