Invitation to Join New Yahoo Group: Privacy Rights

William O. Douglas made us particularly aware in the 1965 Griswold decision:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griswold_v._Connecticut

that while the U.S. Constitution does not explicitly guarantee a right to privacy, such a right is a necessary foundation for protecting individuals from intrusive invasions of personal and group privacy. Douglas suggested that other Articles of the Bill of Rights provided what he denominated to be a penumbra of rights forming privacy protections. This case, involving a right to information about contraception, laid the foundation for Roe v. Wade and abortion rights, and more recently protections of sexual rights of both heterosexual and gay persons threatened by invasions of privacy and resultant legal punishments for practices deemed not 'natural' by moral absolutists.

Given the recent invasions of privacy on a wide front ranging from the intrusions of the Patriot Act into one's reading matter to credit checks (often marred by errors), data sloppily protected by both public and private institutions allowing extensive identity theft and fraudulent abuses of individuals and groups, it occurred to me that we could use a platform for both sharing concerns and distributing rights violations information. A quick check disclosed what appeared to be a now defunct group employing my original title choice, Privacy. I considered trying to revive it, but decided that more than one (that one being focused more narrowly on large financial institutions violations of privacy) might be useful and extended the title to the critical issue here -- violations of rights of individuals that either may not be legally protected yet or which may be being eroded in ways both invidious and destructive.

Please consider this an invitation to join:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PrivacyRights

The group is unmoderated, does not disclose membership (except to the owner) if one wants only to lurk, and does not allow attachments as a protection against viruses. I suspect that there is both much to be discovered under this rubric and also much to be done to uncover abuses of privacy and to protect against same in this era of technological sophistication and intense political and cultural conflict.

Cheers, Ed Kent
--
"A war is only just if there is no alternative, and the resort
to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy)
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Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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