There is no such thing as a "private" moment online. We have to get past that "fantasy"

Of all the places in the world where you have no privacy.. it is the internet.


Congressman Wieiner is getting it from all sides, not about his sexting as it were.

He is getting it from all sides because he lied and pulled this story or non story out for two weeks now.

And the media the way it is set up now.. as a 24/7 reality show needing fresh meat to keep it going is always going to latch on to something like this.

All elected officials should keep that is mind.

Never post anything online you don't want read or shown in a court of law.

:)

He is a fucking idiot of monumental proportions. It's not like there no examples out there to have learned this lesson from.

private. They are addressed to a specific person and that person alone. If that person publicizes them, they have violated my trust.

That said, I am well aware of how EASY it is to violate that trust on the internet. But ease does not equal ethics.

Emails should be treated as privately as snail mail. Sad that they aren't.

Private instant messaging should be treated as privately as personal phone calls. Sad that they aren't.

But let's be clear about who is breaching ethics here - it's not the person who sends the communication privately; it's the person who takes that private communication and makes it public.

It is all in their lap.

Heck they are accessing our accounts in other countries..

I am sure someone somewhere is logging everything we type in DU.

I just take it for granted, that when I am on the internet, I am addressing the world.

A private email is not a public forum. A letter to the editor is. A letter to a public official's OFFICE is.

A private tweet or private message or private phone call is not a public statement. A nationally broadcast press conference is, and so is a tweet sent to ALL of one's followers.

Where people got that idea that it was ok to treat private internet-based communications as anything different than private paper-based communications is beyond me. Yes, it's easier for snooping and spying and tattling to go on. But that doesn't translate to all communications being public by virtue of their being internet-based.

There IS a reasonable expectation of privacy. Time to start demanding it again. And time to call people who divulge private, personal communications out for what they are.

its not happening.

I am with you 100% for calling out people who expose personal conversations. I know if you physically steal mail you are in for a world of hurt with the Feds.

I am not sure how that would work in the ether of the internet.

and assume all communications I have on the net are public domain.