Following the Google subpoena, Don Dodge, formerly of Napster, has posted his take on the privacy issue, saying:
Getting sued by the government, a competitor, or a litigious action group, will change your perception of privacy in a hurry. At Napster every email we ever wrote or received was subpoenaed and read by teams of lawyers. Sorry Mom...that email you sent me complaining about Dad...is now public information under the Freedom Of Information Act.
Bill Gates and other executives at Microsoft have had all of their email captured by legal teams for various law suits at one time or another. Bill Gates once said "We live the observed life". Translation...assume that everything you say, write, or do will be reviewed by a team of lawyers...with the worst of intentions.
He has seven tips for surviving, starting with "(1) Write each email as if it is CC'd to your boss, your competitors, or your spouse. If you are ever sued or investigated...it will be."
Om Malik points out that our spending, listening, downloading and other habits are also cached somewhere, and that collecting even more info with something like Root Markets (blogged here yesterday) may not be such a good idea:
I found it amazing that not many people thought of this when they looked at Root Markets, a start-up that garnered favorite comments from many, including Erick Schonfeld, one of my colleagues at Business 2.0. Unlike him, when I see the company, the first thought that ran across my mind: so I spy on me, so to speak, build a collection of information about myself, and then heaven forbid for some odd reason, I get subpoenaed. Oops!
Most people don't expect to get sued, of course. But in a world where governments increasingly feel they are entitled to trawl for information -- either in the "war on terrorism," or to protect children from seeing inappropriate information, or whatever -- that may not always be necessary.
