We live in an era of burgeoning global democracy. This decade is the first in history in which more people on the planet live in democracies than do not. Privacy is a social value in a democracy. Authoritarian governments deny rights of privacy to their citizens, and depend on the lack of privacy in order to maintain their power. But in democracies, people treasure their privacy.
Communications networks have a powerful role in an increasingly democratic world.
Communities of networks can therefore help nurture democracy and kill autocracy. Just as democracies must assure rights of privacy in order to respond to citizens, it logically follows that networked relationships must provide the powers of privacy in order to satisfy the wishes of users. Recently, Novell vice president Mike Sheridan testfied before the Senate Judiciary Committee in hearings to consider Internet privacy issues. He also urged the government to let the private sector work on its own to resolve the privacy debate. You can read his entire oral testimony or read Bloomberg's coverage of the event.