People in all walks of life, dissidents, prisoners, and minorities have as much right to exchange information as do the affluent and powerful. People have the right to communicate. Every use of the Net is inherently an exercise of freedom of speech, to be restricted only at great peril to human liberty. The right to communicate includes the right to participate in communication through interacting, organizing, petitioning, mobilizing, assembling, collaborating, buying and selling, sharing, and publishing. The Net offers great promise as a means of increasing global commerce and collaboration among individuals and businesses, but restrictions on information exchange would eviscerate that promise.
People have the right to privacy.
Without assurances of appropriate privacy, users of the Net will not communicate and participate in a meaningful manner. Network users should be free to use any available technical measures to help ensure the privacy of all aspects of their communications. Individuals have the right to control who they communicate with, and how they conduct that communication. The privacy implied by the decision to not communicate must be respected. People are the Net's stewards, not its owners.