Privacy: The Worst Quotes of the Year

From massive data breaches to insidious new ways to deliver ads online, we found plenty of privacy lowlights in 2007. So many, in fact, that we’re introducing a new award. Ladies and gentlemen, the 2007 Privvy Awards for outstanding quotability regarding privacy.

December 20, 2007 — CSO — In 2007, Great Britain deployed "The Bug"—a surveillance camera with 360-degree visibility, "smarts" to detect mischievious activity and, yes, a speaker for making announcements remotely, just like in 1984. A company spokesperson explained away privacy concerns by saying, "The innocent have nothing to fear."

It’s a callous defense that misses the point of privacy (it’s not what you reveal but whether or not you retain the choice to reveal that defines privacy), but even so, it didn’t make our list of the best quotes about privacy from 2007. That must mean the list is pretty good. It is. So good, in fact, we decided to make an award to "celebrate" the year’s most unfortunate quotes about privacy. Ladies and Gentlemen, the first ever Privvies.

To win a privvy, one must have been involved in or commenting on some privacy issue during 2007, and the comment must have been provocative or otherwise telling. The categories for which you can win a Privvy are completely manufactured, to up the fun quotient.

We ask that Privvy winners, when accepting their awards, please provide their SSNs, bank account numbers, home addresses and computer passwords. What? The innocent have nothing to fear, right?

On with the show...

And the Privvy for Doubleplusgood Newspeak of the Year goes to...Deputy Director of National Intelligence Donald Kerr
"Too often, privacy has been equated with anonymity; and it’s an idea that is deeply rooted in American culture.... But in our interconnected and wireless world, anonymity—or the appearance of anonymity—is quickly becoming a thing of the past.... We need to move beyond the construct that equates anonymity with privacy and focus more on how we can protect essential privacy in this interconnected environment. Protecting anonymity isn’t a fight that can be won. Anyone that’s typed in their name on Google understands that."
Privacy advocates seized on Kerr’s Orwellian attempt to singlehandedly change the definition of privacy because, hey, it’s really hard. (Source: Office of the Director of Naval Intelligence.)

The Privvy for Outstanding Achievment in Not Exactly Inspiring Consumer Confidence goes to...The TJX Companies
"[TJX] believes our security was comparable to many other major retailers."
So, many other major retailers are at risk of a data breach that exposes 100 million transaction records? We feel much better now. (Source: Boston.com.)

2007 Privvy Awards The Privvy for Best Premature Celebration goes to...Microsoft lawyer Tim Cranton
"This is a very good day."
Cranton was celebrating the arrest of so-called Spam King Robert Soloway. The AP story quoting Cranton