Happily Anonymous

In Germany, legal theorists talk about "the right to be forgotten." Meantime in America, harvesting personal information is big business.

There is a clash of cultures and priorities in what Europeans and Americans see as important in the online world: the Europeans see privacy as a traditional right worth defending, while Americans talk about the end of privacy.

This NPR story notes that many of the current privacy safeguards on the Internet are a reaction to European concerns. Are the Europeans trying to regulate something that can't--or shouldn't--be regulated? Are the Americans giving up an essential right--the right to privacy--too easily?

Discussion Questions...

•What do websites know about you? Does it matter?
•Do you know what information you are giving up at the moment you are giving it up, or do you only find out later?
•Do you hope the European attitude prevails, or the American one? Why?
•Is the end of privacy inevitable?