A Little Privacy, Please

Computer scientist Latanya Sweeney helps to save confidentiality with "anonymizing" programs, "deidentifiers" and other clever algorithms. Whether they are enough, however, is another question. Is it possible to maintain privacy, freedom and safety in today’s security-centric, databased world where identities sit ripe for the plucking? Several years ago Scott McNealy, chair­man of Sun Microsystems, famous-ly quipped, "Privacy is dead. Get over it." Sweeney couldn’t disagree more. "Privacy is definitely not dead," she counters; those who believe it is "haven't actually thought the problem through, or they aren’t willing to accept the solution."