"Communitarianism" doctrine means people are prepared to yield rights.

Privacy 'Dark Ages' force activist rethink

By John Leyden
Published Friday 1st April 2005 14:59 GMT

Privacy activists need to change tactics to adapt to changing public attitudes, a leading campaigner said Thursday. Simon Davies, a director of Privacy International, said campaigners need to win the argument by force of evidence rather than assuming that people naturally guard their privacy against government encroachment, an assumption he said is no longer valid.

If "logic and common sense" fail to shift public policy then "well placed" technicians might be prepared to sabotage invasive projects, Davies predicted. He said government moves to systematically profile and monitor its citizens have inflamed techies - even though the public at large remain indifferent. Government surveillance efforts predate the 9/11 terrorist attacks and include many projects (such as Britain's ID card scheme) of questionable utility.

Davies used to believe the need to guard personal privacy against invasion was a self-evident truth. But public willingness to accept ubiquitous CCTV camera coverage, ID cards and similar projects show most people no longer really care about privacy, even in countries such as the Netherlands which saw mass protests against something as low key as a government census 20 years ago.

Read the rest of the article for the title quote, and of course, I am not- what about you?

--WP