I'm not really worried that 37signals are maliciously going through customer data, because I honestly believe they aren't.
However, I'm disgusted by the number of people in this thread that justify the violation of customer privacy because it's what's normal.
As an industry, we all face in our sales cycle the fear from customers that we will violate their privacy. Self-regulation by holding each other to account is the cheapest and best way to address the issue.
While I would be stupid to believe software vendors don't look at my data because I know better, that isn't my expectation.
It's not my expectation that my lawyer, my accountant, my doctor, my therapist, my social worker, or my librarian trade on or reveal or delve through my private information. That's why they as professionals are licensed and self-regulated by their professional colleges.
As information professionals, we should act professionally with information as well. This is not crazy talk. We also see credit card numbers and personal information stolen every month. Last year over 100 million credit cards had to be reissued due to data theft. That's why the card industry created PCI compliance to self-regulate the industry, as imperfect as it may be.
No, as information professionals, we should be building tools that enable users to store and manage their data privately, without asking them to trust some anonymous system administrator. Allowing them to become complacent and implicitly accepting of remotely-hosted services does users and society as a whole a great disservice.
However, I'm disgusted by the number of people in this thread that justify the violation of customer privacy because it's what's normal.
As an industry, we all face in our sales cycle the fear from customers that we will violate their privacy. Self-regulation by holding each other to account is the cheapest and best way to address the issue.
While I would be stupid to believe software vendors don't look at my data because I know better, that isn't my expectation.
It's not my expectation that my lawyer, my accountant, my doctor, my therapist, my social worker, or my librarian trade on or reveal or delve through my private information. That's why they as professionals are licensed and self-regulated by their professional colleges.
As information professionals, we should act professionally with information as well. This is not crazy talk. We also see credit card numbers and personal information stolen every month. Last year over 100 million credit cards had to be reissued due to data theft. That's why the card industry created PCI compliance to self-regulate the industry, as imperfect as it may be.