- #1
rudinreader
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It has been a while since that story came out...
"The role of the US Internet firm Yahoo in helping Chinese security officials to finger a journalist sentenced to 10 years for e-mailing "state secrets" is filtering into mainland China"
one link to an article can be found here (but there are more): http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0909/p01s03-woap.html
The reason why I bring this topic up is because it suddenly occurred to me what was really significant about this case (as I will explain).
To quote the article:
"We think Yahoo's role is very sad in this case, and we hope Yahoo reexamines its policies," says Abi Wright of the Committee to Protect Journalists, which has been following Shi's case for months. "But frankly, it isn't Yahoo but the Chinese authorities who are jailing this man, and we feel the focus of attention needs to remain on the authorities."
When this article came out, I probably read that and didn't give it a second thought. But now it occurs to me, the quote above is COMPLETELY BACKWARDS!
The attention needs to be paid to yahoo, NOT China! We all know China is the way they are. The real question at hand is this: is yahoo reading our emails? Oviously they have access to our emails, and can data mine the emails at will if they wanted to.
Call me old fashioned, but I would expect any gentleman (or woman) to be kind enough not to look at my emails which are assumed to be confidential. But ask yourself: after considering this case, would you be willing to email intellectual property through yahoo? Of course we would not expect Microsoft or google employees to send business sensitive emails through yahoo. But what about the average Joe?
If I'm reading this case correctly, yahoo's role is not just "sad", it's disturbing! With the "New Yahoo: Better Than Ever, Etc." interfaces they are making to get me more hooked on their product (of course I opted for classic because the new yahoo sucks bigtime), I have certainly decided to take a huge step back.
In conclusion, I think if I ever have anything important to say (low and behold, an average Joe just might have something important to say), I'm either going to use the postal service, or otherwise go to walmart and buy some looseleaf paper. It's the "role of the entire computer industry" that's sad, not just yahoo.
"The role of the US Internet firm Yahoo in helping Chinese security officials to finger a journalist sentenced to 10 years for e-mailing "state secrets" is filtering into mainland China"
one link to an article can be found here (but there are more): http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0909/p01s03-woap.html
The reason why I bring this topic up is because it suddenly occurred to me what was really significant about this case (as I will explain).
To quote the article:
"We think Yahoo's role is very sad in this case, and we hope Yahoo reexamines its policies," says Abi Wright of the Committee to Protect Journalists, which has been following Shi's case for months. "But frankly, it isn't Yahoo but the Chinese authorities who are jailing this man, and we feel the focus of attention needs to remain on the authorities."
When this article came out, I probably read that and didn't give it a second thought. But now it occurs to me, the quote above is COMPLETELY BACKWARDS!
The attention needs to be paid to yahoo, NOT China! We all know China is the way they are. The real question at hand is this: is yahoo reading our emails? Oviously they have access to our emails, and can data mine the emails at will if they wanted to.
Call me old fashioned, but I would expect any gentleman (or woman) to be kind enough not to look at my emails which are assumed to be confidential. But ask yourself: after considering this case, would you be willing to email intellectual property through yahoo? Of course we would not expect Microsoft or google employees to send business sensitive emails through yahoo. But what about the average Joe?
If I'm reading this case correctly, yahoo's role is not just "sad", it's disturbing! With the "New Yahoo: Better Than Ever, Etc." interfaces they are making to get me more hooked on their product (of course I opted for classic because the new yahoo sucks bigtime), I have certainly decided to take a huge step back.
In conclusion, I think if I ever have anything important to say (low and behold, an average Joe just might have something important to say), I'm either going to use the postal service, or otherwise go to walmart and buy some looseleaf paper. It's the "role of the entire computer industry" that's sad, not just yahoo.