“…If we become too obsessed with privacy we could lose opportunities to make connections in this age of links. The link is a profound invention. Links don’t just connect us to web pages, they also allow us to connect to each other, to information, to actions, and to transactions. Links help us organize into new societies and redefine our publics. When, out of fear of the unknown, we shut ourselves off from links to one another, we lose as individuals, as companies, and as institutions. When we open up, we gain new chances to learn, connect, and collaborate.”–Jeff Jarvis, Public Parts, 2011

“When my children’s homes are wired, a computer will have a record of what they buy and how much they spend. It will know whether they pay bills quickly, slowly or not at all, and it will know where all their money comes from. It will know whether they watched the debates, or a football game or a controversial movie. In other words, it will know more about them than anyone should. We can and should move at the outset of this information era to address the potential privacy problem so that it, in fact, does not become an actual one.” —Charles D. Ferris, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, “Official Warns on Privacy,” The New York Times, October 14, 1980.

“Privacy is a thing of the past. Technologically it is obsolete. However, there will be social norms and legal barriers that will dampen out the worst excesses.” —Hal Varian, 2006