Via Wired:
Paul’s ongoing challenge is to form a winning political coalition that unites right-wing and left-wing libertarians, and his trip to the center of America’s tech sector is an early test of that coalition’s tensile strength.
Points:
- “I think any third-party records should be protected by the 4th Amendment. We’ve introduced legislation that says so. In fact, we actually had a vote on an amendment that would do that. So much of our lives are on the internet and so much of our lives are visible in our financial statements. If the government wants to look at that, it should have to show probable cause you’re committing a crime.”
- “What I worry about is where the government comes in, through the Patriot Act, and says you can’t be sued for giving [subscriber] information to the government. So my message to them will be to stand up and defend privacy. Ultimately, the people going after privacy are the government, and if people mistake Google for government, then we’re in for a big problem. If people begin to mistake Gmail for Government-Mail, they’re liable to get swept up in the same net of people supporting privacy. I see a distinction, and I think it’s in their interest as a company to fight hard for privacy, fight hard to protect the contractual arrangement their customers have with them.”
- “I’m on the internet every day, but I don’t know if I consider myself a gadget person. I don’t program or code or anything like that. I can use most of the tools that every American teenager can master. Maybe not all of them.”
