[Tech] Debra Bowen sulla strana accoppiata Microsoft-spammers e sugli RFID tags

La senatrice californiana Debra Bowen, intervistata da C|Net, parla dello strano (?) atteggiamento di Microsoft nei confronti delle ipotesi di legislazione anti-spam e della potenziale minaccia alla privacy rappresentata da un uso troppo disinvolto della tecnologia degli RFID (Radio Frequency ID) tag.



Ecco un paio di estratti:

The Redondo Beach state senator thinks Microsoft has a bad attitude when it comes to spam.



As a California legislator for the past 10 years, Bowen has drafted and introduced bills intended to tie spammers' hands and better protect consumers' privacy. But more recently, she has criticized Microsoft for lobbying against certain spam bills, including one she championed.



Bowen has gone so far as to say "trusting Microsoft to protect computer users from spam is like putting telemarketers in charge of the do-not-call list."



(...)



Q: You've harshly criticized Microsoft for lobbying against certain spam bills, including yours. Do you think your rhetoric is appropriate?

A: I do. I believe it's an accurate assessment of how Microsoft has acted on the issue of spam, which is basically to talk out of both sides of its mouth. If you read The Wall Street Journal, you'll find Bill Gates advocating a system of self-regulation in which Microsoft becomes, effectively, the post office for spam and collects the equivalent of a postage stamp for each piece of spam delivered.



Of course, that would also give them the ability to charge their Internet or software customers for the ability to block spam. So Microsoft has talked openly about wanting to license spammers or wanting to create a postage-stamp concept.



Q: What's wrong with that?

A: I believe we are making this far too complicated. If Microsoft was against spam, it would have supported a bill like Senate Bill 12 that requires permission before unsolicited commercial e-mail gets delivered into someone's mailbox.



Instead, they danced around with all this stuff about how only scammers are spammers and how, if they've been paid the postage stamp, that it's somehow no longer spam.

E ancora, sulla tecnologia RFID:

Q: You held a hearing last month about RFID. What worries you about the technology?

A: Well, the concern is not the technology itself, which is neutral. It is what happens if the tag gets attached to the identity of the purchaser through, for example, payment by credit card. Then you suddenly have a tag that has also recorded the identity of the purchaser and, as we heard at the hearing, you could have a situation in which you have a scanner or antenna in a doorway.



If a tag was embedded in a pair of sneakers, the sneakers could provide a link to identify the shoes' owner when she walks through the doorway. So it is the loss of privacy that is the concern with RFID tagging.

Link: testo integrale dell'intervista su News.com.