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Comment by oziumjinx | Hacker News Reader

If I have sensitive (and confidential) health records about my family members and someone steals them and posts them on the web, is that freedom of speech? Do I have the right to get them taken down, or in this case shut the website down?

If my company is working on a new product containing details we consider secret, is it OK to post those on the web?

If the gov't has secrets that could compromise our national security, is that Ok to post on the web?

How do we determine where to draw the line?

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Don't use privacy as a strawman for censorship. Individuals and corporations have a right to privacy. That does not conflict with censorship.

Are the health records for your family members paid out of taxpayer's money? Do they have a negative impact on the lives of anyone outside your family?

Is your new product paid out of taxpayer's money? Will it do a lot of harm to people?

The line is quite clear to me.

Is the security of our citizen lives paid for by taxpayers money? Yes it is.

I'm not saying I am against the leaks of most of the cables/documents, but putting national security at risk is a different story

     putting national security at risk is a different story

"national security" is a vague concept; and either way security by obscurity doesn't work for terrorist groups with the right resources.

If "national security" is compromised from the leaks of a couple of documents to the public, than the nation wasn't so secure in the first place. After all, if Wikileaks got a hold of those documents, how hard do you think it is for somebody with a couple of millions in cash and the right connections to do it?

But yeah, we should think of the children.

Is there any good that comes out of putting sensitive and classified documents that are meant to protect our citizens (if kept confidential) on the web? Let's assume that the strategy or communication didn't mention any illegal activity or corruption from within our gov't within these documents?

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