Privacy

Since I have ZERO followers on my blog, I don't feel at all guilty about changing subjects. No more budgeting stuff. Instead, I am going to speak of privacy issues in this post.

I have noticed lately a trend in all things electronic that possibly compromise the privacy of the user. Let's begin with an email confrontation I recently had with an internet service provider (who shall not be named). Said provider had, apparently, been tracking the volume of emails that leave my computer. It's important to note here that they did not track the email from a certain account, but instead tracked the emails leaving this physical address. And, because I send out a newsletter to about 80 people every week, this provider decided that I had sent out too many emails. They then proceeded to block all emails leaving Microsoft Outlook until I either downloaded some quick fix or called for a change.

This brings up several issues for me. First: Who gives this body the right to monitor my email output? Second: Who gives this body the right to say how much email is appropriate for me to be sending? Third: Who is the controlling power her that makes these rules and why were they not made known to me upon agreement of service?

Call me paranoid, but I feel these are valid questions. Unfortunately, I have no answers. I was only able to speak to the local guys on the phone and they said only that they do it for the protection of the customers, to limit SPAM. So, ok, I can see that customers might need protection from that. Nobody likes SPAM and, unfortunately, not everyone keeps their security up-to-date as I do. But that still leaves me wondering who gives these people the right to determine that my email output is SPAM?

Just something to think about.