You Can See This, but Not That
A few puzzling things in the last few days about what we can see and what we can't.

A New York appellate court ruled on some Sept. 11 privacy issues. We can hear: "personal feelings expressed by firefighters in interviews conducted by the Fire Department." But we cannot hear "several other portions of the records -- including opinions of firefighters and 911 operators." (From a New York Times story.)

Here's something we can't hear: "The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Bush administration to keep secret the names and other basic details about hundreds of foreigners detained after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks." (Story from Reuters, but if you do a search on "Kafkaesque," you'll get this opinion on the matter from the Star-Telegram.

Ah, but here's some information you can get. If you need the social security numbers of NYU students who signed up for intramural basketball a few years ago, that's on the Internet. (Story in the NY Times.) Or you can have the e-mails of people who commented on an Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms proposal under the condition that their anonymity would be protected. The Treasury Department decided that since there were too many comments, it would be too hard to delete the e-mail addresses before going public. (Story at CNet, via Reason's Hit & Run.)
- posted by Amy @ 1/13/2004 09:38:00 AM