This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Java Buzz by Michael Cote. Original Post: Treasury breaks word on e-mail anonymity Feed Title: Cote's Weblog: Coding, Austin, etc. Feed URL: https://cote.io/feed/ Feed Description: Using Java to get to the ideal state. Latest Java Buzz Posts Latest Java Buzz Posts by Michael Cote Latest Posts From Cote's Weblog: Coding, Austin, etc.

The US Treasury called for comments online, saying street and email addresses would not be posted publically (the comment would). Then when they got over 10,000 responses, they decided it'd take too much time to filter out the personal information.

Technologically, that seems just silly: just write some code to strip out email headers (you'd still catch any .sigs people had, I guess). As a matter of building trust, it's plain stupid.

Then again...it's not that big a deal. Even the privacy-wonk cited doesn't build (or isn't quoted well enough to build) a very good shock-case for it:

Now, they may get phone calls, letters, or spam. Merchants who commented may be picketed or boycotted. It's precisely when an issue is controversial that privacy promises are most important.

Link.