An interesting twist in the privacy debate

This opinion piece in the New York Times reveals an interesting twist in the privacy debate: That the Internet often supersedes the laws made by certain governments to protect their people.

Basically, what happened is that a couple German men were convicted of murder but let out under parole under a law that said German media organizations couldn't reveal their identity, in an attempt to help these men start new, normal lives. Since Germany is a democracy, we can assume that this law is some form of voted-by-the-people-for-the-people system. The catch is that, with the Internet, people outside of Germany can still know who these men are, and when they write about the men, English-speaking Germans can know, too. Thus, the law is circumvented by Internet freedom.

I'm all for people's free speech on the Internet, but this issue is one that will surely come up again as the world becomes more of a globally entwined system and less of a country-by-country place. While sometimes the Internet can be a great voice for reason, to go around the restrictions of a government that doesn't mean well (think Iran), in this case it appears the Internet is just harming a government that is looking to protect its citizens.

What will be interesting is how this debate plays out in the future, with so much information out there amid the wide range of governments and freedoms they allow.