Stewart Baker writes:
Privacy groups put much of their effort into attacking new technologies for a reason. They’re afraid that, once we see a technology in action, we won’t be scared by its hypothetical risks, while its benefits will be easier to assess. Once that happens, imposing new privacy laws gets a lot harder.
To see just how fast that cycle can run, let’s take a trip down privacy’s memory lane.
Read Stewart’s commentary on The Volokh Conspiracy, where he uses privacy advocates’ reactions to G-mail in 2004 as an example of why maybe we shouldn’t rush to criticize or try to block new services or technologies.