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FORBES ASIA FEBRUARY 20 20Even in its younger days, the Web was already invading
your privacy. Forbes senior editor Adam Penenberg
discovered this himself just before the turn of the mil-
lennium when he challenged a private eye to use the
internet to dig up as much information on him as possi-
ble—a challenge the gumshoe met with Marlowe-esque
enthusiasm, uncovering (among much else) Penenberg’s
Social Security number and the balance of his Merrill
Lynch cash-management account. “The spread of the
Web... will make most of the secrets you have more
instantly available than ever before, ready to reveal
themselves in a few taps on the keyboard,” Penenberg
wrote. Paying a detective to dig up details seems pretty
quaint now, of course, when tech giants such as Google
and Facebook routinely collect our most intimate infor-
mation and monetize it.“Three may keep a secret, if
two of them are dead.”
Benjamin Franklin“I have no doubt that the
nation has suffered more
from undue secrecy than
from undue disclosure.”
Daniel Schorr“Once the toothpaste is out
of the tube, it’s awfully hard
to get it back in.”
H.R. Haldeman“A picture is a secret about a
secret: The more it tells you,
the less you know.”
Diane Arbus“All human beings have
three lives: public, private
and secret.”
Gabriel García Márquez“No one ever confines a
secret to one person only.
No one destroys all copies
of a document.”
Renata Adler“At ev’ry word,
a reputation dies.”
Alexander Pope“No one gossips about other
people’s secret virtues.”
Bertrand Russell“No one likes to see a
government folder with his
name on it.”
Stephen King“Private faces in public
places / Are wiser and
nicer / Than public faces in
private places.”
W.H. Auden“Everything secret
degenerates. Nothing is
safe that does not show
how it can bear discussion
and publicity.”
Lord Acton“Ninety-two percent of the
stuff told you in confidence
you couldn’t get anyone else
to listen to.”
Franklin P. Adams“This is a free country,
madam. We have a right
to share your privacy in a
public place.”
Peter Ustinov“When a man bleeds
inwardly, it is a dangerous
thing for himself; but when
he laughs inwardly, it bodes
no good to other people.”
Charles Dickens“If you read someone else’s
diary, you get what you
deserve.”
David Sedaris“For nothing is
hidden that will not
be disclosed, and
nothing concealed
that will not be
known or brought
out into the open.”
Luke 8:17FINAL THOUGHT
“Self-protection works up
to a certain point; after
that, it is liable to incur
self-destruction.”
—B.C. ForbesTHOUGHTS ON
SOURCES: THE WIT & WISDOM OF WOMEN, BY MELISSA STEIN; POOR RICHARD’S
ALMANACK, BY BENJAMIN FRANKLIN; THE RAPE OF THE LOCK, BY ALEXANDER POPE;
ON EDUCATION, ESPECIALLY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD, BY BERTRAND RUSSELL; THE
ORATORS, BY W.H. AUDEN; ROMANOFF AND JULIET, BY PETER USTINOV; THE PICKWICK
PAPERS, BY CHARLES DICKENS; FIRESTARTER, BY STEPHEN KING.Secrets
World Wide-Open Web
November 29, 1999