This image was lost some time after publication.

The public exposure of letters from Larry Ellison's accountant raises a privacy issue, to be sure. What guidance could the Oracle founder himself give us?

Ah, good, he gave the public the go-ahead in 2001: "The privacy you're concerned about is largely an illusion."

A bold statement for such a public figure to make, surely, and a strong temptation to pull out the Valleywag camcorder and head to Ellison's Broadway home. But he's not alone in destroying the privacy illusion. Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy has said for years, "You have no privacy. Get over it."

Eric Schmidt, take note.

Don't Make Privacy the Next Victim of Terror [BusinessWeek]
McNealy's cold feet and other tales of Sun [CNet on Builder.au]
CNET: We've been blackballed by Google [CNN Money]