I don't disagree with you, wiffleaxe, but I think a more apt analogy would be like saying "Well I'm glad peoples' houses are being broken into - they should really start thinking about their homes being part of the public sphere." Most locks are about as effectual as most computer security systems - dedicated intruders will get in, and when they do is it okay that they rifle through your shit as though it were just lying there? They did get in, after all.

How should we treat our computers more like they are in the public sphere? Not keep personal or private documents on them? Put tape over our webcams just to be sure? Should we really be expected to think about doing our taxes or or making our self-shot pornography or writing our novels as all being done "outside" and in public? What would you suggest to remedy the countless intimate, personal, and financial matters most people do all from the same machine?

The problem with this line of thinking, as I see it, is that it negates basically all privacy or property rights, period. It sets a precedent whereby, if someone can get at something, it's the same as though they had free access to it all along. The thugs 'hacking' computers like this are no better than someone 'lockpicking' your door by kicking it in.