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technology is a double edge sword. We'd better adopt a Snowden mindset.

by id122015 10y ago

benevol 10y ago
Honestly, this evolution became obvious more than 10 years ago. Btw, Snowden is about illegal mass surveillance by the government (in collaboration with tech corporations). The app mentioned in the article however only connects publicly and legally available data (the consumer's fault).
- chopin 10y ago
  > (the consumer's fault). I doubt that. No one prevents someone tagging me on Facebook even if I don't have a Facebook account. Now Facebook knows my name and the corresponding face without me ever using Facebook.
  - AJRF 10y ago
    Well you can't do that. You can only tag someone with an account.
    - miander2 10y ago
      You can tag anyone on Facebook even if they don't have an account. When you start typing their name a drop-down box of suggestions appears. Hit the escape key and you can continue typing their name and tag them. Anyone with your photo can associate it with your name on Facebook even if you don't use it.
      - AJRF 10y ago
        Ah just check and yes you are right, apologies. Do people actually do this? Pretty ignorant if they do!
- fixermark 10y ago
  Agreed with everything except "The consumer's fault." It's the data age now; information about you will make its way into the global repository without any direct action on your part. - If you're a professional, someone is providing a way for your customers to audit interactions with you - If you're a driver, someone is tracking your car's movements - If you buy products, someone is tracking you bought them - If you ever communicate online, someone has logged that communication - If you're ever seen in public, someone can tag your face ... and after all this, if you piss an individual off enough, that individual can create a pastebin and drop as much of your personal info on there as they care to. We're already past the event horizon of private (easily-gleaned) information staying private; it's time to re-organize the solution space around the assumption that the information is public.
  - id122015 10y ago
    buying products means tracking card payments. Maybe that was just the start, then fidelity cards followed, and even Amazon tracks what you search. And Google to sell you ads.
- jernfrost 10y ago
  I disagree. Then you narrow down Snowden's point in a pedantic way. Snowden is broadly speaking about privacy. The issue about government mass surveillance is of course without anybody having been aware of its extent. Citizens should have been given the chance to weight in on the usage of surveillance. But this is along much of the same lines, in that it shows how technology enables ways of invading your privacy that you might not have thought of. Much of the NSA invasion of our privacy is about the capabilities they get through technology. With just a bunch of dead data, it would not nearly be as chilling as when Snowden explains how they can perform sophisticated searches through all data stored about you.

technology is a double edge sword. We'd better adopt a Snowden mindset.

Honestly, this evolution became obvious more than 10 years ago. Btw, Snowden is about illegal mass surveillance by the government (in collaboration with tech corporations). The app mentioned in the article however only connects publicly and legally available data (the consumer's fault).

chopin 10y ago
> (the consumer's fault). I doubt that. No one prevents someone tagging me on Facebook even if I don't have a Facebook account. Now Facebook knows my name and the corresponding face without me ever using Facebook.
- AJRF 10y ago
  Well you can't do that. You can only tag someone with an account.
  - miander2 10y ago
    You can tag anyone on Facebook even if they don't have an account. When you start typing their name a drop-down box of suggestions appears. Hit the escape key and you can continue typing their name and tag them. Anyone with your photo can associate it with your name on Facebook even if you don't use it.
    - AJRF 10y ago
      Ah just check and yes you are right, apologies. Do people actually do this? Pretty ignorant if they do!
fixermark 10y ago
Agreed with everything except "The consumer's fault." It's the data age now; information about you will make its way into the global repository without any direct action on your part. - If you're a professional, someone is providing a way for your customers to audit interactions with you - If you're a driver, someone is tracking your car's movements - If you buy products, someone is tracking you bought them - If you ever communicate online, someone has logged that communication - If you're ever seen in public, someone can tag your face ... and after all this, if you piss an individual off enough, that individual can create a pastebin and drop as much of your personal info on there as they care to. We're already past the event horizon of private (easily-gleaned) information staying private; it's time to re-organize the solution space around the assumption that the information is public.
- id122015 10y ago
  buying products means tracking card payments. Maybe that was just the start, then fidelity cards followed, and even Amazon tracks what you search. And Google to sell you ads.
jernfrost 10y ago
I disagree. Then you narrow down Snowden's point in a pedantic way. Snowden is broadly speaking about privacy. The issue about government mass surveillance is of course without anybody having been aware of its extent. Citizens should have been given the chance to weight in on the usage of surveillance. But this is along much of the same lines, in that it shows how technology enables ways of invading your privacy that you might not have thought of. Much of the NSA invasion of our privacy is about the capabilities they get through technology. With just a bunch of dead data, it would not nearly be as chilling as when Snowden explains how they can perform sophisticated searches through all data stored about you.