3 ms·

Most people don't care about things like this at all. Look at how many of them happily use Facebook. If Apple put in a warning screen that said, "Angry Birds

Most people don't care about things like this at all. Look at how many of them happily use Facebook. If Apple put in a warning screen that said, "Angry Birds is requesting the following information: your location, your contact list, and your phone number. Is that ok?", then I would bet at least 90% of the users would just click "sure, no problem". We are losing this battle because very few people care about privacy any more.

rbanffy 16y ago
> very few people care about privacy any more. ... and that makes selling the whole "if you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide" thing a lot easier.
HeyLaughingBoy 16y ago
We are losing this battle because very few people care about privacy any more. Rephrase: "We have lost this battle because privacy disappeared a long time ago." This isn't a new concern: I remember Usenet discussions over ten years ago about the loss of privacy due to the amount of personal data stored in large corporate databases and how easy it was for that data to be stored and transferred. It's increased exponentially since then. Look, 2 months ago I wanted to send a friend a snail-mail letter but I couldn't remember her whole address. A quick hop to Google Street View and I just "drove" down her street from my computer 120 miles away until I recognized her house and got the address off the sign. Seriously guys, find another battle to fight: this one was lost a long time ago. Database Nation http://oreilly.com/catalog/9781565926530/ http://oreilly.com/catalog/9781565926530/ was written a decade ago! Oh, and Merry Christmas :-)
- bugsy 16y ago
  I've done the exact same thing to get someone's address I had forgotten.
- sans-serif 16y ago
  What's wrong with driving down a street via Google Street View? Your house is already publicly visible as strangers physically drive past them everyday. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with Google reducing the cost of doing that, and if that's what you hope to hide behind, isn't that the kind of security-via-obscurity we all decry here? Trying to stop people from seeing your front lawn via the Internet is comparable to DRM, both in principle and effectiveness. Merry Christmas.
bcl 16y ago
Just to be clear, iPhone apps have to ask before they are allowed to use location information. Even though most consumers don't care about things like this there are those of us who do care, and we can eventually make a difference. This is one of the reasons why I support the EFF.

rbanffy 16y ago

> very few people care about privacy any more. ... and that makes selling the whole "if you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide" thing a lot easier.

HeyLaughingBoy 16y ago

We are losing this battle because very few people care about privacy any more. Rephrase: "We have lost this battle because privacy disappeared a long time ago." This isn't a new concern: I remember Usenet discussions over ten years ago about the loss of privacy due to the amount of personal data stored in large corporate databases and how easy it was for that data to be stored and transferred. It's increased exponentially since then. Look, 2 months ago I wanted to send a friend a snail-mail letter but I couldn't remember her whole address. A quick hop to Google Street View and I just "drove" down her street from my computer 120 miles away until I recognized her house and got the address off the sign. Seriously guys, find another battle to fight: this one was lost a long time ago. Database Nation http://oreilly.com/catalog/9781565926530/ http://oreilly.com/catalog/9781565926530/ was written a decade ago! Oh, and Merry Christmas :-)

bugsy 16y ago
I've done the exact same thing to get someone's address I had forgotten.
sans-serif 16y ago
What's wrong with driving down a street via Google Street View? Your house is already publicly visible as strangers physically drive past them everyday. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with Google reducing the cost of doing that, and if that's what you hope to hide behind, isn't that the kind of security-via-obscurity we all decry here? Trying to stop people from seeing your front lawn via the Internet is comparable to DRM, both in principle and effectiveness. Merry Christmas.

bcl 16y ago

Just to be clear, iPhone apps have to ask before they are allowed to use location information. Even though most consumers don't care about things like this there are those of us who do care, and we can eventually make a difference. This is one of the reasons why I support the EFF.