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FUD. Not Google nor even Facebook are privacy’s real threats, they are just easy targets. There is a fine line - it would seem - between a security expert and

by yanw 16y ago

FUD. Not Google nor even Facebook are privacy’s real threats, they are just easy targets. There is a fine line - it would seem - between a security expert and an alarmist. That line is getting crossed more often as of late seeing as spreading FUD is their marketing strategy. Yes privacy is important but some people are loosing all prospective in advocating for it, and in doing so are entrenching on other rights mainly freedom of speech. Relevant: http://gigaom.com/2011/02/17/jarvis-publicness-needs-its-advocates-just-like-privacy/ http://gigaom.com/2011/02/17/jarvis-publicness-needs-its-adv...

ynniv 16y ago
Your relevant link is hilariously funny when it suggests that being less private would help people find other similarly minded folks online a la the events in Egypt. I may have LOL'd my pants. Here's my unsubstantiated but hopefully compelling retort: if those revolting in Egypt could have been a priori identified online, there would have been no revolution. Don't be an idiot. Privacy online and privacy in the real world are very different beasts. (PS: you meant "encroaching", not "entrenching")
moxie 16y ago
I'm curious to know what you think privacy's real threats are, then? I had two motivations in giving this talk. One was to explore the shift in where data accumulates and is collected on the internet. The other was to explore the concept of "choice," in terms of how these technologies are subsequently presented to us. Given the events of the past year, along with the CALEA II conversations that have recently begun in DC, it doesn't seem particularly alarmist to start having a conversation about these things. I'm not sure whether you watched the talk or not, but my premise isn't that everyone should stop using Google or Facebook, as you seem to assume. Because I don't actually believe that's even possible. Or at least, that it's not a simple choice.
- chwahoo 16y ago
  I found your talk to be one of the more pragmatic takes on current challenges to privacy that I've heard for precisely this reason. While people can and sometimes do choose to opt-out, I've never been personally comfortable with the high costs of doing so. It's a neat research agenda to start from that observation and try to mitigate the cost to privacy.
anon1385 16y ago
I'm getting really sick of the number of Google employees on this site voting down any story that criticises Google.

by yanw 16y ago

ynniv 16y ago

Your relevant link is hilariously funny when it suggests that being less private would help people find other similarly minded folks online a la the events in Egypt. I may have LOL'd my pants. Here's my unsubstantiated but hopefully compelling retort: if those revolting in Egypt could have been a priori identified online, there would have been no revolution. Don't be an idiot. Privacy online and privacy in the real world are very different beasts. (PS: you meant "encroaching", not "entrenching")

moxie 16y ago

I'm curious to know what you think privacy's real threats are, then? I had two motivations in giving this talk. One was to explore the shift in where data accumulates and is collected on the internet. The other was to explore the concept of "choice," in terms of how these technologies are subsequently presented to us. Given the events of the past year, along with the CALEA II conversations that have recently begun in DC, it doesn't seem particularly alarmist to start having a conversation about these things. I'm not sure whether you watched the talk or not, but my premise isn't that everyone should stop using Google or Facebook, as you seem to assume. Because I don't actually believe that's even possible. Or at least, that it's not a simple choice.

chwahoo 16y ago
I found your talk to be one of the more pragmatic takes on current challenges to privacy that I've heard for precisely this reason. While people can and sometimes do choose to opt-out, I've never been personally comfortable with the high costs of doing so. It's a neat research agenda to start from that observation and try to mitigate the cost to privacy.

anon1385 16y ago

I'm getting really sick of the number of Google employees on this site voting down any story that criticises Google.