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The Ungodly Surveillance of Anti-Porn ‘Shameware’ Apps
- joemazerino 4y ago
- sofixa 4y ago> as if the author has any insight into God's design or conceptions Does anybody? Assuming the Abrahamic God exists, the last information we have about them is over 2000 years old. What if they've changed their mind on stuff like murder or mixing fabrics?
- uticus 4y agoSo, if truth was said 2,000 years ago, it certainly can't apply today...interesting. If anything it is us that have changed our minds, and we continue to do so. How likely is it that our culture will change its mind on what murder is, and what acts it encompasses, and the degree of good or evil... in the next generation, let alone two millenia?
- sofixa 4y ago> So, if truth was said 2,000 years ago, it certainly can't apply today...interesting. It's interesting you automatically assume it's "truth", not random opinions. And yes, we, collectively as humanity, have evolved since two millennia. E.g. we no longer consider slavery normal. So using opinions from 2000 years ago that were made in a drastically different environment simply doesn't make sense. It's like using laws from the 1920s and applying them to Internet stuff. It just doesn't make sense, the writers couldn't have imagined the world we have today, so why is their opinion relevant?
- uticus 4y ago> It's interesting you automatically assume it's "truth" Well, not automatically. I confess my automatic response is to go with what is easy. It is certainly easier to believe there is no God like the Abrahamic God we must pay attention to, and like you say because things change we just can't trust that some things will never change... but my friend in response to the rest of your comment I've found easier isn't always the best way to think about things.
- trasz 4y agoIt’s not easier, quite the opposite - “god” is essentially a psychological cheat code, convenient by making it possible to avoid thinking for oneself and instead shift responsibility of one’s conduct to mythology of choice.
- PubliusMI 4y agoDenying the revelations to Muhammed? Cringe.
- sofixa 4y ago2000, 1400 years, all the same for this purposes - long time ago, lots of societal changes, they could have changed their mind.
- ASalazarMX 4y agoMaybe the author was referring to other one of the thousands of gods that exist because of the other numerous religions? I wouldn't be surprised if at least one of them disapproved the concept of spyware, and I'm sure more than one would approve of pornography.
- joemazerino 4y agoConsidering the article is focused on Christianity, I doubt that.
- witheld 4y agohttps://archive.ph/ACtMy https://archive.ph/ACtMy
- CoastalCoder 4y agoThe article doesn't strike me as super biased, but it may be a bit shallow regarding the issues. If one doesn't start with the premise that Christian beliefs are bogus, then I'd be interested in: - How could someone realistically use the modern Internet and still avoid content that starts them down unwelcome paths? (A secular analogue might be suicide ideation.) - How could that guy's accountability partner have better recognized false positives? - How could that guy's accountability partner been more of a friend and less of a (seeming?) jerk? - Is an app store provider truly inclusive if they disallow apps that make privacy tradeoffs that appeal to one religion's adherents but not to another's?
- jrs235 4y agoTo answer the questions about the guy's accountability partner: the guy didn't (truly and freely) choose his accountability partner, his "accountability partner", actually "monitor", chose him. Add: And it seems the guy was rushed ("forced") into installing the app and agreeing to the "solution".
- listless 4y agoThat’s the way they wrote it. In reality, having an accountability partner is not new and it’s likely this guy signed on for it. Think of it like an AA sponsor - however poorly implemented here.
- m000 4y agoIf it was Jeff Bezos assigning an employee a "pee accountability partner", would you also say "this is what this guy signed on for" by working for him?
- suggestion 4y agoYes, no one is forced to work for Jeff Bezos
- hef19898 4y ago
- m000 4y ago
- clarge1120 4y agoThe idea that good and evil are up for grabs, and that Christian faith has no say to define it is bigotry.
- nvahalik 4y agoThere is ample evidence pointing to the harm porn has on people and families.
- Karunamon 4y agoCould you share some of this evidence that hopefully isn't from obviously religious sources or religiously funded?
- imchillyb 4y agoPorn addiction is a treatable mental illness in all first world countries.
- Karunamon 4y agoSo is sex addiction, food addiction, videogame addiction and many other kinds of addiction to things which are pleasant and normal yet maladaptive when overdone. GP was asked to substantiate the harm of porn, not the harm of porn addiction.
- kerp88 4y ago
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- Viliam1234 4y agoSearch engines find lots of things, including misinformation. Also, people can read a source and misunderstand it, or ignore the parts that are inconvenient for them. That's why links to specific pages are useful. For example, let's look at the second link... The study itself explicitly mentions that correlation is not causation. For example, erectile dysfunction correlate with long-term porn use. Okay, but does it prove that watching porn ruins your erection? Or is it perhaps the other way round, that men with erectile dysfunction have more difficulty finding sex partners or perhaps find sex less enjoyable, and therefore spend more time watching porn? (If you just assume that correlation = bad effect, let me tell you a shocking fact: use of chemotherapy is correlated with having cancer. Perhaps we should also ban chemotherapy. /s) Furthermore, some of the effects are arguably good: "pornography use may reduce risky sexual behaviors", "women involved in long-term relationships that use pornography more frequently may reveal increased sexual desire towards their partners", "shared viewing of pornography in heterosexual couples correlates with increase of sexual satisfaction".
- tolmasky 4y ago> Fortify’s inclusion of Facebook’s Pixel isn’t just a privacy issue, it’s a security problem. While testing the app, we also noticed that the password to our account was sent in plaintext to Facebook in the URL of the tracking requests. Facebook claims to have filtering mechanisms to prevent its systems from storing this type of personal information, but Fortify’s apparent oversight is still concerning to experts like Galperin. “That’s a huge vulnerability,” she says. “It’s the sort of behavior that makes me feel like they don’t have security experts reviewing the app or its policies.” > After being notified of the password issue, Olsen said Fortify would stop transmitting users’ unencrypted passwords to Facebook. As we went to press, the issue had not yet been addressed. Oftentimes lost in these discussions (even in the posts here so far), is the fact that what is discussed is often done so under the implicit assumption that these tools are written perfectly. But a key consideration with regard to privacy is precisely that that is rarely the case. Even if you think these tools are hypothetically useful, you have to bake into the equation the relatively high probability that all this information will end up hacked and leaked to the public. Under those conditions I feel that it becomes pretty hard to defend these apps.
- tinus_hn 4y agoBeing a good Christian is all about trust! Just trust that Facebook won’t store your password and that Fortify will eventually fix this!
- foxhop 4y agobeing a good Christian is all about truth.
- hulitu 4y agoBeing a good Christian shall not exclude rationality. Someone who has your password might use it or sell it to somebody who might use it.
- wizofaus 4y ago> Being a good Christian shall not exclude rationality I, for one, would question this. Indeed I'd even say being a good human being is not always compatible with rationality.
- uticus 4y ago> While these apps claim to have helped many people overcome pornography addictions, experts who study sexual health are skeptical that the apps have a lasting positive effect. “I’ve never seen anyone who’s been on one of these apps feel better about themselves in the long term,” says Nicole Praus, a scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies the effects of pornography on the brain and the spread of disinformation on sexual health. “These people just end up feeling like there’s something wrong with them when the reality is that there likely isn’t.” > "“It’s really not about pornography,” says Brit, a former user of Accountable2You who asked to only be identified by her first name, due to privacy concerns. “It’s about making you conform to what your pastor wants.” > "In the quest to curb behavior churches deem immoral..." Full transparency: Christian male here. The article seems to be addressing multiple topics - on the surface, the concerns around information leaking with "Covenant Eyes" and other programs. But also (based on this quote) an undercurrent: is pornography consumption actually unhealthy? This adds confusion to a very clear topic. Pornography comes from "porneia," a Greek word. In ancient Greek "porneia" was understood in the culture as "to buy." A porne or prostitute was often a slave, and often abused. Writings of Horace and Herodas show the cultural attitude of porneia was about treating people as things - to buy, to use, to abuse. In other words, very much accepted culturally. Based on this historical evidence, I conclude that, had WIRED existed in ancient Greece, an expert who studies "the spread of disinformation of sexual health" would have likely said the same thing about porneia consumers as they apparently do now: "there likely isn't something wrong with the owner." Imbibe in some porneia? Don't feel bad, there's nothing wrong with you. A counterpoint is the letter to Galatians, which despite their failings I'm sure people in the churches mentioned in the article would know of. That letter, starting with the foundations of how God views people and the freedom Christ purchased, draws the conclusion that people should treat other people as people, not things. In fact, this is one of the points of the 19th verse, which says porneia (lit from Greek) is something Christians should realize isn't fitting for Christians. It is, in fact, unhealthy. If my Pastor wants me to "conform" to this (ref second and third quotes above), sign me up! You may disagree that the letter to Galatians has authority or relevance to you personally, but it's impossible to disagree with the letter's outlook towards people - people as people, not things. In fact, that letter's outlook was radical, based on the cultural norms of that time. If we don't disagree with the undercurrent espoused in this article - that porneia consumption is actually okay - then what foundation is left for saying it's wrong to treat people as things?
- sverona 4y agoI'm trans and sexually active. I was raised evangelical, amongst the Pokemon-promotes-evolution, Satan-left-bones-in-the-earth-to-trick-us variety. This gives me the willies. It reminds me of being six years old and questioning whether everything I saw that wasn't church was evil. I dealt with suicidal thoughts for many years, largely because my rearing amounted to being shoved in a box and told not to come out. Also, "Covenant Eyes" sounds like it came straight out of The Handmaid's Tale.
- soulofmischief 4y agoSorry you had to go through that. Christianity is so fucked up. I was raised Catholic and wasn't allowed to have long hair or dress myself or play flute in band etc. because it would turn me gay, heavily physically abused on a near-nightly basis, yada yada. No Pokemon or Harry Potter. Solidarity, friend.
- tb_technical 4y agoI was raised Catholic, and none of that happened. You were raised by a lunatic.
- ASalazarMX 4y agoYou were probably raised by a kind of Catholic I call "Catholic Light". They pray, go to church, think of god from time to time, and that's about it. Hardcore Catholicism is scary like any extremist religion, it will instill in children the fear of being watched and judged all the time, with no place to hide, not even your thoughts. It will make you fear eternal torture in hell because you're impure since birth, and every tiny sin makes you impure again. You become totally dependent on Catholic authority because only they can clean and save your soul, only for it to become dirty again almost immediately. Subjecting a child to the fear of thought crime is the actual lunacy.
- soulofmischief 4y agoYep. Most of my early hacking endeavors and criminal mentality were developed while circumventing net nanny software and learning how to sneak and lie effectively. I wasn't allowed a computer in my room, there were long stretches of time where I didn't have a door, and when I finally got a phone it was subject to daily random confiscation so that my texts could be read. I struggled deeply with a sense of identity. Sorry you had to deal with that stuff, too. I know that you don't gain that kind of perspective without seeing it for yourself.
- syrrim 4y agoWe thought that access to better technology would make people more free, but there are many ways it can make us less free instead. First through differential control of technology; whoever has control of some new tech will be able to use it to disempower others. Second is through robbing us of agency; technology can make it too easy for us to do things we don't want to do, causing us to do them against our will. At some point we will need to confront these issues.
- ASalazarMX 4y agoThe "Covenant Eyes" app is fortunately unavailable at the Google Play store right now, but the Exodus Privacy analysis[0] doesn't show permissions far off from other, more benign apps. It's unsettling that this common set of permissions is enough to monitor your activity, who knows what, say WhatsApp does with all the permission it asks[1]? 0. https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.covenanteyes.androidservice/latest/ https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.covenan... 1. https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.whatsapp/latest/ https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.whatsap...