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Hey! I ran into your blog after I saw an announcement for (one of?) your talk(s) next week. I submitted the about page because the two key claims that you make

Hey! I ran into your blog after I saw an announcement for (one of?) your talk(s) next week. I submitted the about page because the two key claims that you make: (1) you only need a few bits of information to identify a person uniquely in the whole world and (2) this information is becoming easier and easier to obtain - both make a lot of sense to me. Your about page does an excellent job of communication these two points and I thought it might interesting food for thought for HN. I'm wondering whether much as we'd all like to have privacy and anonymity, these could be goals that might be impossible to achieve in the future. I'd like to hear what your thoughts are on where, we as a society are heading in this context and whether it's unrealistic to expect that conventional expectations of privacy will continue to be fulfilled in the future. Perhaps, we should accept that the privacy battle is lost and try to other solutions to the problems that privacy was solving?

randomwalker 15y ago
That's a great question with no simple answer. I've written two essays about this that look at it from two different sides: http://33bits.org/2011/10/18/printer-dotspervasive-tracking-and-the-transparent-society/ http://33bits.org/2011/10/18/printer-dotspervasive-tracking-... http://33bits.org/2011/06/08/the-many-ways-in-which-the-internet-has-given-us-more-privacy/ http://33bits.org/2011/06/08/the-many-ways-in-which-the-inte... The synopses of the two posts are: My opinion is that it impossible to put the genie back into the bottle — the cost of tracking every person, object and activity will continue to drop exponentially. ... If we accept that we cannot stop the invention and use of tracking technologies, what are our choices? Our best hope, I believe, is a world in which the ability to conduct tracking and surveillance is symmetrically distributed, a society in which ordinary citizens can and do turn the spotlight on those in power, keeping that power in check. On the other hand, a world in which only the government, large corporations and the rich are able to utilize these technologies, but themselves hide under a veil of secrecy, would be a true dystopia. and from the other side: There are many, many things that digital technology allows us to do more privately today than we ever could. [examples snipped, but I recommend taking a look at the post] Of course, I’ve only presented one half of the story. The other half, that technology is also allowing us to expose ourselves in ways never before, has been told so many times by so many people, and so loudly, that it is drowning out meaningful conversation about privacy. Although these two opinions might at first sight seem contradictory, they are not. Some day I will get around to putting the two sides of the argument together into a coherent narrative that explains the nuanced scenario that I think we're heading towards, but for now I will offer you the above articles.

randomwalker 15y ago

That's a great question with no simple answer. I've written two essays about this that look at it from two different sides: http://33bits.org/2011/10/18/printer-dotspervasive-tracking-and-the-transparent-society/ http://33bits.org/2011/10/18/printer-dotspervasive-tracking-... http://33bits.org/2011/06/08/the-many-ways-in-which-the-internet-has-given-us-more-privacy/ http://33bits.org/2011/06/08/the-many-ways-in-which-the-inte... The synopses of the two posts are: My opinion is that it impossible to put the genie back into the bottle — the cost of tracking every person, object and activity will continue to drop exponentially. ... If we accept that we cannot stop the invention and use of tracking technologies, what are our choices? Our best hope, I believe, is a world in which the ability to conduct tracking and surveillance is symmetrically distributed, a society in which ordinary citizens can and do turn the spotlight on those in power, keeping that power in check. On the other hand, a world in which only the government, large corporations and the rich are able to utilize these technologies, but themselves hide under a veil of secrecy, would be a true dystopia. and from the other side: There are many, many things that digital technology allows us to do more privately today than we ever could. [examples snipped, but I recommend taking a look at the post] Of course, I’ve only presented one half of the story. The other half, that technology is also allowing us to expose ourselves in ways never before, has been told so many times by so many people, and so loudly, that it is drowning out meaningful conversation about privacy. Although these two opinions might at first sight seem contradictory, they are not. Some day I will get around to putting the two sides of the argument together into a coherent narrative that explains the nuanced scenario that I think we're heading towards, but for now I will offer you the above articles.