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"Imagine your government wants to learn more about you and subpoenas OpenAI to allow them access to your chat history, and then they use the power of their stat

by ok_dad 1y ago

"Imagine your government wants to learn more about you and subpoenas OpenAI to allow them access to your chat history, and then they use the power of their state apparatus to find out everything you didn't want them to know, as easily as peering into your mind itself."

mlhpdx 1y ago
Honestly, I can’t imagine that. I feel sorry for the unfortunate and profoundly bored surveillance person (or software) assigned to me. And based on my experience I’m not unlike the vast majority of people. I’m not saying it’s not a risk for some but it isn’t mainstream.
- fsflover 1y ago
  > I’m not saying it’s not a risk for some but it isn’t mainstream. This is the point. If only activists and journalists are hiding, it becomes very easy to target them. Everybody should care about privacy to protect them and the democracy with that. It's the same as with the free speech. You need it even if you don't have anything to say.
- sixothree 1y ago
  So are you willing to share your email password? Or maybe share some screenshots of your message history? If you're not willing to do even those things, then your assertion does not seem to hold.
- sebastiennight 1y ago
  I hope your comment doesn't get downvoted into oblivion, because this is a common reaction that deserves to be addressed. The issue isn't that your history/thoughts are harmless. The problem is that you might consider them harmless, but some authority in the future might decide that you're not one of the "good" citizens. There are prior examples of this happening in history, eg. there was no reason to believe that your candid answering of a census question about religion in late 19th-century/early 20th-century Germany would ever lead to a young startup called International Business Machines helping your government hunt you down a few years later.
- akkad33 1y ago
  This is a very myopic view of the issue and is age-old reaction laypeople have to privacy concerns: my data is worth nothing because there nothing interesting about it.
  - mlhpdx 1y ago
    I disagree. The constant paranoia is far more damaging to culture and society than the loss to society because I’m unsympathetic to it.

by ok_dad 1y ago

mlhpdx 1y ago

Honestly, I can’t imagine that. I feel sorry for the unfortunate and profoundly bored surveillance person (or software) assigned to me. And based on my experience I’m not unlike the vast majority of people. I’m not saying it’s not a risk for some but it isn’t mainstream.

fsflover 1y ago
> I’m not saying it’s not a risk for some but it isn’t mainstream. This is the point. If only activists and journalists are hiding, it becomes very easy to target them. Everybody should care about privacy to protect them and the democracy with that. It's the same as with the free speech. You need it even if you don't have anything to say.
sixothree 1y ago
So are you willing to share your email password? Or maybe share some screenshots of your message history? If you're not willing to do even those things, then your assertion does not seem to hold.
sebastiennight 1y ago
I hope your comment doesn't get downvoted into oblivion, because this is a common reaction that deserves to be addressed. The issue isn't that your history/thoughts are harmless. The problem is that you might consider them harmless, but some authority in the future might decide that you're not one of the "good" citizens. There are prior examples of this happening in history, eg. there was no reason to believe that your candid answering of a census question about religion in late 19th-century/early 20th-century Germany would ever lead to a young startup called International Business Machines helping your government hunt you down a few years later.
akkad33 1y ago
This is a very myopic view of the issue and is age-old reaction laypeople have to privacy concerns: my data is worth nothing because there nothing interesting about it.
- mlhpdx 1y ago
  I disagree. The constant paranoia is far more damaging to culture and society than the loss to society because I’m unsympathetic to it.