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What’s important to hide is always changing. So even if you have nothing to hide now, you may wish you had hidden it in the future.

by nkrisc 11mo ago

itopaloglu83 11mo ago
Pre-WW2 census in Germany was conducted by IBM and included religion and other family origin related questions. Fast forward a few years and the Nazi regime used census results to go after every family that was undesirable for them using the census data they bought from IBM. Privacy and anonymity are not needed until they are desperately required.
- coldtea 11mo ago
  This can be read as if IBM did this unknowingly and only before WW2. But IBM knew what they were assisting with, and even pre-WW2 was already assisting the Nazi regime of 1933-1939. And they didn't stop come WW2, if anything IBM opened new subsidiaries and continued throughout the second world war. "(...) IBM leased, rather than sold, its machines. The company retained control of punch-card supply and provided service through subsidiaries. Each set of cards was custom-designed to Nazi requirements. He later wrote that the IBM headquarters in New York oversaw these arrangements through subsidiaries across Europe" "(...) IBM New York created a subsidiary in Poland, Watson Business Machines, after the 1939 invasion. The firm managed railway traffic in the General Government and ran a punch-card printing shop near the Warsaw Ghetto. He stated that this subsidiary reported through Geneva to IBM New York, and revenues were transferred accordingly." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust
  - esafak 11mo ago
    It was authorized by the CEO, Thomas J. Watson Sr., who apparently had a "soft spot" for the Nazis. Hitler decorated him: https://www.nytimes.com/1937/07/02/archives/thomas-j-watson-is-decorated-by-hitler-for-work-in-bettering.html https://www.nytimes.com/1937/07/02/archives/thomas-j-watson-... and it took the occupation of France and the Low Countries three years later for Watson to decide to return the medal.
  - int_19h 10mo ago
    Meanwhile, today: https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-palantir-ai-enterprise-data-intelligence https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-palantir-ai-enterp... https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/us-technology-leaders-ai-factory-design-government/ https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/us-technology-leaders-ai-facto...
- ndsipa_pomu 11mo ago
  I think the bigger issue is allowing such corruption to split and divide people. Religion can often be hidden, but if the Nazi regime decided to depict people with ginger hair as being evil/undesirable, then the census wouldn't have even been relevant.
  - itopaloglu83 11mo ago
    Well, I think the hair color would’ve been on the census if it was something people had a preference for which is a prerequisite for building such plans. All I’m trying to say is that the amount of information being collected for each person can be used very nefariously and targeted as individuals we wouldn’t have any chance to resist this dystopian future.
duskdozer 11mo ago
It's so difficult to get people to think that way, it's like they feel like they have plot armor like in a movie.
metadope 11mo ago
Here in the USA, exculpatory evidence can be ignored or suppressed, and innocent but snarky comments can put you in jail. Be careful what you publish. Be careful what FOSS you create. Don't be fooled by the now-defunct Bill of Rights; there's an entire apparatus devoted to using your casual and innocent behavior against you. Here's a software engineer who was incarcerated into the worst jail in the country, yesterday: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keonne_Rodriguez https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keonne_Rodriguez He Built a Privacy Tool. Now He’s Going to Prison. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fshsk8MCAf4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fshsk8MCAf4

What’s important to hide is always changing. So even if you have nothing to hide now, you may wish you had hidden it in the future.

by nkrisc 11mo ago

What’s important to hide is always changing. So even if you have nothing to hide now, you may wish you had hidden it in the future.

itopaloglu83 11mo ago

Pre-WW2 census in Germany was conducted by IBM and included religion and other family origin related questions. Fast forward a few years and the Nazi regime used census results to go after every family that was undesirable for them using the census data they bought from IBM. Privacy and anonymity are not needed until they are desperately required.

coldtea 11mo ago
This can be read as if IBM did this unknowingly and only before WW2. But IBM knew what they were assisting with, and even pre-WW2 was already assisting the Nazi regime of 1933-1939. And they didn't stop come WW2, if anything IBM opened new subsidiaries and continued throughout the second world war. "(...) IBM leased, rather than sold, its machines. The company retained control of punch-card supply and provided service through subsidiaries. Each set of cards was custom-designed to Nazi requirements. He later wrote that the IBM headquarters in New York oversaw these arrangements through subsidiaries across Europe" "(...) IBM New York created a subsidiary in Poland, Watson Business Machines, after the 1939 invasion. The firm managed railway traffic in the General Government and ran a punch-card printing shop near the Warsaw Ghetto. He stated that this subsidiary reported through Geneva to IBM New York, and revenues were transferred accordingly." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust
- esafak 11mo ago
  It was authorized by the CEO, Thomas J. Watson Sr., who apparently had a "soft spot" for the Nazis. Hitler decorated him: https://www.nytimes.com/1937/07/02/archives/thomas-j-watson-is-decorated-by-hitler-for-work-in-bettering.html https://www.nytimes.com/1937/07/02/archives/thomas-j-watson-... and it took the occupation of France and the Low Countries three years later for Watson to decide to return the medal.
- int_19h 10mo ago
  Meanwhile, today: https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-palantir-ai-enterprise-data-intelligence https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-palantir-ai-enterp... https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/us-technology-leaders-ai-factory-design-government/ https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/us-technology-leaders-ai-facto...
ndsipa_pomu 11mo ago
I think the bigger issue is allowing such corruption to split and divide people. Religion can often be hidden, but if the Nazi regime decided to depict people with ginger hair as being evil/undesirable, then the census wouldn't have even been relevant.
- itopaloglu83 11mo ago
  Well, I think the hair color would’ve been on the census if it was something people had a preference for which is a prerequisite for building such plans. All I’m trying to say is that the amount of information being collected for each person can be used very nefariously and targeted as individuals we wouldn’t have any chance to resist this dystopian future.

duskdozer 11mo ago

It's so difficult to get people to think that way, it's like they feel like they have plot armor like in a movie.

metadope 11mo ago

Here in the USA, exculpatory evidence can be ignored or suppressed, and innocent but snarky comments can put you in jail. Be careful what you publish. Be careful what FOSS you create. Don't be fooled by the now-defunct Bill of Rights; there's an entire apparatus devoted to using your casual and innocent behavior against you. Here's a software engineer who was incarcerated into the worst jail in the country, yesterday: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keonne_Rodriguez https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keonne_Rodriguez He Built a Privacy Tool. Now He’s Going to Prison. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fshsk8MCAf4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fshsk8MCAf4