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My Priorities for the Next Four Years

schneier.com

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Re: My Priorities for the Next Four Years

#31

Post by bmj »

ethbro wrote: post #23
tomp wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does this theory work if you apply it to the past? Have Snowden's leaks about surveillance or relevations about Obama's drone programme (killing people, even US citizens, without trial and with a lot of collateral damage) resulted in any change in government behaviour (except more secrecy and extensive supression of leaks/information)? My take on these questions is "no", but I haven't been following the events in det…

We wouldn't be having these conversations if the leaks hadn't happened. It was suspected before, now it's known. That's a fairly big difference. Or in other words, speaking about nation state backhaul taps, etc as a threat model before made you a paranoid OpenBSD cyberpunk: now it makes you an average HN commenter.

"We" are having these conversations, but in the time since the Snowden leak, have we seen the government move away from the behaviors and patterns that Snowden brought to light?

Re: My Priorities for the Next Four Years

#32

Post by drieddust »

I think he should plan for 8 years :) Trump might get another term. Trump probably will win the next election because he knows how to attract populace. At least this has worked beautifully in other places.

To be fair a lot of thing he talk about are sensible. But he doesn't have a clue on how to fix them so he won't bring any meaningful change. He did the talking and won. He will talk again and win again.

Re: My Priorities for the Next Four Years

#33

Post by aaron-lebo »

privong wrote: post #28
sylvinus wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, Bruce has been worried (and very publicly so) about those things for a long time. I think what the post transpires is just a new sense of urgency.

He even says as much: Those are my four areas. Under a Clinton administration, my list would have looked much the same. Trump's election just means the threats will be much greater, and the battles a lot harder to win.

See, I might even be tempted to believe that but he presents it like it's a known thing.

Why should we fear a Trump administration more? Why should we fear it so much that it's worth changing our personal focus for the next four years? Doesn't that seem reactionary?

If we look at the facts, we know that the Bushes and Clintons are friendly and even share a lot of similar views and the same goes for the Obamas and Clintons...and the Trumps and Clintons. Hell, one of Trump's first statements after that infamous tape was: "Bill Clinton has said worse things to me on the golf course". I'm inclined to believe him [0].

So we've got the previous four administrations going back to the 1980s that are chummy and/or have similar views. Under those administrations all this government surveillance has taken place. Under those administrations all this corporate overreach has been happening. Under these administrations we had social networks tracking their users without consent. More recently, Obama has been fairly friendly towards Zuckerberg and other tech stars. Tech and politics are intertwined now.

So know all of this...what steps is Trump going to take that are going to be worse than those that a Clinton administration would have engaged in?

Without something supporting it, it's just fearmongering.

http://imgur.com/gallery/uO2cqtr

Re: My Priorities for the Next Four Years

#34

Post by idlewords »

aaron-lebo wrote: post #21

I don't say this in a rude way, I just say it because I don't understand: it baffles me that the election of Donald Trump caused people to notice certain things. If you are worried about government surveillance now, why were you not worried about that same power under a different administration? If you are worried about corporate overreach now, why were you not worried about that power under a different administratio…

It is exasperating to read comments like this about Schneier in particular, who has been beating this drum for a long time, and whose anxieties about surveillance and the power it concentrates have been wholly decoupled from the politics of who wields it.

What has changed under Trump is that the power is now concentrated in tiny hands that seem particularly like it to abuse it, unconstrained by social norms or political checks. But Schneier wrote entire books about the dangers of surveillance culture back when we all thought Trump was a joke.

Before you say things like "why only now", take the two minutes it takes to discover whether this is in fact a new topic for the speaker, or if they have a history of addressing it.

Re: My Priorities for the Next Four Years

#35

Post by idlewords »

apatters wrote: post #8

Interesting read, but I can't imagine how anyone could convince Google and Facebook to change their business models at this stage unless the market truly revolted and started moving away from their products due to privacy issues. I think change is much more likely to happen through disruption (which perhaps is the other side of his ideas, coming up with business models that are more privacy-friendly). I think securit…

I think employee revolt is a much more promising avenue of attack than market revolt. Many of the people working at Google and Facebook are deeply uneasy about what the data they've collected can be used for. Watching their CEO (or COO) march meekly into Trump tower does not alleviate those anxieties.

Re: My Priorities for the Next Four Years

#37

Post by aaron-lebo »

Edit: I apologize for clearly being ignorant about who Bruce Schneier is. May God have mercy on my soul.

I don't know who Bruce Schneier is any more than he knows who I am. I'm under no obligation to read his past statements and works before I comment on a blog post of his.

What has changed under Trump is that the power is now concentrated in tiny hands that seem particularly like it to abuse it, unconstrained by social norms or political checks.

And what's the evidence for that? Surveillance culture started under Bush and thrived under Obama. Would Clinton roll it back? Both your comment and Schneier's post have that same underlying assumption that Trump will be worse. Why is Trump worse? Why is he scarier?

Re: My Priorities for the Next Four Years

#38

Post by majewsky »

aaron-lebo wrote: post #37

Edit: I apologize for clearly being ignorant about who Bruce Schneier is. May God have mercy on my soul. I don't know who Bruce Schneier is any more than he knows who I am. I'm under no obligation to read his past statements and works before I comment on a blog post of his. What has changed under Trump is that the power is now concentrated in tiny hands that seem particularly like it to abuse it, unconstrained by soc…

> I'm under no obligation to read his past statements and works before I comment on a blog post of his.

Good morning, Mr. Trump. Didn't see you coming in this early.

Re: My Priorities for the Next Four Years

#39

Post by idlewords »

aaron-lebo wrote: post #37

Edit: I apologize for clearly being ignorant about who Bruce Schneier is. May God have mercy on my soul. I don't know who Bruce Schneier is any more than he knows who I am. I'm under no obligation to read his past statements and works before I comment on a blog post of his. What has changed under Trump is that the power is now concentrated in tiny hands that seem particularly like it to abuse it, unconstrained by soc…

If you're going to say "why only now..." and say you don't understand the author's mindset for conditioning his concerns on who is in power, then yes, you do have an obilgation to back that up.

Re: My Priorities for the Next Four Years

#40

Post by aaron-lebo »

idlewords wrote: post #39
aaron-lebo wrote: post #37

Edit: I apologize for clearly being ignorant about who Bruce Schneier is. May God have mercy on my soul. I don't know who Bruce Schneier is any more than he knows who I am. I'm under no obligation to read his past statements and works before I comment on a blog post of his. What has changed under Trump is that the power is now concentrated in tiny hands that seem particularly like it to abuse it, unconstrained by soc…

If you're going to say "why only now..." and say you don't understand the author's mindset for conditioning his concerns on who is in power, then yes, you do have an obilgation to back that up.

Like many, I was surprised and shocked by the election of Donald Trump as president. I believe his ideas, temperament, and inexperience represent a grave threat to our country and world. Suddenly, all the things I had planned to work on seemed trivial in comparison. Although Internet security and privacy are not the most important policy areas at risk, I believe he -- and, more importantly, his cabinet, administration, and Congress -- will have devastating effects in that area, both in the US and around the world.

Trump's election just means the threats will be much greater, and the battles a lot harder to win.

It's true that some of Trump's institutional changes might take decades to undo.

It's his job to justify sentiments like that. Without it, it's an out of context blog post. If you expect the reader to go back and read an author's past history to understand those assumptions in the text, then you are expecting a lot of the reader and not much of the writer.

But again, my question is: what practically signals that Internet freedoms under Trump will be worse than they would be under Clinton? I see nothing to suggest that Clinton wouldn't be similar to Obama. Why is Trump worse?

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