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When it comes to internet privacy, be afraid, analyst suggests

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Re: When it comes to internet privacy, be afraid, analyst suggests

#101

Post by kinkrtyavimoodh »

Gys wrote: post #89
Chardok wrote: post #60

"Opting out doesn’t work. It’s nonsense to tell people not to carry a credit card or not to have an email address. And “buyer beware” is putting too much onus on the individual. People don’t test their food for pathogens or their airlines for safety." This is a brilliant line and it works so well because he is absolutely right: it should not be on the burden of the consumer to make sure their products are safe, be it…

The comparison that Bruce Schneider makes is not correct. Governments are likely to control food pathogens and airline risks because they need living, productive, happy voters. But governments have also a fundamental distrust for all individuals and therefore want as much surveillance as possible. By allowing big companies to collect that, they have access as well. Therefore I think governments are not motivated to i…

People downvoting you are probably taking your statement as normative, whereas it's purely positive. It's not about what the govt should do. It is what it does.

For example, the police, the IRS, DHS etc etc. (and hence the state) WILL be helped in their jobs by increasing surveillance, and so will always be trying to increase its scope.

Whether it's _worth_ the loss of privacy is of course a valid debate.

Re: When it comes to internet privacy, be afraid, analyst suggests

#102

Post by samstave »

Chardok wrote: post #60

"Opting out doesn’t work. It’s nonsense to tell people not to carry a credit card or not to have an email address. And “buyer beware” is putting too much onus on the individual. People don’t test their food for pathogens or their airlines for safety." This is a brilliant line and it works so well because he is absolutely right: it should not be on the burden of the consumer to make sure their products are safe, be it…

>privacy needs to be a mainstream political issue

There was a great piece on NPR this weekend: They developed StingRay and what-not cell tracking devices to fight terror, then Obama expanded it, now Trump is "doubling down" on using surveillance tech to find and deport illegals -- and the government is paying police depts to have the tech...

Snowden was right, and now, its way worse.

What is even more abhorrent than this, is that tech companies (yes even ones that YC is funding) collude with government for expanding even deeper.

Re: When it comes to internet privacy, be afraid, analyst suggests

#103

Post by samstave »

ProAm wrote: post #67
Chardok wrote: post #60

"Opting out doesn’t work. It’s nonsense to tell people not to carry a credit card or not to have an email address. And “buyer beware” is putting too much onus on the individual. People don’t test their food for pathogens or their airlines for safety." This is a brilliant line and it works so well because he is absolutely right: it should not be on the burden of the consumer to make sure their products are safe, be it…

> but privacy needs to be a mainstream political issue Honestly most people don't care and money talks... This is the new normal, better get used to it. This fight was lost a long time ago.

"people dont care"

There are pleny of ppl that care. the problem is the tools allotted to them to affect change....

...few....

Re: When it comes to internet privacy, be afraid, analyst suggests

#104

Post by leggomylibro »

hnaccy wrote: post #50
leggomylibro wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But at that point, society would basically be full-on Cyberpunk. Screw suicide, form a gang of runners and start planning heists on manufacturing facilities and factories, lay traps for driverless truck shipments or hijack them electronically, etc. Hide in the margins, among the slums and tenements to which overpopulation and consolidation have relegated vast swarms of people. Heck, I've already gotten transdermal im…

Cyberpunk is a fiction because it peddles the naive fantasy that anarchistic actions would be feasible in such a world. There's not going to be any clever tricks to avoid being picked up the mass physical surveillance network. Hacking is simply infeasible for the vast majority of people given the complexity of systems and how much intelligence and knowledge is required. Action movie heists of high value targets are b…

Well yeah, but if your other consolation idea is 'suicide,' I'd take the million-to-one shot.

Re: When it comes to internet privacy, be afraid, analyst suggests

#105

Post by samstave »

guelo wrote: post #86
ProAm wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but privacy needs to be a mainstream political issue Honestly most people don't care and money talks... This is the new normal, better get used to it. This fight was lost a long time ago.

We have representatives that are supposed to care about these types of technical issues so we don't have to. In our republican form of government their job is to make sure that government is working for us. The real problem is that billionaires and corporations have convinced a significant portion of the public that government is evil and should be destroyed and that any kind of commercial restraint is un-american co…

>>money talks

>>>representatives that are supposed to care

You can do the math.

Re: When it comes to internet privacy, be afraid, analyst suggests

#107

Post by takeda »

grondilu wrote: post #56
vbuwivbiu wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ok go ahead and publish all your email, chat messages and bank account details here now

Continuing with my analogy that would be like shouting my name and address in the street. Why would I do that? My point is that I tend to consider myself as anonymous on the internet because I believe nobody is interested enough in me to bother gathering the data. Or if it's done, it's a robot that does it for statistical purpose[1]. No human cares. But if I publish personal infos in plain text, like email, phone num…

So you don't think it is a big deal because you believe your private data is not important.

The issue is that perhaps your data is not as important right now, but it is possible that one day you might do something that might upset someone in the power and any information about you might be used against you (and that would be years and years of your past since that data wouldn't be gone).

Just look at Snowden, how they tried to use every petty detail about him. He was careful though and did not leave much, but there were strong forces trying to discredit him.

Maybe you think you would never did anything like what Snowden did, but what's considered bad depends on what current administration thinks. With our current president it feels like insulting him on twitter might be good enough cause.

Second issue is that Big Data done on you, it can infer a lot about you based on the data that you provided, often it can know more about you than yourself.

That data then can be used against you, here's one example of a company that does this and in fact not only tries to learn about people but actually influence them[1]. It's suspected that they are behind Bexit and Trump victory.

[1] https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/mg9vvn/how-our-li...

Re: When it comes to internet privacy, be afraid, analyst suggests

#108

Post by westmeal »

hnaccy wrote: post #50
leggomylibro wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But at that point, society would basically be full-on Cyberpunk. Screw suicide, form a gang of runners and start planning heists on manufacturing facilities and factories, lay traps for driverless truck shipments or hijack them electronically, etc. Hide in the margins, among the slums and tenements to which overpopulation and consolidation have relegated vast swarms of people. Heck, I've already gotten transdermal im…

Cyberpunk is a fiction because it peddles the naive fantasy that anarchistic actions would be feasible in such a world. There's not going to be any clever tricks to avoid being picked up the mass physical surveillance network. Hacking is simply infeasible for the vast majority of people given the complexity of systems and how much intelligence and knowledge is required. Action movie heists of high value targets are b…

Well sure if we're talking about cyberpunk 'heist' novels/rpgs like Shadowrun & Neuromancer. But it's really interesting to see just how 'cyberpunk' our society has become isn't it? We even have most of the technology in place nowadays.

(Well other than the advanced tech they use like cyberdecks and stimsims which aren't really feasible)

Re: When it comes to internet privacy, be afraid, analyst suggests

#109

Post by dalbasal »

Chardok wrote: post #60

"Opting out doesn’t work. It’s nonsense to tell people not to carry a credit card or not to have an email address. And “buyer beware” is putting too much onus on the individual. People don’t test their food for pathogens or their airlines for safety." This is a brilliant line and it works so well because he is absolutely right: it should not be on the burden of the consumer to make sure their products are safe, be it…

At least part of the problem is that no one knows exactly what the fix should be, legislatively.

How do you define what info Google and Facebook shouldn't be able to collect?

Re: When it comes to internet privacy, be afraid, analyst suggests

#110

Post by FilterSweep »

septarol wrote: post #91

When I place a sticker over my laptop's camera, people think I am freak or acting like a hacker. In fact, I just want to protect my freedom. However, society doesn't care freedom. They care just their popularity and don't want to be alienated. I think this is where problems come from.

Use clear tape, electrical tape or some tape that matches the color of your machine.

Honestly though, your explanation should be sufficient. If it isn't, you'd have to wonder the tech. understanding of the person who's questioning you in the first place.

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