While the post is great, terrifying, and seems to contain only true and verifiable information, I’m not sure what we expect. „Normal“ people will not read this, nor be able to understand, nor gauge or grasp the impact. It’s become way to complex. We can’t simply stop using mentioned services anymore as a society. Wouldn’t it be more reasonable to teach: 1. You have no privacy, it is impossible to ensure or guarantee…
Those 3 points are only teaching despair. The more useful thing to teach is who we can blame, and how to reclaim actual privacy and security… even if it means using the dreaded regulation hammer.
For any bit of information, they may not apply, but if you assume they’re true you’ll:
1) not record information that is truly damaging in a damaging way (which is really good practice in general if you’ve got something to lose!)
2) have practical operational practices which do not rely on these being false - which is a really good idea if that actually matters (you have actual enemies somewhere).
3) you’ll focus on safety and building value in areas which are not mere information at rest, which is a good modern practice.
Osama Bin Laden already knew all this, which is why it took so long to find him. A decade or so. I guarantee you the CIA has been learning this with all their leaks. The FBI learned this this after COINTELPRO.
What is not written down can’t show up as a grainy photocopy in the New York Times, or a viral video from Wikileaks, or whatever.
What you’re talking about is a hammer to use to punish someone after a leak. But by then it’s far too late for anything actually valuable.
Necessary and important for ‘day to day’ stuff like bank account balances I guess, as long as you assume that they’ll be violated with little practical recourse if you have anything actually valuable in it.
Streisand effect, etc.