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A quick guide to our current privacy threats

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Re: A quick guide to our current privacy threats

#11

Post by rjsamson »

victork2 wrote: post #4

Interesting. On the other hand it shows a very American reality distortion field: the government is the main threat to privacy. Two things: The biggest threats are probably coming from private companies and private initiatives such as Google, Facebook because of the extent of the data they gather about you. The most worrying part about these kind of threats is that they can be kept secret and can be passed by just on…

Yes - its a bit of a cultural difference - there's is a tendency in Europe for privacy to be a concern regarding private companies, but not as much regarding government, while in the US the opposite is true. There's apparently been some interesting work done on the subject - spent a bit of time on it in an information public policy class in grad school a few years back.

Re: A quick guide to our current privacy threats

#12

Post by yuhong »

rjsamson wrote: post #11
victork2 wrote: post #4

Interesting. On the other hand it shows a very American reality distortion field: the government is the main threat to privacy. Two things: The biggest threats are probably coming from private companies and private initiatives such as Google, Facebook because of the extent of the data they gather about you. The most worrying part about these kind of threats is that they can be kept secret and can be passed by just on…

Yes - its a bit of a cultural difference - there's is a tendency in Europe for privacy to be a concern regarding private companies, but not as much regarding government, while in the US the opposite is true. There's apparently been some interesting work done on the subject - spent a bit of time on it in an information public policy class in grad school a few years back.

IMO the truth varies depend on the company and country. For example, Facebook is worse than Google (which fought some of the laws listed, BTW). And China is worse than the US, thus it is not hypocrisy for the US to oppose internet censorship.

Re: A quick guide to our current privacy threats

#13

Post by m_for_monkey »

victork2 wrote: post #4

Interesting. On the other hand it shows a very American reality distortion field: the government is the main threat to privacy. Two things: The biggest threats are probably coming from private companies and private initiatives such as Google, Facebook because of the extent of the data they gather about you. The most worrying part about these kind of threats is that they can be kept secret and can be passed by just on…

"The biggest threats are [...] Google, Facebook because of the extent of the data they gather about you."

What if the government has the power to gain access to all the data gathered by Google and Facebook and every other company?

Re: A quick guide to our current privacy threats

#15

Post by cjmauthor »

BoxPwn wrote: post #7

Silly people and their illusions of 'privacy'. If you want privacy, stay off the internet. It's not yours.

Privacy can exist on the web if people got together and requested changes politically. That is the beauty in democracy. As an example, there is no reason for Google to be able to read our emails, so why do we permit it. There should be a private and public option, and we should control the switch.

Re: A quick guide to our current privacy threats

#16

Post by csmeder »

victork2 wrote: post #4

Interesting. On the other hand it shows a very American reality distortion field: the government is the main threat to privacy. Two things: The biggest threats are probably coming from private companies and private initiatives such as Google, Facebook because of the extent of the data they gather about you. The most worrying part about these kind of threats is that they can be kept secret and can be passed by just on…

Huh? The real threats are the threats you have to opt in to use?

This doesn't make sense to me. I can use DuckDuckGo if I don't want google to track me. However, I would have to gain citizenship in another country and then move there to evade the laws these bills put in place.

Laws that allow US politicians and their corporate friends to record me, suppress my free speech, and put me in prison for 5 years. A longer sentence time than the man who killed Michael Jackson (4 years). For simply sharing a music file.

Wow, am I missing something? Really, am I miss understanding what you wrote because I don't see how these bills are not the real threat? How can you say Google and FB are the real threat compared to these bills?

Re: A quick guide to our current privacy threats

#17

Post by Estragon »

csmeder wrote: post #16
victork2 wrote: post #4

Interesting. On the other hand it shows a very American reality distortion field: the government is the main threat to privacy. Two things: The biggest threats are probably coming from private companies and private initiatives such as Google, Facebook because of the extent of the data they gather about you. The most worrying part about these kind of threats is that they can be kept secret and can be passed by just on…

Huh? The real threats are the threats you have to opt in to use? This doesn't make sense to me. I can use DuckDuckGo if I don't want google to track me. However, I would have to gain citizenship in another country and then move there to evade the laws these bills put in place. Laws that allow US politicians and their corporate friends to record me, suppress my free speech, and put me in prison for 5 years. A longer s…

How much does google know about you because your friends use gmail? It knows quite a lot about me.

Re: A quick guide to our current privacy threats

#18

Post by noarchy »

cjmauthor wrote: post #15
BoxPwn wrote: post #7

Silly people and their illusions of 'privacy'. If you want privacy, stay off the internet. It's not yours.

Privacy can exist on the web if people got together and requested changes politically. That is the beauty in democracy. As an example, there is no reason for Google to be able to read our emails, so why do we permit it. There should be a private and public option, and we should control the switch.

I understand what you're saying, but Google does not have a monopoly on anything. You don't have to use their search, their email, or their cloud storage.

Ideally, if privacy is important to a person, then they'll gravitate towards services that cater to that need. DuckDuckGo is a great example, where search is concerned. I'm not saying that this is easy. Unfortunately, I don't think that many people care about privacy unless the lack of it gets them into trouble, and then it is only 20/20 hindsight.

The burden for maintaining your privacy lies mostly in your own hands. I don't expect governments to do anything other than to remove privacy rights, at this point.

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