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The Deviancy Signal: Having "Nothing to Hide" Is a Threat to Us All

thompson2026.com

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Re: The Deviancy Signal: Having "Nothing to Hide" Is a Threat to Us All

#111

Post by Griffinsauce »

jokoon wrote: post #3

I disagree What really matters is judiciary due process and the legitimacy of a government. Companies are the ones gathering data, it's not the government doing it. Before the internet, governments already had data on their citizens. The internet makes it more difficult for the government to catch criminals and fraudsters. If you live in Russia or China or under Trump's administration, there are good reasons to hide.…

> If you live in a country where freedoms and due process are respected

History and current events show that this is not a static fact you can rely on in the slightest.

Re: The Deviancy Signal: Having "Nothing to Hide" Is a Threat to Us All

#112

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #81
ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not wishing to join the bully's side, but I think making something private to prevent discussion/criticism has a bad smell about it. It's possible (to someone who knows neither you nor the bully) that the bully had some valid suggestions and that you became over defensive in allowing that to become a distraction rather than saying something like "okay, but can you make these suggestions after the meeting and we can w…

Well, it's a judgment call. Is this critic operating in good faith, or not? The reporter is not necessarily in the best position to judge. On the other hand, they have the best grasp of all the details of the interaction with this (alleged) bully. "You don't want continuing abuse" is quite different from "you don't want feedback".

Quite - I fully admit that I know nothing about that particular situation.

However, I have personally seen people get overly defensive when someone has pointed out a major error in their methodology and they have then gone on to hide their working rather than trying to fix the issue. Often it's because they are not particularly expert in that field and don't really understand the issue that needs to be fixed.

I've also seen plenty of bullies in the workplace too.

Re: The Deviancy Signal: Having "Nothing to Hide" Is a Threat to Us All

#113

Post by esafak »

coldtea wrote: post #53
itopaloglu83 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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 servic…

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-... and it took the occupation of France and the Low Countries three years later for Watson to decide to return the medal.

Re: The Deviancy Signal: Having "Nothing to Hide" Is a Threat to Us All

#114

Post by lisbbb »

I believe the entire western world is sleep walking into totalitarianism. It's soft glove right now, but mass surveillance, no matter what the original purpose, only needs concentration of power to turn into something truly inhumane. We've seen it already and that was well before technology pushed the boundaries of what is now possible.

I just want to remind everyone that the technology and the police and all of that crap utterly failed to prevent the attacks at Brown and MIT. Total and complete failure. The only thing that mattered was some burned out genius that the world forgot who was illegally living the basement of the engineering building because he had literally nowhere else to go. And then they didn't even catch the killer, he controlled all the events and killed himself two entire days before he was found.

Mass surveillance is a false god as are background checks and pretty much every other measure human take to try and feel safer because there is no safety and never was.

Re: The Deviancy Signal: Having "Nothing to Hide" Is a Threat to Us All

#115

Post by knallfrosch »

vovavili wrote: post #73

The author is a bit uncharitable. "I have nothing to hide" usually is a shorthand for "it would be imprudent and inconvenient to dedicate my limited time and resources to an abstract good like privacy. This would not be the case if I had something illegal or reputation-ruining to hide." Nobody denies the value of privacy, but practicality beats purity in the eyes of a person who doesn't have a particular ideological…

It can also mean: I prefer the police catching murderers. I'm fine when wife cheaters get caught in the drag net.

Privacy advocates never admit that there is not only a "next" government abusing surveillance, but also a "current" one, which uses surveillance for beneficial purposes.

Re: The Deviancy Signal: Having "Nothing to Hide" Is a Threat to Us All

#116

Post by mindslight »

tdeck wrote: post #100
slaugh wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hardcore supporters of the current U.S. administration (e.g. those that go to the rallies, give to the NRA, participate in some militant group), had been very distrustful of government in-general, and I suspect they still are. You may feel that you’re supporting some radical left-wing group you think is cool that just wants people to let everyone be free to think and act how they want, but privacy / hiding commun…

> had been very distrustful of government in-general, and I suspect they still are. They were never really distrustful of the government. People who really don't trust the government want to downsize the parts that can kick down your door and point a gun at you. These people have demonstrated time and again that they want more of that, because they actually trust that institutions of state violence will be on their s…

It comes out in some pretty glaring self-contradictory ways, too. Big talk about the second amendment - personal freedom, from my cold dead hands, etc. Then Kenneth Walker straightforwardly exercises his second amendment right to lawful night time home defense, the government jackboot assailants murder Breonna Taylor in retaliation, and the supposed "freedom lovers" then chime in with support for the jackboots while twisting themselves in knots to justify how the victims of state violence deserved it.

As long as I can remember, the Republican party has been full of hypocrisy and ignorant denial. But this sheer ability of Dear Leader's to make people dance to his tune of outright harming themselves has taken it to another level (I guess there is a reason why he was (is) a really successful con artist). At this point anybody earnestly caring about personal liberty should consider the whole Republican party a sick joke. We need some real opposition ("Libertarian" party isn't well poised for that either), and some real voting systems that break a duopoly (eg Ranked Pairs). But first we really just need to take our country back from these fascists who have completely lost the plot of American ideals.

Re: The Deviancy Signal: Having "Nothing to Hide" Is a Threat to Us All

#117

Post by mystraline »

If you have nothing to hide...

Post your full name, address, social security number, date of birth, mothers maiden name and other security questions, list of active logins and passwords and URLs, your full body scan nudes, sexual fantasies, diary/journal, your ashamed moments in your life, sly or trickster things you've done to others, sordid family secrets, and more.

Oh, that was a no? I guess you DO have something to hide.

Re: The Deviancy Signal: Having "Nothing to Hide" Is a Threat to Us All

#118

Post by luckys »

mjd wrote: post #83
luckys wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where is your contract with Ovo Energy? Companies cannot just go charge random people willy-nilly like that.

You have missed the point of the story. GP is not a customer of Ovo energy. They sent him a bill in error . “Companies cannot just go charge random people” And yet they do. Anyone can send anyone a bill.

OP said "Ovo Energy made a clerical error and sent me a bill, leading to a dispute." I don't see what a company in that situation hopes they can accomplish without a contract for providing the service. Even if they knew OP's meter number.

Re: The Deviancy Signal: Having "Nothing to Hide" Is a Threat to Us All

#119

Post by metadope »

nkrisc wrote: post #31

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.

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

He Built a Privacy Tool. Now He’s Going to Prison. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fshsk8MCAf4

Re: The Deviancy Signal: Having "Nothing to Hide" Is a Threat to Us All

#120

Post by metadope »

drfranks wrote: post #55

I’d try to take this seriously, but: https://thompson2026.com/declaration_of_war/ Umm- not sure we’re playing with a full deck here.

You should take it seriously.

We are not playing. At all.

It's all hands on deck, is what the (would-be) Captain is saying.

Be there or be square.

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