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Privacy is the most important concept of our time

inre.me

171–180 of 226 posts

Re: Privacy is the most important concept of our time

#171

Privacy is dead. Why do we think we have anything close to agency over our self when advertising and — in general — profiteering by trafficking in the private lives of individuals is the force that it is today?

It saddens me to read this sentiment. I agree there is a huge uphill battle to fight here to change the current situation, but there are a) plenty of people who value their privacy and are willing to make changes to the products and technologies they use in order to preserve their rights, and b) developers creating technology, tools and products that will protect your online privacy.

I’m sad to hold it. But the reality is that today you can opt-out and not participate and that won’t impede companies from violating your privacy. It’s enough that your friends shared their contact books or tagged you in their photos.

Beyond that just thing what will stop this? It will either take leadership from Washington DC or a global uprising. Do you think our politicians will fight for our privacy? The second the first shots are fired by the politicians their political opponents will have millions added to their war-chests. The second they open their mouth super-PACs will be organized to assassinate their character. Not to mention they won’t get that cushy job as board members and what-not unless they play ball.

Sorry, we are in a modern feudal age.

Re: Privacy is the most important concept of our time

#172
I recommend looking into Privacy as Contextual Integrity. Privacy is not about control. It's about appropriateness of information flows, not about private and public spaces.

If you're interested please read Nissenbaum's book on Privacy in Context.

https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=8862

There is also an active community you can follow: https://twitter.com/privaci_way

Re: Privacy is the most important concept of our time

#173
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always wondered how people who advocate for more open borders justify their position. Could you expand? Naively I would think regulating borders is an essential function in maintaining rule of law - undocumented workers are fodder for exploitation. But I'm honestly open to being wrong.

They don't, that's the trick - they just insult those who vocally oppose their ideas. But it's immediately obvious to any mildly intelligent, intellectually honest person that open borders are only possible for ultra-capitalist countries; imagine putting a billion people into the EU, and the countries are going to go bankrupt and collapse faster than you can say "public healthcare and free schooling".

  they just insult those who vocally oppose their ideas.
It's fair to call me out for insulting the author. The remainder of the comment is misguided because, as I replied elsewhere in this thread, I see open borders as a long-term goal.

Re: Privacy is the most important concept of our time

#174

I had some chickens on my lawn the other day. Someone driving by stopped, started video recording me, my family, my neighbors, and the birds with their phone (I assume that's what he was doing, that's what it looked like) for a minute or two, then he drove off. He didn't say a word. He didn't respond when I waved. By my standards of social behavior that dude is a fucking creep and (years ago) I would have tried to go…

Really insightful comment and I could not agree anymore. Reading your story really puts it into perspective what we've grown to accept as normal.

It's unfortunate that the solution seems to be to just leave—(I don't think stopping and trying to make a friend is realistic the vast majority of the time, or even safe sometimes)—and I'm realizing I'm at that same conclusion.

Re: Privacy is the most important concept of our time

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ... undocumented workers are fodder for exploitation There are a number of good arguments for stopping undocumented workers but I don't think "keeping them from being exploited" is a very good one. Most undocumented workers in the US come from countries where their next best alternative is being exploited by cartels. A much better solution is to overhaul our immigration system to make it effortless to get immigrant…

> A much better solution is to overhaul our immigration system Why not instead fix this problem? > Most undocumented workers in the US come from countries where their next best alternative is being exploited by cartels.

Your suggestion is rather than modifying our immigration system, why not simply eliminate crime globally?

Re: Privacy is the most important concept of our time

#176

I had some chickens on my lawn the other day. Someone driving by stopped, started video recording me, my family, my neighbors, and the birds with their phone (I assume that's what he was doing, that's what it looked like) for a minute or two, then he drove off. He didn't say a word. He didn't respond when I waved. By my standards of social behavior that dude is a fucking creep and (years ago) I would have tried to go…

On the other side of the coin: maybe he didn't see you wave because he's on a video call and looking at the caller's face. Maybe he didn't want to step onto your property or disturb your day because that is often seen as aggressive behavior. Maybe he didn't actually stop for the reason you think he did and just happened to notice the chickens and pointed to take a photo.

Calling the cops is a ridiculous reaction to just about anything these days other than someone has been shot.

Re: Privacy is the most important concept of our time

#177

I think this a fantastically important topic and good post, but also misses some important things (which i dont know but there are defienitely missing ones) and focuses very much on recent tech-sphere promiment issues . some points -privacy is probably most important for most people in their private relationships and social life (instead of the emphasis on these recent issues) -could be made more comprehensve/extende…

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Re: Privacy is the most important concept of our time

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's not quite an answer to the question I asked. people don't always behave in a way that's consistent with the privately or publicly held beliefs, and I think it would be foolish to expect them to. suppose you have a hiring manager that's secretly a racist, but nevertheless hires a diverse group of talented engineers because that's what's in their job description. doesn't it only become a problem if people find o…

In the real world - and even more so in a super privacy-conscious version of the real world - nobody has perfect information about how the other person acts towards others. Politicians renege on public commitments and racists hire minorities to bully all the time. Suppose you have a hiring manager that expresses racist views about minority engineers but then tells you not to tell anyone. Why on earth should their ple…

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Re: Privacy is the most important concept of our time

#179

I wanted to like this essay, because I also worry about the loss of privacy today, but the goofy paragraph about borders turned me off. To believe that borders are conducive to peace sounds like a bad case of internet-brain.

I'm going to ask you to defend this claim. I consider myself a reasonably astute leftist student of history, but I don't think history is on your side. To be sure, borders are not a guarantor of peace, but you can't really argue with the results of Westphalia.

  you can't really argue with the results of Westphalia.
In which modern nation does one find Westphalia?

Re: Privacy is the most important concept of our time

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to ask you to defend this claim. I consider myself a reasonably astute leftist student of history, but I don't think history is on your side. To be sure, borders are not a guarantor of peace, but you can't really argue with the results of Westphalia.

you can't really argue with the results of Westphalia. In which modern nation does one find Westphalia?

The historical results of the Treaty of Westphalia.
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