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Google's Chief Internet Evangelist: 'privacy may be an anomaly' (2013)

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Re: Google's Chief Internet Evangelist: 'privacy may be an anomaly' (2013)

#2
Maybe there should be three terms acknowledged in the study of privacy:

Public

Obscure

Private

For the longest time we have interpreted obscurity as privacy. Such as what your house looks like. Or how many people know of your legal immigration status.

There are very few pieces of information that are truly private, like social security number, health records (known only by Healthcare providers), and the actions you did in secret where no one was present, and maybe even the thoughts you have and the writings of your journal.

Re: Google's Chief Internet Evangelist: 'privacy may be an anomaly' (2013)

#5
I think this assumes people don't have a choice about being "extremely online". As someone who quite literally grew up on the Internet in the early 90s (before that was common), I have pulled back my engagement significantly in the last 5 years. I'm not on social media at all.

And you know what? Other than a few Facebook Groups, I realized I'm not missing much. I rather enjoy living life offline; I'm not obsessed with checking the news 30 times a day or being performative with my posts. The last few weeks have actually been pretty hard for me because it's like being forced to take heroin when you've been clean for a while.

But I also have privacy. There are things in my life that I don't feel are even appropriate to broadcast widely, so I don't. You can't really Google me and find anything meaningful. The advertisements I see are not in any way aligned to things I would do / buy, which makes it way more obvious how much advertising we are subjected to. I feel it's a bit like peeking behind the curtain.

Re: Google's Chief Internet Evangelist: 'privacy may be an anomaly' (2013)

#6

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

Not having to eat your own dog food helps a lot too... You lose your privacy for his benefit, not the other way around.

Re: Google's Chief Internet Evangelist: 'privacy may be an anomaly' (2013)

#7
post #6

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

Not having to eat your own dog food helps a lot too... You lose your privacy for his benefit, not the other way around.

Yeah, in the modern world privacy is a luxury. It's actually pretty damn hard to find information about many technology executives outside of their LinkedIn profile; but many lower-income jobs practically require an active social media presence.

Re: Google's Chief Internet Evangelist: 'privacy may be an anomaly' (2013)

#8

I think this assumes people don't have a choice about being "extremely online". As someone who quite literally grew up on the Internet in the early 90s (before that was common), I have pulled back my engagement significantly in the last 5 years. I'm not on social media at all. And you know what? Other than a few Facebook Groups, I realized I'm not missing much. I rather enjoy living life offline; I'm not obsessed wit…

> I'm not on social media at all.

What's HN then?

Re: Google's Chief Internet Evangelist: 'privacy may be an anomaly' (2013)

#9

Maybe there should be three terms acknowledged in the study of privacy: Public Obscure Private For the longest time we have interpreted obscurity as privacy. Such as what your house looks like. Or how many people know of your legal immigration status. There are very few pieces of information that are truly private, like social security number, health records (known only by Healthcare providers), and the actions you d…

I sometimes wonder about the day when even thoughts won't be safe from outside scrutiny.
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