-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 12/11/2015 12:13 PM, Shelley wrote:
On December 11, 2015 9:00:54 AM Steve Kinney <admin@pilobilus.net> wrote:
I sometimes compare paranoid reactions to the "loss of privacy" in the networked world to mental telepathy: The prospect of someone reading your mind is frightening, until it turns out that your own deeply held secrets are not special or unusual to a telepath who has already "seen it all" and has /far/ worse examples to compare your most heinous and embarrassing inner thoughts and motivations to.
No. Just because my private thoughts may not be considered special or out of the ordinary does not mean you or anyone else has the right to know what they are unless I give you permission.
The power to give and withhold permission for others to see you varies with circumstances. In an environment where this power is inherently weak or intermittent, you are "in the game" whether you want to be or not; the only alternative is to isolate yourself from resources native to the privacy-hostile environment. Most of the participants in the privacy-hostile networked world consider the resources found there indispensable. However, to whatever extent you participate in an environment where arbitrary enforcement of personal decisions about "privacy" is often impossible, a purely defensive game is most likely a long term losing strategy for society at large: The practical advantages of participating in the networked world far outweigh the perceived and, possibly, the actual harm from "loss of privacy." Only a few atypical individuals will be able to manage their affairs so that the advantages of "strong privacy protections" outweigh the costs of compensating for lost access to resources.
Which leads to:
Old Farts have major problems wrapping their heads around the concept that a world where privacy is shrinking fast and expected to nearly disappear is a Good Thing. People who grew up with the Interet, not so much.
People who grew up with the Internet... Do you mean the vapid idiots who willingly post every detail of their entire fucking lives on Failbook and fart out every insignificant, nonsensical thought in 140 character-blocks of uselessness?
The vapid idiots don't interest me, except perhaps as a study in herd behavior. (I find that VERY interesting...) I mean everybody: The morons you mention; the clever ones who pump social and economic iron with their lookityboxes and 23 WiFi enabled devices in arm's reach; the smart ones who use the Internet as a University, storefront and intelligence collection asset; the brilliant batshit crazy ones whose most contagious ideas occasionally spread like prairie brushfires.
We, the Old Farts who helped build the place, wish you'd clean your room and take better care of things, or we'll be changing the locks.
Tell me about it: Those Old Farts were early adopters, because they happened to take an unnatural interest in computers. So a large faction among them are capable of understanding and implementing network security and making rational decisions about disclosures of their activities and data to 3rd parties. These folks, and the few /honest/ professionals in related fields, are the only thing that keeps the Internet from clogging up with shit from end to end and falling apart. Well, at least we have mostly kept it from falling apart. :o) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1 iQIcBAEBAgAGBQJWaw/OAAoJEDZ0Gg87KR0LOx8P/jEHWGDCUXcSxrKMSCP9VGyN mjQd1onnYce/y7rh2bF34rTj48XjBVyIjTk1VvU1NCgf7AUNC0b9m2KbzyUtAkDs G1WWcbDRUGBDUFzFlRDJY1OFZBMzjgm+TDSxwaNwWfUNgn6YZmIZFky03HtJL4fY zAyykfVeKm7I8S8m8EX5WzNL2qLmXg1x93kt+Kool4V4oQcZ2X7PxlWkwbf5n3jq i/VlE8mkFURuv6Oe8tSnHSt0QV2StuGD2il8sBwi0kl7xq7HndP3WXbMFMXGcmCn uQ+CSzE1+AtP77aSARMrP8rzQczeUjf1ukkY7RaVrd+2bHSyzxW2AzybOFu4WyYd R8kVo1aHKJhdJb+rdtEOwhoyv2ABlphZWdhjP3YUchzy5ppYBTc1NqK7O5Im1VkH ZqkHL4SysGKtrjnDEiQIGrESmUyigDH30zRoDHGIXGr4oQ2849aRWPuMK+c5iuuc vFd4iGhRgtVih6w04On+0V9UnOehiV2IggoUPBHARn7KuYALq7aXWtVD5+KwsbCF zWJtGfnT9M8EUfSywOGf+5B4+Vafe3D5X9ZdkpIdk2Wvsy5kHHMImJqagSyy5SBK ljpFS2K1o6beahezyRNYX6MMgC2IfmCvYsPkDtSYbtfUQiFKr3nXpPCMn72eZG+B RPQSmZHjXwgxQtHNMpaV =9EqG -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----