anti-prosecution tactics. (Was Re:)

Troy Benjegerdes hozer at hozed.org
Thu Jan 16 12:25:51 PST 2014


On Thu, Jan 16, 2014 at 08:59:46PM +0100, rysiek wrote:
> Dnia czwartek, 16 stycznia 2014 13:43:29 Troy Benjegerdes pisze:
> > The criminals in power have privacy. The rich who can pay have privacy.
> > 
> > Those below the median income have none.
> > 
> > I am inherently suspicious of privacy and anonynmity advocates because they
> > are at best not realizing the threat model, and at worst are working for
> > the criminals in power.
> 
> So please tell us, oh enlightened one, what is the threat model?
> 
> Because I would say the exact same thing about those who badmouth privacy 
> advocates and privacy itself: obviously those in power have vested interests 
> in violating privacy, be it for monetary, or political gain.
> 
> They have vested interests in convincing the unwashed masses that either 
> "privacy is dead", "privacy is not needed" or "privacy is impossible". So that 
> they can more easily spy upon us all, and so that it gets that harder for 
> privacy-conscious people to maintain their privacy (as that is an ecology, if 
> you do not maintain your privacy, information about you might help somebody to 
> deduce information about me).
> 
> I would say that the vested interest is more clear in the above than in what 
> you stated. So please tell me, what do I not see, or (if I am "working for the 
> man"), where's the cash that I must've gotten for my services over the 
> years?..


I'm going to trust you when you say you are an advocate for all the right reasons.

I also like to trust, but verify. I cannot verify without invading your privacy,
and since that's important to you, I won't.

The vested interests absolutely would love us all to believe privacy is dead,
but will not themselves give it up, making for an extreme imbalance of power.

I, on the other hand, am a person. I am not, however, particularly private, because
it costs me too fucking much in terms of money, time, and paranoia to actually test
and verify that shit I think is supposed to be private actually is.

What I want is for private cypherpunks and transparent cypherpunks to respect each
other's values and spill the secrets of the fuckers who say privacy is dead but will
only themselves give it up in the cold grip of the grave.



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