Assange believes too late for any pervasive privacy

[Steve Kinney]

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On 12/11/2015 12:13 PM, Shelley wrote:
> On December 11, 2015 9:00:54 AM Steve Kinney
> <admin at 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)


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