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How to Convince Non-IT Friends that Privacy Matters?
mmtux writes:
"As technology becomes more advanced, I am increasingly worried about privacy in all aspects of my life. Unfortunately, whenever I attempt to discuss the matter with my friends, they show little understanding and write me off as a hyper-neurotic IT student. They say they simply don't care that the data they share on social networks may be accessible by others, that some laws passed by governments today might be privacy-infringing and dangerous, or that they shouldn't use on-line banking without a virus scanner and a firewall. Have you ever attempted to discuss data security and privacy concerns with a friend who isn't tech-savvy? How do you convince the average modern user that they should think about their privacy and the privacy of others when turning on their computer?"
You may be conflating too many issues. There's a huge difference between warning people about info-stealing malware and saying "zomg ur real name is online!" Remember that most people still have the attitude that they have nothing to hide and so nothing to fear.
I say focus on the most critical issues, like not clicking stupid links, using IE, or falling prey to phishers. Nobody wants his bank account emptied.
Seriously... Google them. Or somebody else at random. Show them how much information about them is already out there, and how easy it is to find. That'll convince them pretty quickly that they need to safeguard their information.
If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
A lot of people are pretty self-righteous and tend to remark snidely "Why do you need privacy if you've got nothing to hide?" What are you supposed to say to someone that seems pretty opposed to privacy... they don't even care about your privacy much less their own. Now that 'terrorism' is a buzzword, people are even demonizing those who even bring up privacy as a concern.
Twinstiq, game news
for most people all you will do is alienate them from you if you lecture them.
it's like warning a girl that her new boyfriend is an @sshole.
tell her once, but after that she just has to learn on her own.
most people just don't care until it bites them.
Email. Everyone uses it. Or some variation of it, such as SMS for the younger crowd.
Point out to your non-IT friends that sending an "email" is NOT like sending a "letter". It is like sending a "postcard". Any number of people you might not know can see the entire contents of your message along the way -- plus they can keep a copy of each and every one of those messages forever.
To take the analogy further, if they really want their "email" to be in an "envelope", use encryption!
@HbFyo0$k8 tH!$
Don't be helpful, be available.
If your friends want your expertise they will come to you and ask. If you offer it unasked-for, they will probably never ask and will go to someone else.
Probably better to talk to them about your other mutual interests. That way you get to keep your friends...
You ask a good question...
No one really wants to be 'that guy' in the circle of friends. You know, the one that's always soapboxing about some sort of social injustice, evil corporations, or whatever. However, that's more or less what you need to do, because people MUST understand what is at stake when our rights to privacy are taken away.
Now, you can help your friends understand how their privacy is seriously at risk without being an asshole. It just takes time, and perseverance. I have alot of friends who have very uninformed political opinions. It's rude to just lecture them every time the subject comes up, but there's nothing wrong with speaking the truth to your friends in a palatable, positive way.
The more you mention issues of privacy, and the more well-informed YOU are about the issue, the more it will create top of mind awareness for them. In time, they will see your point. They will encounter a loss of privacy in their own lives, and because you were such a well informed friend, they will have the ability to make the mental connection. You really are doing them a favor.
Thank you Dave Raggett
You're a complete asshole who is missing the point, yet some idiot mod will see your low userID number and automatically mod you up.
We'd have that real anonynimity still, if people gave a damn about it and valued it instead of pissing it away for the sake of convenience. And no, this is not how humans have always lived. For most of human history, it used to be that knowing very much about somebody was a difficult and expensive undertaking, as you would have had to actually physically observe them and follow them around and investigate them. It was something you did not do without a reason. Electronic transactions plus modern databases mean that this has become far easier and therefore more widespread. A few companies have more market control and a few governments have more power, but the average individual has nothing good to show for this. That is the problem, and you are in denial.
Talk to a dentist. You'll hear a whole lot about how important it is to floss your teeth for 15 minutes a day. A fitness nut will tell you how you need to exercise an hour and a half a day. The house painter told me I should wash the house once every 3 months to preserve the paint. A mechanic friend told me to check my car's oil every week. etc etc.
Most people just don't have the time/energy to do everything they're told so they ignore most advise.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Once, we had a society where everything was known to everybody. That society was called the small town, and the result was oppression by groupthink as a measure of excellence, wielded against those who deviated from the norm, and where gossip and slander were social weapons of choice. Is that any better? Perhaps compared to a heavily rigged oligarchy, but that's not saying much.
Better is this: keep public decisions and the processes leading to the decisions public (except when doing so would break privacy), and then keep the rest private, except by choice of the participants.
The problem with complete public disclosure is not that your actions might be damning so much that it is that it can be cleverly twisted into something of the sort, and that these distortions very easily attain a life of their own.
Speaking of SSL, I updated the SSL certificate for a site we host recently, only to soon thereafter get a complaint from the customer that it wasn't valid. Turned out he had one of those silly Thawte Seals on his site, which needs updated for the new certificate as well. I pointed out to both him and our web developer that those are a really bad idea because they train people to be susceptible to phishing. All I'd have to do is get someone to go to a typosquatted domain, or even even a non-ssl site that looks right with a gif image of that seal (and I could even have it linked to something that looked like it validated the cert like the real seals do). Our web developer commented "it's something my grandmother can understand" and my comment was "your grandmother is exactly the person most at risk from that sort of thing". Trusting content to validate itself is an incredibly stupid idea --- only the browser can do the validation, and people need to be trained to the browser's indicators, not the content.
If only we could actually trust the browsers...
I would interpret that to mean that you need to choose your advice carefully. The best thing my dental hygienist ever said to me was, 'Floss while you're watching TV.' It was a perfectly simple and eminently practical piece of advice, and made me a flosser for the first time in my life.
<obShamelessSelfPromotion>I've been writing a series of columns about the issue of online privacy in a local weekly newspaper. Living as I do in a developing nation, I need to put things as simply as possible. Here are the last three:
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.