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Why Online Privacy Is Broken
Trailrunner7 writes "One of the more trite and oft-repeated maxims in the software industry goes something like this: We're not focusing on security because our customers aren't asking for it. They want features and functionality. When they ask for security, then we'll worry about it. Not only is this philosophy doomed to failure, it's now being repeated in the realm of privacy, with potentially disastrous effects. A quick search of recent news on the privacy front reveals that just about all of it is bad. Facebook is exposing users' live chat sessions and other data to third parties. Google is caught recording not only MAC address and SSID information from public Wi-Fi hotspots, but storing data from the networks as well. But the prevailing attitude among corporate executives in these cases seems to be summed up by Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who famously said this not too long ago: 'If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place.' If you look beyond the patent absurdity of Schmidt's statement for a minute, you'll find another old maxim hiding underneath: Blame the user. You want privacy? Don't use our search engine/photo software/email application/maps. That's our data now, thank you very much. Oh, you don't want your private chats exposed to the world? Sorry, you never told us that."
I can remember very vividly GM and Ford (and Chrysler and even Packard) saying basically the same things about cars - they could put in safety features, but they didn't because there was no customer demand for it. This was, mind, when cars had metal dashboards and spear-your-heart driving wheels. This went on until the Federal Government started forcing changes, and until Volvo and other foreign manufacturers started making sales touting safety. I expect to see a similar story arc about piracy on-line.
There's no identifiable information in your MAC or SSID. So big deal there. If you don't want your packets sniffed, it's easy enough to enable encryption. If you don't want your emails shared with marketers, no one is forcing you to use GMail. No one is forcing you to use Facebook for that matter either. These companies provide a service that's free to you, but in exchange for your privacy. If you don't know that's the deal, you have no one to complain to but yourself.
It's really quite trivial to maintain your privacy on the internet. Use encryption whenever possible, and don't use services from companies who's business model is selling your information. Problem solved.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
The problem is that all the companies are data gorging. The CC Merchants are the worst. They insist that you send them not only the total but a list of what the person is buying. They also monitor your advertising and who links to you on the internet. I use to run a lab supply company. We had a affiliate link when we first went online. The merchant account found two sites that linked to us, these sites were in other countries and were drug related. Well drug related in the US but they appeared to be legal in there country. They killed our account with no warning. $3000 a day in sales through the web site gone. They would not turn it back on and added us to a black list. We were unable to continue selling online. We still have the brick and mortar but the online store it gone. We broke no laws and there was no published list of what not to do.
All in all, not only do they collect all the information on every one and there sales, they spend a lot of time monitoring and collecting information on the stores. They need to be dinged on this, some Merchant accounts go as far as to tell you what products you can and can not carry. The second one we had would not let us carry or sell any pipettes, agar-agar or 10cc syringes that had 1.5" 18 gauge needles on them. They considered them "Drug paraphernalia"
"Making everyone happy" was never on my to-do list. "Not get reamed by the corporatocracy" is on my list and remains there. As much as others might enjoy the familiarity of having complete strangers call them by name, and the convenience of having merchandise instantly charged to their accounts, *I* am selfish enough to sacrifice all those pleasures just so that I might exert a little bit of control over what others know about me.
This is a job for government regulation. We don't trust the free market with important things like ensuring food safety, protecting the environment, or verifying whether pharmaceuticals are effective. Why should we trust the free market with personal privacy?
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