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Your Privacy Is a Sci-Fi Fantasy

Posted by Soulskill on from the when-education-battles-apathy dept.

snydeq writes "Deep End's Paul Venezia discusses the 'sci-fi fantasy' that is privacy in the digital era. 'The assault on personal privacy has ramped up significantly in the past few years. From warrantless GPS tracking to ISP packet inspection, it seems that everyone wants to get in on the booming business of clandestine snooping — even blatant prying, if you consider reports of employers demanding Facebook passwords prior to making hiring decisions,' Venezia writes. 'What happened? Did the rules change? What is it about digital information that's convinced some people this is OK? Maybe the right to privacy we were told so much about has simply become old-fashioned, a barrier to progress.'"

4 of 195 comments (clear)

  1. The problem is... by houstonbofh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The problem is that far to many people look about as far ahead as a goldfish. "Sure I will give you access to all my facebook data for a cheap beer..." And that makes it had for the rest of us with a clue.

    1. Re:The problem is... by martin-boundary · · Score: 5, Insightful

      A transaction in which I gain something of value to me, in return for something of value to the other person, which I value less than the goods I receive is the fundamental bedrock of economics.

      Not quite. There are some things which aren't meant for you to be traded, even if you'd really like that beer. You can't sell your kids for a beer, for example. Even though they're your kids, and you should be able to do with them what you like in general, it's not in society's interest to let you do that. I like to think that letting you sell your privacy for a free beer is not in society's interest either.

  2. That sig is offensive. by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The picture of the comment you link to is actually a defense of freedom, not a defense of "child pornography". The writer was denouncing censorship; he was not advocating anything.

    Sorry, but you don't get to turn it around and say the author stated something that in fact he did not.

  3. Re:It's new, the old car analogies don't apply by Chris+Burke · · Score: 5, Insightful

    All digital communication is inherently recorded, so in some twisted sense it's more like dumpster diving and less like wiretapping to snoop in e-mail.

    No, it's more like your mail carrier reading your snail-mail.

    Which is also an illegal invasion of privacy.

    The rules don't need to be re-written. The old ones work just fine as long as we don't throw out all reason as soon as "on a computer" is added.

    --

    The enemies of Democracy are