Break free of the mindframe that those with secrets are keeping something wrong secret.
I'm not having that mindset. I actually see three kinds of secrets people might have:
- things they shouldn't be doing in the first place (like tax fraud),
- things that are dangerous should evil people know about them (by government mass surveilence, you installing a camera in my bathroom, etc.),
- things that are inconvenient should morons know about them (like religious/sexual orientation, etc.)
Most of the privacy-related discussions here focus on the second and third kind. I argue that we shouldn't keep only blaming particular technologies (cameras, satellites, big data), but instead we should focus on dealing with evil people and morons. Fighting technology is pointless (sans starting Third World War) and potentially hurtful (all that surveillance tech we're so afraid of can and already does wonders in areas like agriculture, medicine, public safety and social studies).
How about we make sure that social and legal structure deters people from acting on collected data in a malicious way, that makes it easier to get rid of morons in your collective social network, instead of blaming mapping technologies for breaking marriages, or Twitter for government shooting their citizens in a more efficient manner, or Facebook for that boss not hiring you because you're an atheist?
I'm not having that mindset. I actually see three kinds of secrets people might have:
- things they shouldn't be doing in the first place (like tax fraud),
- things that are dangerous should evil people know about them (by government mass surveilence, you installing a camera in my bathroom, etc.),
- things that are inconvenient should morons know about them (like religious/sexual orientation, etc.)
Most of the privacy-related discussions here focus on the second and third kind. I argue that we shouldn't keep only blaming particular technologies (cameras, satellites, big data), but instead we should focus on dealing with evil people and morons. Fighting technology is pointless (sans starting Third World War) and potentially hurtful (all that surveillance tech we're so afraid of can and already does wonders in areas like agriculture, medicine, public safety and social studies).
How about we make sure that social and legal structure deters people from acting on collected data in a malicious way, that makes it easier to get rid of morons in your collective social network, instead of blaming mapping technologies for breaking marriages, or Twitter for government shooting their citizens in a more efficient manner, or Facebook for that boss not hiring you because you're an atheist?