Internet privacy: Is it overrated?

Internet privacy: Is it overrated?

 

Thanks for the interesting topic. Privacy should be properly balanced, between paranoid privacy protection and sharing everything with everyone.

 

Can't agree more with you!

 

Privacy is more than just sharing the names of things you like on Facebook.

A lot more.

 

IMO, 2 different but interconnected issues fall under privacy.
The first is what we choose to share or keep private, eg Facebook. The second is data harvested by sites, surveillance, software, usually without asking, then used to build profiles on us, target us with ads, or profit from it in other ways. The first may have "opportunities" for the user. The second does not. With the 2nd, it's always been about money. Since it is the users data, they should get a percentage for sharing it, then offered a choice with that in mind. That would make the difference between "opportunity" and being exploited.

 

Yep. No choice as such will ever be offered, however.

The user and their information are mere commodities, to be traded as desired.

And then there is surveillance. Or indeed, self-surveillance as it is becoming through the continual sharing of just about all aspects of ones daily life.

Ten years ago, this was the stuff of fiction.

 

On those terms, there's nothing overrated or paranoid about not wanting to be exploited and taking steps to prevent it.

I'm very much "old school" with a lot of this. Looking back, it now looks much less like fiction and more like prophecy. So many things are commodities now that no one would have believed 10 or 20 years ago. Before cell phones, who would have believed they'd be buying services by the minute?

 

Indeed. And any attempts to discuss such with those addicted to the virtual panopticon or their mobile lifeline are met with howls of derision, normally including such terms as 'tin-foil hat'.

Such is the power of what might be seen as modern day e-opiates.

It aint no joke.

 

The sad part of this is that these same people can't/won't look at the things that have been uncovered recently, either by investigations or the hacking of some groups, and see that many of the things they called "tin foil hat" material are proving to be very real. People like the one who wrote that article strike me as sock puppets for the same system that's taking advantage of people and/or exploiting them. IMO, he's deliberately clouding the issue by not differentiating between what people might share willingly from data that's harvested by other means that most users are completely unaware of.

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It ain't no exaggeration either. Several people I know willingly admit that they're addicted to Facebook and those silly games on it. I'll admit to being addicted (or close to it) to a multi-player game that a friend introduced me to. Quite some time ago, I saw a study on TV addiction (don't remember when or by who) that claimed that the nature of video was such that it takes over parts of the brain, causing the viewer to tune out their surroundings and focus strictly on what they see, even when it's not interesting to them. The more I look at TV addiction by one member of this house and my own addiction to that multi-player game, the more I'm inclined to believe that they were right. I might as well make this into a "tin foil hat" issue as well. They make these games to keep people focused on these imaginary worlds so that they don't notice or pay attention to what's going on in the real world. The bulk of the television programming I've seen is either stupidity being passed off as comedy, or a steady stream of what might as well be propaganda that promotes the present deteriorating reality we live in. One person I know is addicted to those reality police/investigation shows. From what I've seen of them, there's a common theme in them, namely "the end justifies the means". Example, finding another way to get DNA from someone when the judge said they didn't have probable cause to get it, or the idea that a person is guilty if they don't offer an alibi. Assumed guilty if we can't/won't "prove" our innocence? When I talk to this person about these subjects, they sound like an echo of what these shows represent. I know for a fact that this person didn't feel that way before. You want "tin foil hat"? IMO, a lot of the "reality TV" is intended to condition or brainwash people into accepting this surveillance society and the total loss of privacy and freedom that it represents. The really sickening part is that people pay to see this garbage.

 

I could go on and on here. But I have resolved myself not to go off on one on this matter. Its something I have railed against for a long time. I'm weary from it

Suffice to say, I concur. Completely.

Wake, wakey, folks.

 

in times, you too will learn to love the "machine".

on another notes, i don't really worry about this stuff since i have no control over it.

 

Quite to the contrary. I believe it is actually vastly underrated. Most people seem to care not about it, posting their information freely for everyone to see on their Facebook walls or Twitter feeds. Some will even inform their followers when they're taking a dump.

We "tin foil hat" wearing Wilders peeps are the vast minority. Most end users could care less about privacy.

 

Everyone should want thier privacy... ITS SICKENING HOW MANY PPL DO NOT CARE ABOUT THIERS