Is Privacy Dead?

I don't view privacy as being limited to the scenario where information is only available to oneself. I may keep information to myself and if so that is fully private information. I may want to share information with you and have it be private to/between us. In both cases, I'm trying to control who knows the information and prevent anyone else from knowing it. To bound a secret so to speak.

Unfortunately, information... including virtually any and every shred of information about our lives... has value and so others want it. My ability to keep something secret amongst parties of my choosing means others who are eager to monetize/use the information in some way won't be able to. Which is exactly what I want, but of course, is exactly what they don't want. So they will do their very best to in some way lure or coerce me into exposing that information to them.

I see more and more commentary from government and commercial interests to the effect that the old definition of privacy, revolving around the ability to keep/bound a secret, is dead. It isn't that it is really dead, or ever will be. It is simply that they want to kill it. They want to force themselves into a position where they are always a party to the information. Sadly, they have a far greater affect on what comes to market than I and other consumers do.

 

yes and no imho.

depends on the chooses you make and what software you allow to run on your box,but one things for shore if you let them they will rape your computer dry of everything they can.

the trick is to be mindfull of the topic, and that's about it and yes their all bastards imho of late and pushing hard to spy on the pile and sadly most people don't think about it as much as they should and as well many free apps will give you something for free if your willing to be their slave on this topic.

you see privacy invasion = $$$.
want to sell your privacy for free "not" software ? be my guest cus i won't.
funny thing is how many people are willing so sell their sole for something a basic as a free anti-virus or whatever.
ill pass on that topic and don't even get me started on the cloud topic

 

What are we really talking about when we use the word "privacy"?

It is a recent development that we think of privacy and anonymity as the same thing.
Privacy is being able to do things behind closed doors without being spied on.
Anonymity is being able to do things without being traceable.
Anonymity is a new "freedom" that humanity has enjoyed for only a few short years thanks to the internet.

Before the internet, you could subscribe to Playboy Magazine and read it in private. The mailman, however, hand delivered it to your door so he knew you were a subscriber and he was free to share that knowledge with anyone he chose.
Now, you can view the online version with total privacy plus anonymity.

Anonymity is not always a good thing. Accountability in particular becomes less and less important as it becomes easier and easier to be anonymous.

 

You could also buy them for cash from news places (or, in my case, from smugglers).

Lack of accountability can be a good thing. Being accountable can mean being in prison or dead.

 

Being anonymous is sometimes good, sometimes bad.
Just trying to make the point that privacy enthusiasts are saying that everything should be anonymous.

Sounds like mirimir is not native to the USA? In many countries, prison is for those that offend the fragile egos of despots.
In the USA, we are not there yet. Yes, we are heading in the wrong direction with political correctness on steroids. The solution is not to make the internet hands off to law enforcement.

 

My parents worked at the United Nations, and I attended UNIS. But I was back in Leningrad before I discovered Playboy.

 

know how much spyware their is in windows 3.11 ? not much

know how much spyware their is in windows7 ? piles
and all the rest is the same.
if you let em push us all down that road will all have gps implants.

my two cents worth.

 

XP was referred to by some as a Professional Bugging Device. Compared to the 9X systems, it was. Compared to Win 8, it's quite tame.

Trading privacy for some free app is bad enough, but on the OS itself, users give it away for eye candy.

 

bomb of a link,that just tops the pile.
i don't know how i can do better after reading that

well maybe, you know their use to be this forum out their that was the repository of dirt on micro soft but sadly its no more *sad* i use to like that place.

funny too, just before i was just researching {NTFS "Alternate Data Streams" make better business sense, than 'hidden information gathering process combined with standard file functions'

this ones for you Bill_Bright
mystery forum

sorry can't do a direct link to forum,this place buggers the link info.

 

In this place, we focus on the data mining and anti-privacy behaviors of computing equipment, operating systems, software, etc, mainly because we like to get into the "nuts and bolts" of these things. Unfortunately, they're just examples of a much larger trend that most people don't even think about.
Examples:
Credit/debit cards are easy and convenient. They're also an easy way to keep tract of what you buy. Some places won't do business with you without one, a practice I believe could be legally challenged.

Store cards offer discounts when you produce the card at the checkout, a card that's normally tied to your address, phone number, etc. Another way to monitor your purchases.

A lot of places ask for phone numbers at the checkout. When asked, they say it's for warranty purposes, even if what you're buying has no warranty.

GPS is a two-edged sword. Besides showing us how to get to where we want, it also makes it easy to keep tract of where we are, where we go, etc. It's part of most vehicles, portable phones, etc.

RFID tags in products, soon to be on or in people.

The more you think about it, the longer the list gets. Most have willingly accepted this destruction of privacy in exchange for a few conveniences or a few cents off of the price of something. IMO, it's pointless to confront the anti-privacy "features" in our electronics and ignore all the rest of the spying. The only way to counteract a lot of it is to refuse to use it. For most, that's a major lifestyle change. Myself for instance, I don't have the option of getting a physical paycheck. I have to accept either direct deposit or have the money put on a debit card. The only way I can keep my finances private is to pull all of the money off the debit card when it's deposited.

 

Why the .... do you want so much privacy?

 

why don't you want human rights and a constitution ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6Yb2cBI060

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OydW39DZzc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGhcECnWRGM

 

Uhhh, I can want basic human rights and the rights given to me by the constitution while also having a CVS card. The two don't conflict.

I get why people want privacy. I think that, legally, the system is completely messed up - the amount of effort the government needs to exert to gain access to email, for example, is nothing compared to gaining access to something physical. I get not wanting your ISP/Government to see which websites you go to. I get wearing clothing, and closing the curtains.

All of those things make sense to me. It stops making sense when, and this goes for so many things, it gets taken to an extreme. At some point it seems like it becomes privacy for privacy's sake.

 

Fourth Amendment USA

As you can see windows is in violation of the 4th among other things.
Of late micro $oft is pushing secure boot "win8 locked" computers that are hard locked in to windows8 and can't run any other computer Os.
Their barking up the class action anti-trust law tree once more...

Thank god im in Canada,but what going on next door to usa is really disturbing of late...

 

It only applies to the government, so Microsoft is off the hook, on that.

But then there's warrantless government surveillance

 

say what

their allowed to im guessing in your book seeing as laws and constitutions only apply to the people that are governing you and not the peasants
peasants are not allowed to have any rights rights.
correct mirimir ?
*faceplam* whatever..............

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so the real question is when it comes to computers & the internet, why do we not have any privacy left ?

Raw Sockets + winXP social engineering test.

yay pdf link 1

yay pdf link 2

same as noone_particular winxp link only for win7

do you think just maybe some of the powers out their wanted all of the net to turn in to a virus botnet ? that way after the fact they can show up and offer you protection for a price.
all you have to do is become their slave and allow them to take all your rights and privacy away from you.

think about that for a min, so whos really at fault ?
-lack of privacy laws and enforcement ?
-stupid end users that agree to sell their souls for a brick of cheese and never read legal agreements.
sine my legal agreement link you know you want to
-lack of motivation of the people that it affects to get angry about it and do something about it besides sitting on their ass's and watching tv ?
all of the above ?

abandon all hope ye who enter here, we are the Borg, Resistance is futile, privacy is dead, you can not stop it so lets all use cloud,all your knowledge and distinctiveness will be assimilated.
individuality is meaningless,hope is meaningless, broken drones will be deactivated.

agreed its all shads of gray,and that could be to the white side or dark side of the big bother slider.

i sense a grate darkness approaching,a nameless evil,a grate eye cloaked in fire that sees all, knows all.

HAL 9000: i like games, would you like to play one ?

 

Privacy is not dead and it will never be, that much is clear. As we drifted off topic, thread closed