this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2023
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This isn't meant to start a war in the comments.

I have been thinking... Platforms that advertise encryption and unmatched privacy have almost always been used by bad actors that ruin it for everyone else. This leads to some sort of middle ground being set up that ends up being further from privacy than we'd like it to be.

I see the benefits of both situations, and am left wondering if we can even survive as a society if we were to have absolute privacy.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Edit:

I'm asking how we can navigate this conundrum in order to reach a common ground where we do NOT have to give up our precious privacy in exchange for security.

Nothing else. I'm sorry if my post didn't reflect that.

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[โ€“] jet@hackertalks.com 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

To your direct question, bad actors exist, cuz interests can be misaligned. If we protect ourselves from all bad actors we'll have absolute security and no liberty. And then eventually we will have no security.

US founding father is often quoted as saying those who are willing to give up Liberty for security will have neither. Freedom is the only stable state politically, without freedom somebody becomes oppressed, when people are oppressed countries become unstable.

To answer the more philosophical question, you need to moderate the privacy in your life versus the utility it provides. If you're taking care of an octogenarian relative who could have dementia, or is it a fall risk, you want to be able to monitor them, to know if they are in trouble. Hopefully this monitoring comes with informed consent. There are many times when we don't need privacy from everybody, we can let some people in.

In everyday life, our neighbors usually know a huge amount about our lives. That's why they can check in when the patterns change. Hey I didn't see Bob check the mail for a day. We should go see him and say hi. That's a demonstration of the lack of privacy.

I think the main issue is when it happens with uninterested third parties who simply use their surveillance capabilities to oppress people, maybe not oppressed today but build the machinery to oppress tomorrow. And that's the main issue

This was a really good point.

"What's the true intent?" is an important question.