Privacy is dead. Why do we think we have anything close to agency over our self when advertising and — in general — profiteering by trafficking in the private lives of individuals is the force that it is today?
The majority of ways people are giving up privacy right now are optional - it's a consequence of using certain devices and software products. By declaring privacy dead you're only opening the door for things to get worse and for privacy violations to become non-optional - constant tracking devices that you can't take off, your home being monitored by default instead of your having to bring in a device that listens to you, no option to use encryption and so on.
Unless the government kills privacy (with law), I couldn't disagree more. I'm building https://owlmail.io to help improve your privacy online by reducing the "personal email everywhere" problem. Owl Mail is just one tiny project among countless others working toward a world with better privacy.
It saddens me to read this sentiment. I agree there is a huge uphill battle to fight here to change the current situation, but there are a) plenty of people who value their privacy and are willing to make changes to the products and technologies they use in order to preserve their rights, and b) developers creating technology, tools and products that will protect your online privacy.
I’m sad to hold it. But the reality is that today you can opt-out and not participate and that won’t impede companies from violating your privacy. It’s enough that your friends shared their contact books or tagged you in their photos.
Beyond that just thing what will stop this? It will either take leadership from Washington DC or a global uprising. Do you think our politicians will fight for our privacy? The second the first shots are fired by the politicians their political opponents will have millions added to their war-chests. The second they open their mouth super-PACs will be organized to assassinate their character. Not to mention they won’t get that cushy job as board members and what-not unless they play ball.
I hear you. Here in the UK we have an unelected consultant to the Prime Minister who is pushing for a loosening of data privacy laws. The right to privacy is politicised to suit the agendas of politicians and big tech alike.
Long term, I do hope laws and regulation will catch up. I know some incredible people in the space and their work and commitment is inspiring. It's unsatisfying though to think that the effects will only be reactive and recourse provided after years of ongoing privacy invasion at mass scale. To me, that's where technology comes in and we should advocate and use products and solutions that respect our privacy (e.g. Qwant).
For what it's worth, I'm one of the developers of Peergos - https://peergos.org - a secure storage solution that puts user privacy and control of data first. We're currently in alpha and looking for users to test it out and give feedback. If it interests you at all, I would really appreciate your views on the product and what we're trying to create.
I agree. Most people don't realize what's going on, and of those that do, most of them are profiting by it. The few that see what's happening clearly and don't like it are a tiny minority with (relatively) no money.
To answer your question, I think people have much less agency than we think we do. Our brains run the show, not our minds. It would take so much energy to do something about e.g. surveillance capitalism that the brain settles on a useful illusion (agency) and ignores the data that would require energy expenditure for dubious returns (most people in the panopticon are doing relatively well, eh?)
It's not a very good answer, I know, but I have been convinced that there's no deeper reason. It's caloric cheaper to be a good "coppertop" than to wake up and become "Neo". (Yes, a Matrix reference. I am not ashamed.)
