Monday, July 29, 2013

The Delusion of Privacy

These days there is a big deal being made on a lot of breaches in security.

From the NSA and Eric Snowden, to Google Glass, to the NYPD storing data, it's becoming an issue to a lot of people.

But I say: WHO ARE YOU KIDDING?!

On a daily basis, you use tools that are provided to you by companies, which can be used in much deeper ways than we can imagine.

Sure, Google Glass is an issue to some, since now you never know when someone may take a picture of you doing stupid.

But remember last week, when you picked your nose on the street corner, thinking no one saw?

Hate to break it to you, but 3 security cameras in store doorways, and one dashboard camera, all saw it, recorded it, and there is nothing you will ever be able to do about that!


Or what about the fact that on Google Maps we can now zoom in so close that we can see people sunbathing in their backyards on satellite view.

And if that is what they are letting us see...imagine what the satellites can really see!

What's that? You also ordered the "Spy Case" that came with cereal boxes as a kid? You know the one I mean, the one with a device to let you pick up sounds across the room.

Well just imagine what spending more than $3.99 on S/H can get you? What if you spent $399 on it? Chances are you can probably hear the sounds of hearts breaking all around the world as Adam Levine announced he was engaged.

Whilst anonymity on these blogs has been a hot topic on this blog and others in the past...just realize that Google knows who you are :) Sure you made a pseudonym to start this account...but you signed into it on the exact same computer that you signed into your real account...and you've done that 629 times before, all within a minute of each other. Odds are, you are the same person.

In this day and age, nothing is private anymore, at least not for long.

Just ask two guys named Spitzer, and appropriately, Wiener.

5 comments:

  1. Alright, so nothing is private. It never actually was. Big Brother has always been watching you, but does it really matter? If we have nothing to hide what do we care? It's all for our own protection, right? Have we all given in to paranoia thinking that this is all part of a larger conspiracy in which the government takes complete control of our lives like in the USSR?

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    Replies
    1. I hate this argument. Whether you have something to hide or not is irrelevent. I'd still like my privacy.

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    2. 43770 - No, it doesn't matter to me, nor do I care what people know about me.
      And if they want to take control of me, go ahead, and let them have a go at it.

      FG - If you want something private, do it in private. The internet is a public place.

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    3. That isn't how privacy works. Read up on the law. If someone were to release an image of me picking my nose that he took without my consent, so long as in not a public figure, I can sue (and likely win). The law clearly states that unreasonable publicity given to the other's private life or unreasonable intrusion upon seclusion of another is prohibited by law (or more accuratly, the other's privacy is protected) as described by the Restatement (Second) of Torts. (The right to privacy is not absolute, or course, but it applies in almost all cases when it would (a) be offensive to a reasonable person, and (b) not a legitimate concern of the public. In the case of Weiner and Spitzer, being public servants makes their private life a legitimate concern. In terms of anonymity, for example Bruce Wayne, being a billionaire industrialist who is influential in politics and the like (through fundraising and whatnot) cannot sue if someone reveals he's Batman. Peter Parker, however, can sue if someone destroys his anonymity and reveals he's Spider-man.

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    4. FG - I am not debating how it works, and what the laws of it are.

      I am stating the fact, that if you want something to be private, don't do it in a public place.

      You can sue all you'd like, but once that picture is out there, it doesn't matter anymore, as that image is no longer private.

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