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Predisposed toward anonymity
Jul. 23rd, 2017 09:35 amI like to choose what I share with others. ( When I do share, I typically share openly. )
I do however instinctively value my ability to act privately: ( I have liked being able to do so. )
From a computer security point of view, I expect even a government-held database that contains much significant information, ( to leak like a colander. )
The targeted advertising folks have been making great strides in privacy-breaking technology. People who think that incognito browser windows stop Google knowing what pornography they like are deluding themselves. The ultrasonic signals embedded in commercial advertising were a surprise even to me.
I have a good knowledge of how computers work and I routinely ( adopt some security measures but even I cannot easily secure my data with confidence. )
Further, if I want to act in the real world then what I do leaves so many small traces: financial, shipping and logistics, etc. Even without the subsequent work from the well-funded targeted advertising community, I know from my own previous work in the defense industry that bulk assembly of those disparate observations into coherent narrative is plausible, at least enough that its value would outweigh its fallibility.
It is not that I have anything to hide so much as ( even innocent people are easily made to look bad. )
With the combined forces of private profit in characterizing consumers and the public political need to be seen to be countering terrorism, ( personal privacy may become a thing of the past. )
We have motive on multiple fronts to penetrate individual privacy, ongoing progress in technological means of doing so, increasing acceptance of sharing one's data, and a social and intellectual climate that got Donald Trump elected President against even my pessimistic expectations. What could possibly go wrong?
I do not need to act covertly but I always drew comfort from knowing that I probably could if necessary and that my business was mostly nobody else's. Further, I do not want to enable what I see as organizations' immoral beliefs about my own privacy. Now I wonder if I will find myself wistfully looking back to a time when I did not have to carefully consider the possible optics of my every move.
I do however instinctively value my ability to act privately: ( I have liked being able to do so. )
From a computer security point of view, I expect even a government-held database that contains much significant information, ( to leak like a colander. )
The targeted advertising folks have been making great strides in privacy-breaking technology. People who think that incognito browser windows stop Google knowing what pornography they like are deluding themselves. The ultrasonic signals embedded in commercial advertising were a surprise even to me.
I have a good knowledge of how computers work and I routinely ( adopt some security measures but even I cannot easily secure my data with confidence. )
Further, if I want to act in the real world then what I do leaves so many small traces: financial, shipping and logistics, etc. Even without the subsequent work from the well-funded targeted advertising community, I know from my own previous work in the defense industry that bulk assembly of those disparate observations into coherent narrative is plausible, at least enough that its value would outweigh its fallibility.
It is not that I have anything to hide so much as ( even innocent people are easily made to look bad. )
With the combined forces of private profit in characterizing consumers and the public political need to be seen to be countering terrorism, ( personal privacy may become a thing of the past. )
We have motive on multiple fronts to penetrate individual privacy, ongoing progress in technological means of doing so, increasing acceptance of sharing one's data, and a social and intellectual climate that got Donald Trump elected President against even my pessimistic expectations. What could possibly go wrong?
I do not need to act covertly but I always drew comfort from knowing that I probably could if necessary and that my business was mostly nobody else's. Further, I do not want to enable what I see as organizations' immoral beliefs about my own privacy. Now I wonder if I will find myself wistfully looking back to a time when I did not have to carefully consider the possible optics of my every move.
