Its not just because you are a criminal and the coppers might catch you.
Or because you really, really hate big corporations who just want to sell you stuff more easily.
Or because youre paranoid.
Are peoplerightto freak out about these privacy violations?
Yes, they are, or so I will argue.
The threats come under three heads: corporate, criminal, and government.
And lets not forget that in the worst-case scenario, the three heads merge into one.
Thats already bad enough (for reasons Ill explain).
Well, you might have asked that about the first list twenty years ago.
Theyll create must-have devices and services that become very popular.
Everybody has to have the rig, or the service.
In such a situation, what informationisntprivate?
But I can make up my own mind about what to buy, you say.
Top-flight marketing and product people are, naturally, very good at what they do.
But corporate control of your private life is much more insidious than that.
I admit it: I dont.
We become moreirrationalwhen we get on these social networks.
Sure, we retain ourfree will.
We can stop ourselves (but often wont).
We could quit (fat chance).
What about radicalizationbeing influenced to believe things we havent thought sufficiently about?
What about the failure to consider options (for shopping, entertainment, socialization, discussion, etc.)
that are outside of our preferred, addictive networks?
The machine, in short, robs us of our autonomy.
It is not too much of a stretch to call it the beginnings of an engine of totalitarianism.
Heres the relevance to privacy: keeping your informationprivaterequires keeping itsecure.Privacy and security go hand in hand.
If your information isnt private, that means its not secure, i.e., anybody can easily grab it.
You have to think about security if you want to think about privacy.
If you are, you shouldnt be.
No, your credit card info isnotguaranteed safe just because the corporation storing it makes billions a year.
If you want to keep your information safe from malevolent forces, youshouldnttrust big companies.
There are all sorts of ways bad actors can get hold of your information for nefarious purposes.
They dont even always have to hack it.
Sometimes,they can just legally buy it, a problem thatlegislationcan make betteror worse.
No, I dont remember that either, because it didnt happen.
Nor, sadly, was there a popular revolt to get these programs repealed.
But they, too, seem strangely uninterested to dismantle government programs that systematically monitor everyone.
And theyre only too happy to keep building and rewarding a corporate system that feeds directly into the NSA.
Government surveillance isnt that bad!
Fascism will never happen here!
What to do
But it can happen here.
Thats why we need to start demanding more privacy from government.
If youre really worried about fascism, then lets defang the monster.
Complain more about government programs that systematically violate your privacy rights.
In the meantime, we need to wake up about ourpersonalprivacy.
Hope for the best?
Throw your hands up in despair?
Figure that decent people will eventually do something about the problem for you?
Dont count on it.
Do your personal, familial, and civic duty and start locking down your cyber-life.I am.
Itll take some time.
But I think its worth it and, soon, Ill be finished getting everything set up.
What if you and all your family and friends did this?
Think of it as cyber-hygiene.
you better wash your data regularly.
Its time to learn.
TNW Conference 2019 is coming!
