Fwd: GNU hackers discover HACIENDA government surveillance and give us a way to fight back

[dan at geer.org]

 | > Is this not the core of the question?  In a world of social media
 | > and sensor-driven everything, does not the very concept of private
 | > information fade, per se?  I believe it does.
 | 
 | No. Taking part in social networks and other media is a choice. One can
 | a) choose not to take part at all, or b) choose how one takes part and
 | what information one shares.
 | 
 | In short, privacy of information is still real, still relevant, and
 | still (largely) within the control of the individual. Tools such as
 | encryption help retain the reality of privacy of information.
 | 
 | The question of privacy of information is of critical importance to
 | liberty. By choosing to believe that privacy (or specifically privacy of
 | information) is a concept that has "fade"ed you are playing into the
 | hands of those who would wish to forcefully strip us all of privacy,
 | whether we like or or not. That would be a mistake, I think.


I fully agree with you, which means that I see few ways to preserve
the liberty that privacy represents than to withdraw from much of
civil society while it shares ever more -- sharing ever more on the
"I've got nothing to hide" premise.  Technology makes what is
observable by others daily grow wider; lip reading robots, electric
grids that know the noise signature of every device you own, smart
cameras on every street corner, MIT's "visual microphone," electronic
health records that are and must be shared amongst providers plus
the providers' paymasters, and on and on.  That these are possible
is worrisome; that they are widely built into services which promise
"convenience" is the Pied Piper institutionalized.  As I wrote
elsewhere(*), we are becoming a society of informants -- I have
nowhere to hide from you.

--dan

(*)
We Are All Intelligence Officers Now
http://geer.tinho.net/geer.rsa.28ii14.txt