> It's over, isn't it? Let's just be honest with ourselves for a moment - privacy is dead
Yes. If not now, it will be. I say this for two reasons.
1. The commercial value in killing privacy is too high. Nearly every company you deal with (and nearly every individual you deal with in matters that concern money) is much better off the more private information they can find out about you.
We've grown reliant on email and text messaging, and on social networking, and on internet search, and on internet shopping, so that nearly everything we do is a potential leak of information to some entity that can profit from that information.
Almost no one is willing to disentangle themselves from that to the extent that would be necessary to maintain privacy. Some might leave Facebook, or switch from Google to Duck Duck Go, but there are so many ways your privacy gets compromise that plugging one or two holes doesn't really save you.
2. I think that physical threats are going to increase, largely due to technology. Things that currently would take a well organized and well funded terrorist organization are going to eventually be in the reach of your random crazy person. People that nowadays are limited to crude bombs that take out a few people will be able to readily build large bombs that kill dozens or hundreds. I expect home-made biological weapons to become relatively easy at some point, adding a whole new level of destructive capability.
I think we'll reach a point where disgruntled ex-employees, disgruntled ex-boyfriends or ex-girlfriends, members of religious and political cults, and the like are killing more people a year than all the major terrorist groups combined can do.
Since these attacks will be coming from within, often from people who seem pretty ordinary until they go off the deep end, my guess is that there will be no way to prevent them other than extensive surveillance.
Since the above two factors make loss of privacy inevitable in my opinion, I think the focus should be on making sure our information is not misused, rather than trying to stop it from being gathered at all.
Take surveillance. I think we need to automate it. Get humans out of the loop. I don't care if AI spies on me, as long as it only alerts humans when it sees me doing something bad (or if it sees that I need aid), and we have sufficient public auditing to ensure this.
Yes. If not now, it will be. I say this for two reasons.
1. The commercial value in killing privacy is too high. Nearly every company you deal with (and nearly every individual you deal with in matters that concern money) is much better off the more private information they can find out about you.
We've grown reliant on email and text messaging, and on social networking, and on internet search, and on internet shopping, so that nearly everything we do is a potential leak of information to some entity that can profit from that information.
Almost no one is willing to disentangle themselves from that to the extent that would be necessary to maintain privacy. Some might leave Facebook, or switch from Google to Duck Duck Go, but there are so many ways your privacy gets compromise that plugging one or two holes doesn't really save you.
2. I think that physical threats are going to increase, largely due to technology. Things that currently would take a well organized and well funded terrorist organization are going to eventually be in the reach of your random crazy person. People that nowadays are limited to crude bombs that take out a few people will be able to readily build large bombs that kill dozens or hundreds. I expect home-made biological weapons to become relatively easy at some point, adding a whole new level of destructive capability.
I think we'll reach a point where disgruntled ex-employees, disgruntled ex-boyfriends or ex-girlfriends, members of religious and political cults, and the like are killing more people a year than all the major terrorist groups combined can do.
Since these attacks will be coming from within, often from people who seem pretty ordinary until they go off the deep end, my guess is that there will be no way to prevent them other than extensive surveillance.
Since the above two factors make loss of privacy inevitable in my opinion, I think the focus should be on making sure our information is not misused, rather than trying to stop it from being gathered at all.
Take surveillance. I think we need to automate it. Get humans out of the loop. I don't care if AI spies on me, as long as it only alerts humans when it sees me doing something bad (or if it sees that I need aid), and we have sufficient public auditing to ensure this.