You have something to hide
Hi, Habr! I present to you the translation of the article " Sharon Flitman " You don't have nothing to hide .
It seems that privacy in the 21st century is becoming an increasingly blurred concept.
')
In the not so distant past, only a few of my friends knew where I was at any given time. Few people knew that I was buying, where I went after work, how I spend my weekends.
Today, thanks to technological "achievements", you need to put a lot of effort to keep this information secret. Even if you are not actively using social networks, cookies, GPS and face recognition systems make every step of ours traceable, computable and generally accessible.
“But who cares?” I often hear this question. "I have nothing to hide!"
Not.
Everyone has something to hide.
I'm not saying that average Joe runs a methamphetamine lab or hides his desire to play pranks with children. I just say that everyone has something that they would prefer not to disclose to the public.
For example, I just love to undress and rip to the music of Taylor Swift when I'm alone at home with curtains tightly closed. But if the video with my dances fell into the network or into the hands of an extortioner - I would not be so frivolous.
Maybe I’m not ashamed to tell my doctor about problems with the intestines or pubic hair, but I would prefer that my boss doesn’t know about it.
I could tell my friends where I will walk on Saturday evening. But if the spooky guy from the tyder with the nervous tick and mania to the knives knew about it ... well, I would have postponed my plans.
Privacy is not just about hiding what we do wrong, as if we were breaking the law. It is also about keeping information available only to you.
But with the passage of time and the development of technology, privacy is quickly becoming a thing of the past. It becomes a privilege for which we have to work hard to save it ...
It seems almost every day there is a new story, demonstrating the sinister ways of using our personal information against us.
An article published by ABC showed that our online habits and search history actually determine the prices we are offered when it comes to shopping online.
For example, when booking air tickets, airlines get access to our cookies in order to find out if we repeatedly checked a specific flight time. And as a reward for our perseverance, they will raise the price - only for us - they know that we want this flight so much that we are ready to lay out almost everything for it.
Thus, we were charged 300 dollars, and the person sitting next to us provides himself with a place for only 150 dollars.
And do not make excuses; vile use of our data is not limited to buying air tickets. Whether it is booking hotels, car rentals or any other types of orders, having enough of our data on hand, corporations can squeeze out of us as much as they think — no, they know that we are ready to pay.
Technology companies, of course, are more than happy to lend a helping hand. For its price.
Google and Facebook, being “free” to use, somehow managed to become the two richest companies in the world. How, you ask? Using our privacy and selling our data, which allegedly by chance they turned out to be. Data that is extremely valuable to their real customers.
There is a reason that Steve Jobs did not allow his children to use devices . There is a reason that Mark Zuckerberg bought up all the houses around him and glues the camera of the phone and laptop.
I do not know about you, but if my cook does not eat the food that he cooked ... something is wrong.
So yes, our data is clearly collected and sold. And when it comes to our privacy, this is not cool. And things only get worse.
Anyone who watched the first season of Black Mirror remembers the series in which the social credit system defined the privileges and punishments received by citizens. As this episode developed, the life of the innocent protagonist fell apart more and more, which led to a sharp decline in her social credit after a series of unsuccessful events.
Sounds pretty awful, right? Fortunately, this is just a show.
Actually, no.
At present, a similar system of social crediting is being introduced in China. It combines financial, social, legal and political credit ratings of citizens in one “convenient” centralized assessment of “social reliability”. An assessment that can be monitored and adjusted using the overdofig of public security cameras scattered throughout the city. The cameras, of course, are equipped with modern facial recognition technology.
As in the Black Mirror, the assessment of a Chinese citizen dictates their privileges and punishments.
Stick to the state party line, be a good boy, pay taxes, and you can get benefits or have access to a good school for your children. But break some points by paying the rent a day later or — God forbid — by discussing the government ... well, you may simply be unable to travel by public transport, rent accommodation or even leave the country.
This is not fiction. This is not conspiracy. This is already true. This is the world in which we live. These are real things that are already happening with real people.
And do not be so naive as to think that such Orwellian monitoring systems are used exclusively in China.
Walmart recently announced its intention to equip shopping carts with biometric sensors to measure heart rate, temperature and even the speed of customers throughout the store. Because, apparently, they need detailed physiological data to determine when clients are under stress and need help.
This whole situation is truly, truly in a f * ne.
But what can we do? Is there any way to protect our privacy in an era when our information is collected, matched, sold at the highest price and used as bribery and blackmail?
Fortunately, some systems exist to protect our privacy. They are not perfect ... but they are the beginning.
If this is not enough, there are always more extreme, more reliable options. Moving to a hut in the woods, life behind bars, and so on.
For those of us who are less inclined to completely give up our life, as we know it, giving up the convenience of a smartphone may be a more likely step. Good old Alcatel and Nokia, who simply call and send / receive text messages, complicate surveillance.
I know it sounds extreme. And, of course, sometimes you need to run maps to figure out the navigation. And the music should be stored on another device. And you can not update your Facebook every 3 minutes.
But seriously, it was not so long ago, we all lived like that. And somehow we survived.
The only question that remains now is that we value more: our convenience or our privacy.
Your turn.
It seems that privacy in the 21st century is becoming an increasingly blurred concept.
')
In the not so distant past, only a few of my friends knew where I was at any given time. Few people knew that I was buying, where I went after work, how I spend my weekends.
Today, thanks to technological "achievements", you need to put a lot of effort to keep this information secret. Even if you are not actively using social networks, cookies, GPS and face recognition systems make every step of ours traceable, computable and generally accessible.
“But who cares?” I often hear this question. "I have nothing to hide!"
Not.
Everyone has something to hide.
I'm not saying that average Joe runs a methamphetamine lab or hides his desire to play pranks with children. I just say that everyone has something that they would prefer not to disclose to the public.
For example, I just love to undress and rip to the music of Taylor Swift when I'm alone at home with curtains tightly closed. But if the video with my dances fell into the network or into the hands of an extortioner - I would not be so frivolous.
Maybe I’m not ashamed to tell my doctor about problems with the intestines or pubic hair, but I would prefer that my boss doesn’t know about it.
I could tell my friends where I will walk on Saturday evening. But if the spooky guy from the tyder with the nervous tick and mania to the knives knew about it ... well, I would have postponed my plans.
Privacy is not just about hiding what we do wrong, as if we were breaking the law. It is also about keeping information available only to you.
But with the passage of time and the development of technology, privacy is quickly becoming a thing of the past. It becomes a privilege for which we have to work hard to save it ...
It seems almost every day there is a new story, demonstrating the sinister ways of using our personal information against us.
An article published by ABC showed that our online habits and search history actually determine the prices we are offered when it comes to shopping online.
For example, when booking air tickets, airlines get access to our cookies in order to find out if we repeatedly checked a specific flight time. And as a reward for our perseverance, they will raise the price - only for us - they know that we want this flight so much that we are ready to lay out almost everything for it.
Thus, we were charged 300 dollars, and the person sitting next to us provides himself with a place for only 150 dollars.
And do not make excuses; vile use of our data is not limited to buying air tickets. Whether it is booking hotels, car rentals or any other types of orders, having enough of our data on hand, corporations can squeeze out of us as much as they think — no, they know that we are ready to pay.
Technology companies, of course, are more than happy to lend a helping hand. For its price.
Google and Facebook, being “free” to use, somehow managed to become the two richest companies in the world. How, you ask? Using our privacy and selling our data, which allegedly by chance they turned out to be. Data that is extremely valuable to their real customers.
There is a reason that Steve Jobs did not allow his children to use devices . There is a reason that Mark Zuckerberg bought up all the houses around him and glues the camera of the phone and laptop.
I do not know about you, but if my cook does not eat the food that he cooked ... something is wrong.
So yes, our data is clearly collected and sold. And when it comes to our privacy, this is not cool. And things only get worse.
Anyone who watched the first season of Black Mirror remembers the series in which the social credit system defined the privileges and punishments received by citizens. As this episode developed, the life of the innocent protagonist fell apart more and more, which led to a sharp decline in her social credit after a series of unsuccessful events.
Spoiler Ending
By the end, she had become completely incapable of supporting her life as a healthy member of society.
Sounds pretty awful, right? Fortunately, this is just a show.
Actually, no.
At present, a similar system of social crediting is being introduced in China. It combines financial, social, legal and political credit ratings of citizens in one “convenient” centralized assessment of “social reliability”. An assessment that can be monitored and adjusted using the overdofig of public security cameras scattered throughout the city. The cameras, of course, are equipped with modern facial recognition technology.
As in the Black Mirror, the assessment of a Chinese citizen dictates their privileges and punishments.
Stick to the state party line, be a good boy, pay taxes, and you can get benefits or have access to a good school for your children. But break some points by paying the rent a day later or — God forbid — by discussing the government ... well, you may simply be unable to travel by public transport, rent accommodation or even leave the country.
This is not fiction. This is not conspiracy. This is already true. This is the world in which we live. These are real things that are already happening with real people.
And do not be so naive as to think that such Orwellian monitoring systems are used exclusively in China.
Walmart recently announced its intention to equip shopping carts with biometric sensors to measure heart rate, temperature and even the speed of customers throughout the store. Because, apparently, they need detailed physiological data to determine when clients are under stress and need help.
This whole situation is truly, truly in a f * ne.
But what can we do? Is there any way to protect our privacy in an era when our information is collected, matched, sold at the highest price and used as bribery and blackmail?
Fortunately, some systems exist to protect our privacy. They are not perfect ... but they are the beginning.
- Brave is a free alternative to Chrome, Explorer and Mozilla Firefox for browsing the web. This allows you to surf the Internet without ads and cookies that track your every move.
- Duck Duck Go is an alternative search engine. Unlike Google, it does not track your searches and, therefore, does not display search results that match your expectations.
- VPN - allows you to encrypt data when they leave your computer, allowing you to browse the web anonymously.
- LastPass - password manager. It makes it possible to have different passwords for everything, making it harder for hackers to work if they want to steal your money / identity.
Translator's Note
These products are not the best solution. Of course, the preservation of privacy requires great effort, and the password manager is generally about security, not privacy.
If this is not enough, there are always more extreme, more reliable options. Moving to a hut in the woods, life behind bars, and so on.
For those of us who are less inclined to completely give up our life, as we know it, giving up the convenience of a smartphone may be a more likely step. Good old Alcatel and Nokia, who simply call and send / receive text messages, complicate surveillance.
I know it sounds extreme. And, of course, sometimes you need to run maps to figure out the navigation. And the music should be stored on another device. And you can not update your Facebook every 3 minutes.
But seriously, it was not so long ago, we all lived like that. And somehow we survived.
The only question that remains now is that we value more: our convenience or our privacy.
Your turn.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/459874/
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