Schneier on Security : Privacy and Control

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/04/privacy_and_con.html

by billswift • 16 years ago

40 9 16 years ago

schneier.com

mrcharles2• 16 years ago

I would like to see some privacy laws that effectively stated that:

1) All privacy settings must be easy to find, and govern the level of privacy of all aspects of communication.

2) All use of your data on a given service must be disclosed in plain English on an easy to find part of the site.

3) All sites are required to have a "scrub" feature that a user can use to delete all data associated with him from the service.

I am often concerned by how much of my info is out there, even though I try to control it as much as possible. I don't want to slide to the side of being the equivalent of an internet hermit, however. But sometimes you really don't have a choice, it's either be a hermit or let advertisers have your information.

Wish that would change.

jpwatts• 16 years ago

Regarding your point #3: how would "scrub" work with interconnected user data? Comment threads like this one are a good example; my comment is dependent on yours for context. Should you be able to delete your data and leave my comment dangling? If so, should your deletion cascade to my related data? Shouldn't I have a say in that?

mrcharles2• 16 years ago

Certainly that's a grey area, but I don't see why such posts couldn't just replace the user with "Unknown User" and leave the actual data there. Definitely there'd be a problem with conversations when some posts disappear. But I should still be able to detach myself from those things.

rfreytag• 16 years ago

This seems like a fundamental flaw in the client-server model when hosting social/personal information. The server host must pay the electric bill (3rd party) leading to a natural conflict with the interests of the user.

I'd like to think that there is a market rather than regulatory solution. But the story of Zero Knowledge Systems (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radialpoint#History) shows that retail privacy did not find a market during the DotCom boom. Perhaps highly sensitive social network content will change that.

Dellort2• 16 years ago

Why is it that this Schneier guy is mentioned on HN all the time? If it's not Schneier it's this Paul Graham, both of which I have never heard of and that I suspect don't even exist.

sketerpot• 16 years ago

You hear about them on here "all the time", and yet you've never heard of them? How does that work?

Dellort2• 16 years ago

Well except for here. This Paul Graham persona must be some kind of inside joke here.

gyardley• 16 years ago

"I don't want you using anything I might have done here to make money," said the guy who just got a bunch of not-free-to-create, not-free-to-serve content for nothing.

We can bemoan the current state of things all we like, but people still need to be paid for their time. The only real effect of the type of privacy legislation Schneier advocates would be to make explicit and thorough opt-in mandatory in order to access most content - the average individual would effectively have less privacy than they did before the legislation.

Schneier on Security : Privacy and Control

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