Commercial Surveillance, who is going to remain part of the problem?

[Scott Sullivan]

On 01/10/2012 11:24 AM, Myles Braithwaite wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 10:13 AM, Scott Sullivan<scott-lxSQFCZeNF4 at public.gmane.org>  wrote:
>> I knew there was a reason I disliked using social network services.
>> It was partially the lack of control over how my information would be used,
>> but I was having trouble articulating it in a manner which would be
>> meaningful to others.
>>
>> Well worth a read for it's honesty and brevity, but powerful point.
>>
>> http://www.betabeat.com/2011/12/13/in-which-eben-moglen-like-legit-yells-at-me-for-being-on-facebook/
>>
>> --
>> Scott Sullivan
>
>
> I don't see how information stored on Facebook, Twitter, or other
> social networks differs from having a public website or blog where you
> control your data. I think if we truly want to educate users we need
> to tell them that anything published on the Internet (even for example
> if it's a protected Twitter account or a Google+ message sent only to
> two other people) is public information and can be archive for an
> indefinite period of time and used by anyone for anything.
>

I disagree, service like Facebook and other social networks claim to 
permit privacy. A claim that has been proven false again and again. They 
also make changes to your level of privacy with out your permission.

Services you control allow you to share information with select 
individuals usually through authentication. Because you control the 
service, you control your privacy and it doesn't change without your 
direct interaction, and know one at a company can walk through in the 
background.

It's also a matter of Friction. If everyones data is stored on personal 
servers (Plug computer or otherwise), then friction involved in 
collecting that data for surveillance also increases significantly. 
Examples of this friction are the bandwidth costs and the security 
barriers of your server in regards to actually keeping semi-private 
information private to only the intended recipients. This is a in stark 
contrast to single link into facebook's datacenter and going through 
every image at leisure regardless of the users privacy settings on the data.

-- 
Scott Sullivan
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