Hacker News Reader

Comment by Aeolun | Hacker News Reader

I think there is a bit of a problem with the initial analogy in the proceeding in the wrong direction won’t get me where I want to go.

For most people, privacy isn’t a goal in itself.

View on HN

Privacy may not be a goal in itself, but it sure would be painful to wake up one day and realise one has given it up for perhaps more trivial and ephemeral "benefits" along the way, especially if this took place relatively slowly over many years. Privacy (among other things like personal freedom, health, etc.) really seems to be one of those things many people take for granted until they realise they have lost it, or willingly gave it up, not able to easily get it back, only then realising how important it was in hindsight.

For this to matter there will have to be a turning point event that causes masses of people to re-think their privacy. The NSA reveal didn’t do much because nobody was financially or socially affected; maybe if the dataset itself was leaked and anyone could search it, we’d see real repercussions and changes made to stop any sort of surveillance (think the Congresspeople being personally affected by the data leak), but that didn’t happen. The only thing that comes close is the Equifax breach, and no citizen can avoid working with them with how everything from home purchases/apartment leases to auto loans relies on their databases.

I think most people are busy just trying to make ends meet. I have a family member who said, "Obama fixed the NSA thing." I also read where the Patriot Act expires, so they aren't doing it anymore.

>I think most people are busy just trying to make ends meet.

This, or are plugged in too tightly into the various digital dopamine dispensers to care about the flip sides.

The best way to get the point across: think about sending nudes. Once they’re sent, there is no recalling them, even if your relationship goes south or they end up in the wrong hands.

It’s the same for all that data about you out there. If anyone who accesses your data goes rogue or leaks it, it’s hanging over your head forever.

It could be that this data will be judged against changing standards, so that your once innocuous behaviour is now considered bad. It could be that your data is misinterpreted and the judgement used against you.

Once you get bitten, it’s too late.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com