Tuesday, July 16, 2019
Good history, bad correlation
Denyse at MindMatters is discussing privacy as a marker of status and luxury. The historical comparison is valid, but I don't think the modern correlation works.
Whether it involves driving a car instead of taking the bus, or living in a secluded house rather than a crowded flat, privacy has long been a preserve of the rich. And while we may talk about the democratising nature of the internet, it seems online privacy is also becoming a domain of privilege. Of course, there are many ways we can protect our privacy on the internet, But here’s the rub: The people most likely to know how to do that are the well-informed. In an information society in the free world, as an information analyst notes, “well-informed” tends to correlate with well-educated (which in turn correlates with being better off.The key variable is Well-informed. First, the typical technoid is NOT well-informed. Techmonsters believe all sorts of utopian crap about the benefits of technology, but completely ignore the obvious FACTS about technology. They believe that Bitcoin is private and decentralized, EVEN THOUGH Bitcoin runs through NSA and openly stated its CIA origin. They believe that filling your house with spy devices is just fine as long as you Github the latest encryption techniques every microsecond, EVEN THOUGH all encryption is designed and backdoored by NSA. Second, serious privacy requires a physically different lifestyle. If you want to gain more privacy, you have to leave a lot of shit out of your life. No cellphone, no web-connected thermostats, no autonomous cars. In fact, riding the bus is MORE private than using a software-based car. You also have to give up status. If you are known and influential, Deepstate has more reason to watch you. There's nothing new about this. Long before the web, Orwell and Huxley made the point clearly. Orwell's proles had more privacy than the Inner Party because proles weren't making decisions or writing books that could influence others. Huxley's savages had more privacy because they didn't use any electrical devices. Only a few super-rich gangsters are able to break out of this correlation because they have their own independent Deepstate that can block the regular Deepstate with effective blackmail and murder.
Labels: Answered better than asked, defensible spaces
¶ 8:40 AM
