this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2023
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I am not an average person having worked in IT for a couple of decades now and I can tell you no, the average person is either not aware or doesn't care.
Even I, and my peers who are very aware, don't care
I think where privacy minded people fail to understand is that for most people we are not committing crimes or shady shit online therefore why care? A lot of us understand that if you type anything in a computer it is assumed to be on the public record either easily found or through a few hoops to get it.
If you want privacy write it down on paper or talk about it in person with your peers. Those are the most secure things.
Online and privacy are oxymorons. People need to understand this.
Yeah, I hate that argument (the typical "If you don't have anything to hide, why should I worry"). Because you might not have anything to hide (debatable), but you know who does? Journalists, political activists, people in witness protection, people who suffered from domestic violence or human trafficking and need to hide, etc....
Don't collectively erode people's right to privacy, because there are people whose lives depend on it; and who knows, you might need it some day.
I agree with you 100% but it's a very black and white way to look at things and the world is grey. Furthermore, the world feels drastically different than we do.
The issue isn't that people are trying to hide their crimes or their shady shit, it's that the information about ourselves that we did not post online/are only letting a select few know are being revealed to strangers without our consent. It's about the choice of who we are willing to reveal what to. Are you willing to let strangers know every aspect of your daily life? What you eat, when you sleep, when you poop, where you go, what you like to do etc. Because that's what companies want with data collection, to know every aspect of you, the good the bad the ugly, so that they can market your data to advertisers and constantly push their products to you. Taken to the futuristic extreme, they can and will push toilet paper products to you while you are on the toilet, or advertise gym services while you are eating dessert, or maybe even push sex products while you are in bed with your partner. It's this sort of future that many people are worried about and want to prevent from happening. (And this isn't even talking about what governments can do with this sort of data collection.)
People want the choice of being able to reveal select information to select people. That's what privacy is.
The problem is that nowadays your medical documentation, banking and other sensitive data is all transferred through a computer. And it should be protected and private.
For all intents and purposes it is "private" though. In your examples specifically banking and government, that data is not used for anything nefarious. People are screaming into the wind on Facebook, twitter, google, et al. In all of these there is an unspoken agreement that "we get it for free and you get our data to use as you will". The vast majority of the public is oblivious to this or gets it and doesn't give a shit because you are literally screaming into the wind.
Is it right? I'd argue no. But it is what it is. Control what you can.
"Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say." ― Edward Snowden
Hard disagree. I just am pragmatic. I only have so much energy and unless you noticed the world is literally burning.
It is burning in part because any organized movement against social or economy change that is big enough is stop by interference by the government. You can't organize a blockade of streets or a riot it the FBI is in every chat that you use to organize a group of activists.
This position is full of generalisations and false dichotomies. Care / don't care, private / not private.
This is pure hyperbole. Sure a lot of idiots don't realise that the platforms they're using are not private, but it's usually only admins that can access their stuff - it's not "on the public record".
The honest question then is why are you or anyone else online period? Who do you vote for? Where do you have accounts? The list goes on and on. The world has spoken. We are the vast minority regardless of if we are "right" or not. I agree with those privacy minded individuals but at the same time I have a life and in the grand scheme of things there are far larger problems out there.
Sorry I don't understand what you're getting at.
One can participate online and make choices about what risks to privacy we are willing to tolerate.
It's not a binary "everything online is not private" because privacy is subjective - it depends on the context.
You're proving my point. Everyone here is screaming into the wind when the vast majority have spoken. They're willing to tolerate the risks. Those risks may be with google, or Facebook, or Lemmy but it's always risk.
What I see here is a lot of complaints about everyone not being privacy minded from people on soapboxes. We do not represent an "average technical person". You would be surprised what seasoned InfoSec people do and the tools they use. The path to full privacy is one of isolation and insanity.
Control what you can. It would make a lot of you much happier people.
I don't think I am proving your point, you're just not actually reading what I'm saying, or maybe we're talking about two different things.
You're talking about "everyone", while I'm talking about me.
What even is full privacy. My point is that the risks to privacy are many and varied. As I said it's possible to participate online while making intelligent choices about what privacy we're willing to give up.
Someone already explained to you the difference between privacy and secrecy, which is quite simple.
Privacy: you don't want your mother to see a lewd picture from you, but you would want your partner to Secrecy: you don't want anybody to know you eat poop