Alessandro Acquisti: Why privacy matters - Great TED talk.

[DrPizza]

Excellent TED talk on privacy:
http://www.ted.com/talks/alessandro...m_medium=email&utm_content=button__2013-10-17


Found it to be very interesting. A few things that many people haven't really considered/mentioned in threads here.

 

[SOFTengCOMPelec]

Thanks for the link, I'm looking forward to watching it (tied up at the moment, so watching it later), and it seems to be 15 minutes long.
There have been SOOOOO many anti-privacy things happening these days.

 

[momeNt]

He sounds like a terrorist. Maybe not a terrorist, but he isn't speaking American.

Hopefully he gets investigated. I'm scared for my freedom and safety after hearing him.

 

[SOFTengCOMPelec]

Thanks (I've watched it through now), that was very interesting, and worrying at the same time.

Annoyingly (for some), google have just started doing something similar using peoples "personnel data" to create special adverts, with their own names and other information, within it.

 

[lxskllr]

Good video. Here's a good companion piece...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKOk4Y4inVY

I've posted it a few times before, but it might be new to someone.

 

[momeNt]

Jack Reacher style going off the grid seems mighty tempting.

 

[Golgatha]

Marked for later. TED talks are typically very high quality.

 

[JTsyo]

Summary/highlights?

 

[DrPizza]

Summary/highlights?

People are very easily manipulated using a bit of psychology; studies demonstrate this. The lack of privacy means that people can be very easily manipulated.

 

[lxskllr]

Summary/highlights?

People hemorrhaging data don't realize that the trivialities they bleed can lead to non-trivial tracking, and effects on life.

 

[lxskllr]

People are very easily manipulated using a bit of psychology; studies demonstrate this. The lack of privacy means that people can be very easily manipulated.

I guess there's a couple things you can get from it :^D

I found the linking of data points more interesting, and closer to the core of the problem.

 

[Crono]

People are very easily manipulated using a bit of psychology; studies demonstrate this. The lack of privacy means that people can be very easily manipulated.

To thine own self be true.

Theflyingpig might actually be the best example as far as the internet is concerned. Impossible to analyze if that's how he is everywhere in the digital world. Trolling is the future of privacy... God help us.

 

[Jeff7]

People are very easily manipulated using a bit of psychology; studies demonstrate this. The lack of privacy means that people can be very easily manipulated.

Indeed.

Start these threads, with just a single word for the title and starting post:

Abortion.
Terrorism.
Evolution.
Welfare.

Maybe someone will derail it with a post about pie or turtles, but it'll eventually get going at a quick pace.
(Sure, this is more of a brute-force kind of manipulation, but it still works quite well. "I absolutely love this candidate, but he supports <issue>. Nope, not going to vote for him." Single issue voters.)

Google: Manipulate the results, and you can manipulate public opinion. Or there's our bias to give more credibility to the first thing we hear about a subject. It forms the foundation, and then whoever gets to you second or third with information about that subject will have to disprove what you already "know."

I guess there's a couple things you can get from it :^D

I found the linking of data points more interesting, and closer to the core of the problem.

Minority Report always comes up.
Hell, department stores do it with those "clip strips" of add-ons that are stuck to the shelves. Buying barbecue sauce? There's a good chance you might want some kind of brush for that.
That's just single-purchase data tracking.
Why do they love those shopper's club cards? Datamining. And you get a small incentive to do it.

That's just for shopping habits of course. How about your personal habits? Water usage, electrical usage, Internet usage (When are you home? What are you doing at home?), where you go, who you talk to. What if you could connect the dots between all those sources of information? People can be quite predictable, if you've got enough data points.

"Uh oh, according to our statistical analysis, you have a 79% chance of committing <crime> in the next month."
Arrested. Just in case. You know, for everyone's protection.

I'm sure anyone who's "got nothing to hide" is absolutely certain that they're not in violation of any of the laws on the book. There are more than 4500 things that count as federal crimes. What are all of them about? Are you sure you're completely innocent?

 

[lupi]

I hate Ted.

 

[Jaskalas]

To thine own self be true.

Theflyingpig might actually be the best example as far as the internet is concerned. Impossible to analyze if that's how he is everywhere in the digital world. Trolling is the future of privacy... God help us.

Everybody knows this. :wub:

Let's not call it trolling, let's call it... false flagging. Sure Congress will make that illegal soon as the money train starts rolling in on digital tracking.

 

[Doppel]

People are very easily manipulated using a bit of psychology; studies demonstrate this. The lack of privacy means that people can be very easily manipulated.

I almost don't want to watch the talk because I actually get some small level of anxiety when I read about these things, particularly since I don't see any damn solution to it. It has seemed obvious to me that as science and tech get better marketing, for example, will increasingly tap into people's psychology and make us increasingly unable to resist the urges of what it encourages us (ultimately, compels us) to purchase.

Technology is kind of making us cogs in a machine.

 

[ImpulsE69]

If he had nothing to hide he wouldn't be worried about privacy. He must have a dark past he's trying to keep covered up.

Also, there should be no witness protection program. All that data should be in the open.There's no reason to hide because the government will protect you from yourself and others. God said thou shalt not lie. Witness protection identities are lies!

Also, all nude photos/videos of sexy people should be public domain.

..now that I think about it, they might be onto something with this whole no privacy thing :sneaky:

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

If privacy matters maybe people ought to me more careful what they wish for.

 

[Oyeve]

Paranoid pussies. Dont use tech then!

 

[Printer Bandit]

for a microsecond i thought this would be about alessandra ambrosio.

 

[momeNt]

Better off Ted.

 

[RedCOMET]

I took an intro to Econ class with him as a professor and he was really good. Sadly though, i wasn't able to take his other classes.


And I may have had a brief man crush

 

[Dirigible]

Technology is kind of making us cogs in a machine.

Nature and evolution make us cogs in a machine. Disposable cogs at that.

Actually, not just disposABLE, but cogs that should and will be disposed of once we serve our purpose.

Technology and lack of privacy are warm fuzzies in comparison.

 

[Crono]

Online surveillance and big data is enabling the police states of tomorrow.

Which sounds like something a very paranoid person would say, but it's actually reality right now. Not even some hidden truth or conspiracy: huge countries like China have made it clear that they have 2 million people monitoring the internet, Iran filters and monitors the networks in their country for political and religious dissidence, and Syria where the government has shut down outside connectivity before.

That's just the tip of iceburg as it's becoming evident that even in Western nations like the United States and the UK the governments can seize pretty much whatever they want secretly. In the UK it's even worse since free speech isn't a sacrosanct constitutional right.

I actually think it's fine if the U.S. wants to selectively conduct surveillance, but the NSA, CIA, et al shouldn't be able to do so broadly and should be required to have warrants from courts that can't hide things through FISA. There just isn't enough accountability to Congress (as is the case with James Clapper and Keith Alexander who lied) or to the people when we really aren't always sure what's going on, like in the case of LavaBit.

We haven't learned anything from the lesson of dictatorial states that arose before World War II, apparently. Technology makes things quicker and easier, but it's the people turning over control and giving into sweet ignorance that slips a nation gradually into an empire. It doesn't matter if it's the bronze age or the information age, it becomes a matter of time before someone or some group takes the reign for malicious reasons.

 

[waggy]

I had a hard time understanding the guy. got most of it though. He brings up a lot of good points too. kinda scary at that.