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Comment by dmix

12 years ago

> people do not actually care about their privacy

This is 100% accurate, I've attempted to aggressively promote privacy tools well before the NSA/Snowden stuff among the people I know. They still don't care to use simple things like OTR with IM. They might use it for one week, and switch back.

Journalists/tech sites love making this seem like the biggest deal in society right now, but hardly the case in reality.

I'm not sure if it's an intellectual/knowledge gap (lack of technical knowledge), laziness, lack of good design in crypto tools, or just generally not caring about their privacy (until it becomes to hit them in the face).

9 comments

dmix

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betterunix  12 years ago

I think it is part of a more general problem: people do not spend much time thinking about the importance of any of their rights. Nobody wants to hear that a terrorist attack was successful or that a criminal walked free for the sake of their civil rights -- rights are abstract, terrorists and criminals are threats to our children and whatnot. Look at what people say about free speech rights, how quickly everyone parrots the quote about shouting fire in a crowded theater (most people have never bothered to look into the Schenck case, they just know that one phrase). People have even managed to say that habeas corpus rights are problematic.

Privacy rights are too abstract for most people to bother with. After all, they have nothing to hide, only criminals and terrorists would bother hiding anything (or so the thinking goes).

  • dmix  12 years ago

    It is possible our (UK/Canada/USA/etc) societies pursuit of comfort/safety has descended into what Nietzsche calls the "last man".

    > the antithesis of the imagined superior being. The last man is tired of life, takes no risks, and seeks only comfort and security.

    > Nietzsche said that the society of the last man would be too barren to support the growth of great individuals. The last man is possible only by mankind's having bred an apathetic creature who has no great passion or commitment, who is unable to dream, who merely earns his living and keeps warm. The last men claim to have discovered happiness, but blink every time they say so.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_man

    The last man trades their rights and freedoms away for security and comfort.

hengheng  12 years ago

If tools for private communiation weren't 10-20 years behind sending digital postcards on facebook.com, I'd use them more consistently too. I am tech savy yet most crypto tools don't seem to be made for me.

I have seen OTR fail in the most colorful ways, with and without error messages, and mostly with cryptic error messages. I have seen half a dozen IM clients forget messages, forget alerts, fail to deliver messages, disable alerts for other clients, mess up their contact list, mess up the service's contact list and mess up contact groups. Needless to say my experience didn't last more than a week.

hysan  12 years ago

I think it has to do with "privacy" being a general word that means many things; some of which people care about, some they don't. As much as I hate how politicials/lobbyists/etc. do this, I think a better way to get people to respond and care about the issue it to label it differently. For example, instead of saying "privacy", say "your credit card and bank info is compromised/stolen". Or that your "identity / SSN is at risk". Or perhaps that all your "passwords are leaked". Yes, this is less accurate and is a fear mongering tactic, but it is done to death in the US government with effective results.