[PLUG] IP Tracking

[Ben Koenig]

One can also re-frame Tomas' comments.


The seatbelt did not invent itself, and Internet Safety doesn't grow on 
trees. There is an expectation currently that everything will magically 
work itself out, that all of this will be made right in the end. The 
reality is that someone has to build the better system, in order for us 
to have a better system.


IMO, Rich isn't going to get what he wants, for a number of different 
reasons. The first being that the whole automotive analogy is 
fundamentally flawed and arrogant. But that's just my opinion, based on 
time spent working with users in a variety of settings.


There is merit to saying that those who make no effort to understand the 
system should STFU.

-Ben


On 9/23/19 2:34 PM, Mike C. wrote:
> As a tech user and non-tech worker/researcher, Rich, makes a very salient
> point about personal data privacy / security.
>
> In the words of comedian Roy Moore, "Ain't nobody got time for all that"
> reading the Terms of Service, researching apps, monitoring security
> vulnerabilities, etc.
>
> I've worked in IT most of my life, personal / public privacy / security
> matters to me and mostly what I focus on is not making it easy for
> companies to profit from my personal data. Not too mention the revelations
> of Mr. Snowden.
>
> I'd like to re-frame Rich's car analogy a bit. We are with the Internet,
> where we were with the car before the seat belt.
>
> It's fun, useful, convenient but also very unsafe. Many people were killed
> and seriously injured along the way to seat belts being required to be in
> cars and then be used.
>
> Most people use the internet with a seat belt and the focus continues to be
> on features / functionality for profit.
>
> As another Plug'er mentioned, IP tracking is baked in and privacy /
> security is not. When I was doing IT / Network Security work almost 20 yrs
> ago it was mostly after-market, bolt on stuff. I've read that this is
> changing slowly as young sw devs are being trained to write more secure
> code and I think privacy from surveillance is probably on more people's
> minds these days.
>
>
>
> One thing I've noticed is that EFF's Surveillance Self-Defense guide
> continues to evolve and now has things like "Personal Threat Model" and
> "Limitations of this Guide."
>
> Clearly if you're a journalist, activist, lgtbq youth, you're going to have
> a different thread model than your average internet user.
>
> I did a quick search of Ghostery found an article that it was acquired by a
> Germany based browser company, Cliqz. According to the article, Germany has
> some of the strongest privacy laws in the world.
> https://www.pcworld.com/article/3170574/browser-privacy-extension-ghostery-is-moving-to-germany.html
>
> So I'm grateful that Rich brought up Ghostery and that a conversation
> ensued. Now I get to "play" w. a new browser and maybe take one more small
> step away from the Google empire.
>
> I've been trying to get away from Gmail for years. I've Riseup and
> Protonmail accounts but Gmail has more storage, features, conveniences.
>
> Not that it matters with the PLUG mailing list as it's a publicly
> searchable record.
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