Privacy: Importance and Expectations

[Taya]

I've never had a great expectation of privacy, especially online, though that doesn't make it undesirable to me. And I really don't like the idea that the government is collecting who knows what data or that my browsing habits are being watched and logged somewhere to potentially be used one day. If it's not something I am putting in a public place that means it's not something I am offering up for scrutiny of my own free will and, even though I generally have nothing to hide, I rather make my own choices about what anyone can or can not check about me.

As for the issue of adverts, well, I'd probably say I would consider targeted ones a lesser evil than non-targeted one if not for all the other implications about the data that allows them to start targeting. Once you look at that side of it, they are not good at all and personally I prefer to minimise my exposure to any adverts when possible.

One thing I do use as a small protection against being tracked from site to site by other 'normal' internet users is to vary the names I use in different places. I also usually keep them short and simple enough that Google will spit out dozens and dozens of results that are not me if you try to search for them. I also don't ever post photos of myself online anywhere. Of course that doesn't mean other people won't, but in general I've found almost everyone I know respects that I don't want this, to the extent that the only images I've ever been tagged as on social media are pictures of cats instead of people! Though I'm not foolish enough to think that someone with enough determination wouldn't be able to find anything out about me.

Physical privacy is another issue. I am endlessly thankful that I live in a place that at least gives me the illusion of having this.

[Chessire]

I don't know if people know about this but there's a firefox plugin called ghostery that blocks trackers, analytics and widgets on any website.
Also, https finder alongside https everywhere are also very useful plugins that can help you protect your privacy, as they force https protocol on most websites (https prevents a third party from checking your movement on the web).

FYI, no trackers on this website 

[Rigwyn]

You can change accounts on forums or on google, but they can still see which IP address you came from. Unless your ISP issues a random IP address each time you connect, its pretty easy to see that multiple accounts are being used with the same IP address. Its fairly common practice as far as I know, to keep assigning users the same IP address.

So ... when you connect to a website, the web site owner will typically see for each time you connect, your IP address, the time of connection, the pages you looked at, details about your browser and sometimes they also see which page you came from. ( yes, the page you were on previously ).

Your IP addresses can usually be associated with the town that you are connecting from or one close by. ( try this link to see: http://www.ip-adress.com/ ).  The govt on the other hand, could just ask your ISP for your customer details given your ip address... if they don't already a back door that lets them do that automatically.

[bilbous]

you could always use tor, the onion router but that might mark you as a terrorist in certain circles.

[Rigwyn]

From this article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/20/fisa-court-nsa-without-warrant

However, alongside those provisions, the Fisa court-approved policies allow the NSA to:

• Keep data that could potentially contain details of US persons for up to five years;

• Retain and make use of "inadvertently acquired" domestic communications if they contain usable intelligence, information on criminal activity, threat of harm to people or property, are encrypted, or are believed to contain any information relevant to cybersecurity;

So in light of all the way the corporations and governments spy on  and track people, you're left with the conclusion that being tracked and spied on is almost inescapable in this day and age. Its fair to assume that any records generated by any modern government office ( ie post office, library, motor vehicle dept, IRS, etc.. ) will be stored somewhere for as long as possible. The question is, do people really have a right to privacy? What is it worth, and how important is it to fight for it?

[novacadian]

So in light of all the way the corporations and governments spy on  and track people, you're left with the conclusion that being tracked and spied on is almost inescapable in this day and age.

Spying, of course, can go both ways. The ultimate we can expect of this new Information Age is the free flow of information for those that come after us. Now is the time to get that right. Support http://wikileaks.org

[Candy]

I actively try to make my search history extra entertaining for the feds.

[Eonwind]

So in light of all the way the corporations and governments spy on  and track people, you're left with the conclusion that being tracked and spied on is almost inescapable in this day and age. Its fair to assume that any records generated by any modern government office ( ie post office, library, motor vehicle dept, IRS, etc.. ) will be stored somewhere for as long as possible. The question is, do people really have a right to privacy? What is it worth, and how important is it to fight for it?

While I don't expect there will be any chance to protect online privacy as much as I would or as much I believe it would be rightful, I would rather risk the chance of dieing or see someone I care die instead of giving up my freedom (because I think freedom is being seriously threatened by such invasive privacy breaking) to any government, private or public company.
To state it more clearly: I don't think being safe from terrorism or somehow ensure a greater "would-be-safety" is worth the freedom that's being given up in the process.

[tman]

Here's the thing.  If some bureaucrat in a government office is sitting somewhere sifting through my emails and browser history, I feel really really bad for the guy. I am not a terrorist, I commit very few crimes (I do break the speed limit on occasion  ), I am not holding any government or corporate secrets.  So if someone from the government wants to track my internet activity, they are going to have a real boring day.

[Roled]

I was at an event the other day- I wont say what day it was
There I met some people- I won't say which people
The speaker said to the bunch assembled, 'younger people have to be careful not to get arrested,
cause now there's so much paranoia, an arrest record may keep you out of a job for life' (paraphrased). Then he said to the older people there, 'so you retired people, it's up to you to do civil disobedience, to rally, to obstruct, to resist, to occupy.  You have more freedom then the younger folks. You have to carry the banner, you have to do the work' (another paraphrase).
I looked around- there were a bunch of seniors scattered in multi-hundred crowd.  That keeps me hopeful. By the time I get there maybe I won't have to go to jail.  Or maybe I will.
We will do what we have to do, to resist neo-liberal, evangelical, corporate greed and control. 
When Kennedy and Eisenhauer were presidents, the tax rate on corporations making over hmmm I think it was $250,000 then was 91%.  Under Ronald Reagan the Repulicans slashed the tax rate to 27%. Clinton got it back to 32%.  Bush slashed it again to 21%, less than middle income and poor people pay in individual taxes. The costs of having a livable, equal, just society have been transfered by corporately controlled Republicans to the people making the least money. We are letting them buy out our democracy with our compliance.

(soapbox now vibrating with the booming voice of the little elf)
To be free, we must resist, we must question, we must not obey the corporate hegemony!

Thank you.
Don't tell the Octarch
RR 

PS- Dear TSA I hope you enjoy the game!

[tman]

91%? Seriously?  So for every extra $100,000 you work to make, you would have taken home only $9000?

I would straight up leave and take my business with me.

[Rigwyn]

Regarding the 91% tax, I think you also need to figure in write-offs, deductions and loopholes. According to this article, what the very-rich actually paid was more like 35-40%.

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=665814

Keep in mind, the rich folks who *own* our country and hold the strings of our marionette politicians are not going to make self-castrating laws.

[SpidaManz111]

I think privacy is important.

[Volki]

nobody cares

[Roled]

91%? Seriously?  So for every extra $100,000 you work to make, you would have taken home only $9000?

I would straight up leave and take my business with me.

This is one of the difficulties with simplistic thinking (sorry to call this statement simplistic, but , well, it is...) The tax rate is one measure of the equality of society- other measures are important too: cost of living, shard benefits to society, sharing the cost of roads, police, hospitals, clean air and water, library, schools, etc.  For a fuller picture of why the late 50's to the mid 70's in USA was a time of greater and increasing social equality and opportunity, read "The Spirit Level" by British sociologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/resources/spirit-level-why-equality-better-everyone
and
For a more indepth discussion of tax rates and economic growth, read this article from 2012
http://forward.com/articles/164472/real-tax-debate-eisenhower-vs-reagan/?p=all
and follow up with other analyses of economics and social equity, especially
http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Robert-Reich/2011/0216/A-super-high-tax-for-the-super-rich-Wouldn-t-be-the-first-time.
and http://www.workingfamiliesparty.org/?s=income+tax+rate

Then let's talk about it. If you want.

The thing is, no matter where you come down on taxes personally, the data show that higher taxes (what the right wing is wont to call "socialism") result in less crime, less inequality, more educated populations, less teenage pregnancy, less mental illness, and stronger "family" values.  Lower taxes, the result of "corporatism," (re: greed), result in increased social inequities, by all statistical measures. 

Privacy, individual freedoms coupled with social justice, and citizen involvement to protect freedom, help to create more equality, not less.

I for one, am FOR more equality, not less.
RR