tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4010658431058685046.post8200100522961489823..comments2023-03-21T11:41:15.920-07:00Comments on Damp Shorts: Serious about privacy?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06379808098940760861noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4010658431058685046.post-49317379618667989332010-12-01T17:06:40.035-08:002010-12-01T17:06:40.035-08:00Interesting post! So much to discuss, but I'll...Interesting post! So much to discuss, but I'll just longwindedly focus on one - and a half: <br /><br />1) There's physical privacy and there's data privacy. Seems to me like physical privacy flies under the radar while people are distracted by data privacy. Lots of attention to things like whether Pandora is blabbing your music preferences to Facebook. Meanwhile, Twitter photo services are broadcasting people's physical locations unbeknownst to them, and many universities make student addresses and phone numbers publicly available on the web by default. (I know of at least one such university where students who go online to opt-out of this are greeted with information on what to do if they're being stalked. Helpful...) <br /><br />In these examples physical privacy overlaps data privacy, and I think that's a lot of the problem - they get mixed up, and we think it's all data: virtual. We forget that some of this data represents the real world. <br /><br />1-1/2): If privacy is lost, are there any limits at all? If there are socially agreed barriers, who determines them? Example: seems most people believe they should expect privacy - i.e. no CCTV cameras - in public toilets. But where does that "private" toilet space end? There's an old cliche about Americans being creeped out visiting Europe and finding restrooms with co-ed sink areas. While setting up an art project in Europe a few weeks ago that uses a CCTV cam, one of the spots I was offered for the camera was in just such an outer restroom. "Wouldn't a camera there upset people?" I asked? I'm pretty sure it would in the US - some people thought I was creepy for pointing a camera *outside* a restroom in an American museum. "No," I was told, "It's both men and women in here." <br /><br />I agree though, we shouldn't be scared. When you're scared, your reaction is fight or flight; we deal with enough things that way nowadays. Better to chill long enough to at least figure out which monsters to fight and which are just bogeymen. <br /><br />Now, in a Salute to Crimefighting Algorithms in the Commercial Sector, here's the ad that showed up for me under this post: <br />http://bit.ly/gmODOtAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com