What can we do to keep the web open?

@asklemmy

  • Anonymouse@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    There’s a lot of good comments and suggestions, but the one that I’m not seeing is, “tell others”.

    Do you perform support for friends and family members? Explain why it’s not in their best interest to use Chrome (and Google products in general), then ask and help them to install and use alternatives.

    Have a laypersons response to why they should avoid Google for that person you’re chatting with on the bus. Have a response ready to the awful, “but I don’t have anything to hide” counterargument. As an aside, being the tin foil hat wearing guy/gal doesn’t help the cause, explain it in plain language.

    • heimchen
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      1 year ago

      Could you please share yours I only have:

      “Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” ― Edward Snowden

      (just now learnd who sad that)

      • sLLiK@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        The logical fallacy here being that, based on that context alone, you should care because you will have something to hide in the future. Saying you have nothing to hide is always used in the context of one’s sense of guilt, or lack thereof, based on past actions. A counterargument would then be to ask why you should be allowed to hide your future wrongs.

        For many, the subject has nothing to do with that. It’s about not wanting to be monetized without consent. There’s also benefits in the form of protection against identity theft or social engineering. For others, the simple right to fundamental personal privacy itself is important - it’s about not having all of one’s life’s details on public display.

        Also known as “none of your goddamn business.”

        As a tangent, because it’s now stuck in my head and needs expression - the more thought you give to the problems introduced by technology that blur or step over this line, the more you realize how much harder it’s becoming to prevent outcomes where privacy is lost.

        Only engaging AI under tightly controlled circumstances is one thing; having it in the background perceiving everything you say and do on your desktop is a very different conversation. No matter what assurances are given that your privacy is protected, almost every situation like it that’s arisen since the advent of personal computers has resulted in a loss of control through duplicity, intrusion, sabotage, bad design, or floundering integrity.