I was remembering a time back in 2014 when I first went to San Francisco. I was walking on Embarcadero with a Sony camera with neck strap with the lens cover ON pointing forwards. Albeit, a tourist that is a technologist, aloof and I was enjoying the walk along one of the most renown areas in the world. Then out of nowhere, as I am walking by, a passerby told me to stop recording everyone in a rather angry voice, although my lens was covered. Myself, confused as it was covered, being a from a podunk small town didn’t think of that at the time. Years later, as I was further along with my privacy journey, I think back to that moment occasionally, in one of the most surveilled places in the world, versus my own experiences. Privacy is one of those fragile things, the sheer act of walking from point a to b is recorded, often to be stored for a length of time, maybe even eternity. Thank you kind stranger, for pushing me to the privacy journey I began all those years ago, to enjoy the moment more, and be aware of surroundings and those around me. Sometimes, in a data driven world you have no control over, you need to take back your privacy from those who seek to take it away or it will eventually be lost forever.
Thanks for sharing your memory digitalprairie, i have another point i tossed this days about privacy.
It was just a small sentence about how our society struggle again and again about rights and how to do’s and personal red lines. I was not on the planet by myself at the time but it is a nice picture.
They day the first photographs capture the reality on film, was one new aspect of rebuild private moments times on paper and to share it with others. Think about a world without pictures, there was sculptures, scratches and even photorealistic art. But no one could just hold a Device in your front and carve a photo before. The first ones was just black and white, with less resolution and so on. With today’s Technology you can have a higher Resolution or a 360* VR Experience from Time where you can explore and discover the room for details. Everything has its pro and cons. Like pictures its sometimes nice to travel back to time. If you made a important Video of a tsunami or something else it could be worth it, to archive pictures of the humans and the place. It just is about how we handle the information and who has access to.
I do not thought that Way about taking a simple picture before, cause in our media culture most of us grown up with it was the new normality. However thinking back to that time and that making pictures, videos and create small snips without context something can harm your privacy too.
For myself, i want to retain privacy. Its the right to have room, space and thoughts by myself and the possibility to control more parts of it.
In public its kind of different. Its nice to have spaces too without Video, Internet or like in China artificial Intelligence follow every step you do. That is the issue i have with other companies tech. If you have a Car or a Phone and make a Video. The Young folks using it think about “just make a small clip”. They are just naive and do not the whats going on with the Tech behind, the Cloud, the Ring doorbell Video streams and A.I.s learning moods and micro expressions through face mussels on emerging faces.
Folks just drive a Car, or use a 2020 Smartphone and think its useful, they just have no imagination how many data got collected and uploaded every millisecond they using and exposing a device to the world.
To get control and more understanding for privacy back, free Software and open Platforms are very useful.
Sure, same here, thanks!
It is interesting that you bring up photographs with cameras now being ubiquitous. Frederick Lane, in his book “American Privacy,” briefly describes the outrage when Eastman announced the Kodak camera in 1888. Then, even amateurs could take pictures of anything, anywhere, without dealing with chemicals and having a dark room. The horror!
Of course, even with professionals, there were issues. Abigail Roberson, a woman whose photograph was taken by a professional circa 1900, had her image usurped in a drawing from those photographs, and it was used in an advertising campaign without her permission. She lost her suit in New York, the court saying there was no (common law) right to privacy. (Same reference, though I realize these fora are read by folks world-wide.)
If you have not already, you might want to read “The Right to Privacy” by Brandeis and Warren in the Harvard Law Review. I think it was very forward looking in 1890, but, of course, it did not anticipate today’s technology. There are still arguments almost 150 years later.
Pertaining to privacy, I find there are three categories of folks. First, there is the “I have nothing to hide.” crowd. Interestingly, none will give me copies of their keys or passwords. Second, there are those who do not care; they like the “freebies.”. I think most young people fall in this sphere; they are used to it and do not question their data being collected. Unfortunately, this includes children of my former colleagues, who should care. Finally, there are those who have no clue. My favorite example, which I have posted elsewhere, are those who assert that governments have inserted trackers into Covid vaccines, and, to support their claim, they take videos of magnets attached to arms with their smartphones! Perhaps what is worse are the reporters of these stories never pointing out the irony. (Actually, when I see reports on setting up and using insert your favorite IoT device, reporters never mention the privacy implications.)
You may be able to tell I fret about this a lot. I have designed computers and software since dinosaurs roamed the earth, and there seems to be no way to stem the tide. At least in Europe, many politicians seem to “get it,” even though they have made mistakes. I think here in the US, politicians are simply beholden to those who will pay them the most. Privacy advocates cannot compete.
f you have not already, you might want to read “The Right to Privacy” by Brandeis and Warren in the Harvard Law Review. I think it was very forward looking in 1890, but, of course, it did not anticipate today’s technology. There are still arguments almost 150 years later.
Thank you Wayne for your interesting response. I’ll check out that Book/Paper. Like to take a little time travel in mind through this kind of Information.
“It creates financial stability for me…” Like todays Kids talk about attention and abouet reach. Dictionary by pbs like “TikTok, Boom.”. Sorry for Highjacking but thats about what is privacy today. About who in our sociaty got hurt.
Privacy is about not have the need of monetarize yourself to some algorithms.