Tuesday, March 20, 2018

The infamous privacy issue.

About 2012, Aaron Swartz , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz who was a computer programmer and entrepreneur, got involved in on line activism and  a bill that was up in legislation. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was a controversial United States bill introduced by U.S. Representative Lamar S. Smith (R-TX) to expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement to combat online copyright infringement and online trafficking in counterfeit goods. Provisions included the requesting of court orders to bar advertising networks and payment facilities from conducting business with infringing websites, and web search engines from linking to the websites, and court orders requiring Internet service providers to block access to the websites. The proposed law would have expanded existing criminal laws to include unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content, imposing a maximum penalty of five years in prison. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act I don't know how many of you actually remember this, but it was a huge issue on-line for internet marketers. (I was one of those) 

On the one hand, my digital content, is mine, and is only shared with the public when I want it to . (Or so I thought back then) On the other hand, when I learned of the S.O.P.A bill, myself, and millions of on-line marketers watched as it became a looming threat to our insular world. I also thought, well, who cares? I'm not doing anything wrong, so therefore have nothing to hide. 

Now we are back at it. Different day, different name, same shit. The question now is, does our government have the right to everything we put on the net? Different bill, right? Kinda. We are still talking about the same thing here. The rights of our public, as opposed to the rights of our government. Now the threat is, an algorithm. I've read a few of the on-line articles, and I've watched the news today. I see the stock falling on facebook, but what I don't see, is the outrage again. What changed? A sign of the times? 

We are living in a world that has become increasingly smaller, while our population has become increasingly larger. The threat to our children is there for the government to see. School shootings, guns, the war on drugs. Ect. 

To understand what is happening now with our digital content, we have to go back and look at Aaron Swartz, Edward Snowden, and Julian Assuange. All 3 of them did something groundbreaking. Unprecedented. All having to do with what our government does, and does not tell us. I mean, Snowden didn't tell us anything we didn't already know if you were paying attention. Neither did Aaron Swartz. We are not private. Never have been, never will be. 

So here's the question, and I would really love to hear from my readers how you feel on this one. Should our government be privy to "Everything" we put out here, or should it be based on the Algorithms alone. You have to also understand, what data mining is, and how tedious that would be, and time consuming. In the security industry, we call that a decoy. Only flip it. Meaning, our government is so intent on this content, that they ultimately miss the real threat. Take 911 for starters. They had been warned, but did nothing. The school shooting in Parkland, also had advance knowledge. So why did either happen? I'll tell you, because they were mining to much data from us, to take it seriously. The information became diluted, therefore, leaving no time to act. 

See, the Algorithms, will tell our government if we are affiliated with Terrorists, or if we plan on a mass shooting, ect. It will tell them if we are democratic, or republican, for Trump or against Trump. (Remember, this is Trump pushing this again) It will use buzz words like, "The Anarchist cookbook", conspiracy theorists, shootings, ect.. just like I am doing right now, and from that, it will determine if I am a threat or not. Do we really want our content public, (which I think already is) don't fool yourselves. Do you think, if I put up a meme, that says, Trumps an idiot, or some stupid thing like that, because I am not happy with what he is currently doing, or not doing, does that mean I am not a republican? Really? Our government is that smart that they have time to figure this out? Do we really want the men in black showing up, knocking, asking "whatcha doin" because of  a stupid post? I think they have better things to do than that. 

Once again, I happen to disagree with this. On the one hand, if you are doing nothing wrong, who cares then, right? On the other hand, is this just more bullshit for our government to wade through, that has nothing to do with our national security. 

Food for thought. I'd love to hear from you all! 

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