Category: Privacy, Surveillance, & Security

There is a very common sentiment that arises in this debate, … which says that there is no real harm that comes from this large-scale invasion because only people who are engaged in bad acts have a reason to want to hide and to care about their privacy. This worldview is implicitly grounded in the proposition that there are two kinds of people in the world, good people and bad people.
…
What they’re really saying is, “I have agreed to make myself such a harmless and unthreatening and uninteresting person that I actually don’t fear having the government know what it is that I’m doing.”

when you say, “somebody who is doing bad things,” you probably mean things like plotting a terrorist attack or engaging in violent criminality, a much narrower conception of what people who wield power mean when they say, “doing bad things.” For them, “doing bad things” typically means doing something that poses meaningful challenges to the exercise of our own power.

Source: Glenn Greenwald: Why privacy matters

On YouTube: Glenn Greenwald: Why privacy matters

Transcript: Glenn Greenwald: Why privacy matters

You can’t build a backdoor that only the good guys can walk through. Encryption protects against cybercriminals, industrial competitors, the Chinese secret police and the FBI. You’re either vulnerable to eavesdropping by any of them, or you’re secure from eavesdropping from all of them.

Source: iPhone Encryption and the Return of the Crypto Wars – Schneier on Security

Balancing liberty and security is one of the great challenges of this century. In this open article to FBI Director James Comey, ZDNet Government’s David Gewirtz explain why Americans demand both.

most Americans believe in the whole freedom thing. They believe in privacy. They believe in protection from unreasonable search and seizure. These values have been inculcated in all of us since our diaper days. To many people, America IS freedom and privacy. Or, at least, it should be.

we have to be capable of holding two opposing concepts in our minds at once. On the one hand, we need surveillance and security to protect our citizens. On the other hand, we’re America in large part because we distrust and protect ourselves from surveillance and unreasonable invasions of privacy.

Serving America requires meeting both challenges. This is not easy. As Thomas Jefferson said, “Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law’ because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.”

Source: Why Americans expect privacy: An open letter to FBI Director James Comey | ZDNet by David Gewirtz

Trust, what’s the definition of trust? You know I have a sort of personal definition of privacy and a personal definition of security. For me, trust is the availability of effective recourse. I don’t guard myself if I have effective recourse

Man, what is public these days? If I can read your newspaper from orbit, what is public? If I can tell where you are in your house by imaging through the wall, what is public? On and on and on. … Just because it’s observable without crossing the boundaries of your property, does that mean it’s public? I think if we don’t do something, that’s where it’s going. … What is the public domain? That’s really the question. Technology is changing what is public by changing what is observable, and that’s what I’m getting at. And I don’t know the answer, but I do know that if we don’t answer it, things will continue.

Source: Why one of cybersecurity’s thought leaders uses a pager instead of a smart phone – The Washington Post

It’s no secret that police departments around the country are deploying automated license plate readers to build massive databases to identify the location of vehicles. But one company behind this Orwellian tracking system is determined to stay out of the news.

Vigilant is clear about the reason for the secrecy: it’s to prevent customers from “cooperating” with media and calling attention to its database.

Source: Cops Must Swear Silence to Access Vehicle Tracking System | WIRED