Ten years ago there were rumors, whispers, ideas shared here and there about what’s going on now. If you brought them up, even in knowledgable conversation, out side of geekier circles, well you’d be considered little more than a conspiracy-nut or someone who’s spent too much time facing screen glow.
Some geeks have long shared their concerns about how the net works, the deal we are making by sharing so much of ourselves online, the web’s push towards transparency of all things, and the existence of such systems as Eschelon. So hearing some folks telling others to calm down, like Seth or Cringely, is to be expected. This is the same as it ever was right? No biggie.
The awareness of all this is now mainstream. That should amount to….something. However, it seems that there is a complete lack of shock, and lack of outrage. Indeed, among those I’ve talked, their response to me isn’t to question whether I’m a conspiracy-nut – after all – this stuff is real – it’s to question – you don’t have anything to hide do you?
Well I’d say no. From 1996 to now I’ve shared almost everything I can imagine on the web. Well close to it.
Something Scott said to me yesterday has a ring of truth to it – privacy was a temporary phenomenon – 100 years ago it didn’t really exist. Maybe we’re just cycling back to an older social norm. Maybe he’s right. And maybe we’re better off for it. But then again…
I agree that we have to give up privacy to some extent to gain convenience. I’ve talked about it a lot over the years. Trying to explain to people why the tradeoff is worth it in some senses. The key, to me in giving up privacy is auditing and security. What I mean is that it’s ok for my info to be accessable, but only if I can know who is accessing it and if they are accessing it for a good (and legal) reason. What has me up in arms is that the government isn’t playing in the same sandbox.
I think that’s my take as well Trace. I knew I was making a concesion when I launched my home page ten years ago. It’s a tradeoff. Why do you think so many just don’t care about the government’s handling of all this?
Karl,
It’s all shite. 😉
Give it time, all the walls will fall. It’s just the dying yelp of a society that lacks understanding to what people do.
Btw, you should have come out last night, the meetup rocked!
Peace,
– Neo
I had to look up Eschelon in conjunction with Yakima, to see, from BoingBoing even, that it is the same listening post we knew about in the Firing Center at Yakima. I have a funny story on this from when I lived there when I was a spry and juicy maiden. This discussion on privacy in conjustion with the Google stuff has also inspired me to a new writing.
If I can just get motivated enough to actually physically type it into the weblog.
Karl, my basic point is that the actual subpeona here is relatively trivial. The overall issue of Google and privacy isn’t. But the two topics seems to have been merged in the public mind. Unsurprising, I guess, and even maybe some good can come of it. But since I’m bad at politics, I just find the hue and cry over a statistics study to be very much an irritating overreaction to the proposed study in specific.
Neo: Sorry I was sick. Still am. I’m upset I missed it.
Seth: Sorry if I misunderstood. The screen kinda hurts to look at. I suck at politics as well so I can relate.
Here’s the thing, I don’t see this being discussed outside of tech/publishing blogger circles. Not to any real degree. The news about the phone call snooping has already left mainstream news’s radar – and the political blogosphere’s as well. And folks didn’t blink at the story that came out last week about being able to buy anyone’s cell phone records.
It’s like… who cares? Ya know? The sense I get from people is – “hey, it’s just the way it is. deal with it.”.
This is very, very far from where we were just 10 years ago. Back then only certain technology-centric folks thought along those lines.
Shelley – I’m looking forward to your post. If it can spawn a discussion as wide as the copyright/RSS one – well that would be something.
I almost don’t expect it however – I’m afraid Trace nailed it. And now too many people have too much at stake for folks to put the breaks on – or to be permitted to raise too much a fuss.
We’re all part of one big reality TV series now – with the episodes available forever online.
Om Malik just called it “Living a Cached Life”:
http://gigaom.com/2006/01/21/living-a-cached-life/
The way I see it, the phone tap issue was easy to grasp for most non-techie people, the issues relating to the Google subpoena can hardly be understood by most people in America. I mean hell, I get pissed when I see AOL saying stuff like “come to a better internet” and getting away with it. People just don’t get the technology that they are immersing themselves in and they don’t get that they are essentially giving the govt. a free pass at their searches and their email where they would be outraged if their phone was tapped.
Another reason that I can see is just general apathy. People just don’t care. They feel helpless to change things (its hard to ‘feel’ that one person can make a difference in this great big machine) and so they just give up trying.
The only thing I can hope for is that we, the bloggers, build up enough critical mass to actually change a few minds. I mean it does work (see the PA legislature pay hike issue).