[Freedombox-discuss] Privacy Prices

Jonathan Wilkes jancsika at yahoo.com
Sun Oct 14 23:33:16 UTC 2012


>________________________________
> From: Melvin Carvalho <melvincarvalho at gmail.com>
>To: freedombox-discuss at lists.alioth.debian.org 
>Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2012 1:54 PM
>Subject: Re: [Freedombox-discuss] Privacy Prices
> 
>
>
>
>
>On 14 October 2012 19:07, Nick M. Daly <nick.m.daly at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>Jonathan Wilkes writes:
>>> From: Nick Daly
>>
>>>> one of the most annoying parts about all this is how poorly Facebook
>>>> monetizes data.  My privacy is worth more than ~$15/year
>>>
>>
>>> I think that's missing the point; even if Facebook were handing 10
>>> crisp $100 bills to every one of its users each year, the problem of
>>> everyone having created an enormous market for current and potential
>>> abuse is still there.
>>
>>Right.  I was using a hint of dry sarcasm to point out how a system
>>based on literally selling out its users cannot be socially or morally
>>responsible toward those users.
>>
>
>Businesses are deeply compromised between serving their own interests and serving users interests.
>
>I think most businesses in web 2.0 try to build in a degree of lock in, whether it's through centralized website, a centrally controlled protocol, network economics, patents, selling data etc. the user will eventually feel the consequences.
>
>I think by sticking to royalty free specs at the w3c and ietf, and using free software, with one other part data freedom, we have the potential to build much more, without gatekeepers.  The disadvantage is that because we will never exploit our users, we lack capital an rely on volunteers.  But maybe that will make it all the more satisfying when things get built ...

A promise to avoid exploiting the user [even one that is written into a protocol] is necessary but insufficient
for respecting users.  Same for free specs.

Free software developers who make user-facing tools for social interaction have the teachings of Richard
Stallman down. Now they need to start paying attention to Alan Kay, because without _deep_ consideration
of how people actually use the tools they make very little of their work will have any impact at all.  (How long
has PGP been around?)


Unfortunately it's going to be very difficult to keep this from becoming a vicious cycle, as the software that
currently does the worst job with privacy also gives their devs the most feedback on user experience that
can be used to improve their interfaces.

-Jonathan


> 
>
>>Nick
>>
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