Sometimes I think, I have learned a lot about this issue and I’m well aware of the fact the whole world is going towards a state of surveillance that no one can escape, I have done everything I could to ensure my personal privacy, but what about others?
the majority of the world population does not even care about this matter, and they might even see it as a normality, the people might even know that they are being watched/listened to/surveilled, and they don’t do anything to prevent it neither individually or collectively.
I also believe that protecting the individual privacy automatically contributes to the collective privacy and vice-versa, but seeing how the world is heading towards extreme surveillance that is practically impossible to resist (eg… face recognition, chat control law), I ask, what is the point of all of this? how can i live peacfully knowing that i can be suspected of anything just because i made a joke here or said something there?
and I’m not talking 100% privacy or anonymity, i’m just talking peace of mind and well-being.
I think that there is a disconnect in people’s minds between their daily lives and their digital lives. When I talk to people about privacy, security, and anonymity, I try to make as many references to their daily lives as I can. A person that tells me ‘I have nothing to hide’, I will ask 'Do you have a keychain? Locks on your front and back door to your domicile? Window blinds and curtains? Maybe surveillance cams, or an alarm system. The answers to these questions are almost always ‘yes’. So then I will point out that yes, they do enjoy, even demand, privacy in their daily lives, so your digital life should be no different. What would happen if the law having jurisdiction in your locale passed a law that stated it was now illegal to have window blinds or curtains on your windows because they can’t see what you’re doing, and therefore you may be doing something nefarious? I find that making comparison to what they do in their daily lives to what we expect in our digital lives, ties it together for a lot of those I talk to. The line between our daily lives and our digital lives in the timeline we find ourselves in, no longer exists.
I also think the is a matter of time and complexity. Computers and networking are fucking complex. I admit openly, I do not know all their is to know about the topic and learn new things almost daily. Imagine what the average Joe Schmoe user feels when confronted by complex topics like networking? Additionally, we are busy in today’s world. It’s not a Beaver Cleaver kind of world anymore where things happen in slo mo, in some sleepy little corner of Mayberry. Usually both parents work, come home exhausted, spend a little time with the kids, and collapse in bed, only to do it all over again the next day. On the weekends, time is spent with family, and catching up on household chores. Then collapse in bed on Sunday evening, only to do it all over again and again. They don’t have the time nor volition to read a Unix manual.
So, all these things, and more, create the perfect environment for governments having jurisdiction, to take advantage of people who do not know any better. In our circles, they are called ‘normies’ with a certain level of condescension. They are the unenlightened sheep following those they think have their best interest at heart. Perhaps we should come down from our enlightened pedestals, and be the passionate educators of the unwashed, unenlightened, normies.