Department Of Weighing In On The Privacy Thing
Re the Facebook data scandal, and the reality – apparently astonishing, to some people – that social media and other websites are compromising and/or selling the data they collect on their users and visitors. Some of these astonished some people are throwing fits of indignation, demanding that Congress “do something.” When it comes to the idea of doing something, others of the some people have been expressing their sense of futility by employing that old English proverb, trotting it out before, during and after FB co-founder/CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony before Congress:
It’s like closing the barn door after the horse has bolted.
Gee, ya think?
Not only has the horse bolted, that high-spirited steed done high tailed it to Louisville where it placed in the Kentucky Derby and was last seen headed for Lubbock to join the Professional Rodeo circuit.
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I have no solutions for the problem and even less hope for its abatement, based in part on the existence of Amazon and Netflix recommendations. Y’all may know what I mean.
My recent purchases from Amazon include spatulas, two Kindle books (one on Buddhist meditation, the other a rock star’s memoir), and a tava. [1] Thus, in the coming weeks I will see ads for such items not only on Amazon, [2] but on other sites I visit, along with “recommendations” for future purchases, such as books on the “uncensored oral history of punk” and “Vodka is Vegan,” and cinnamon-flavored dental floss, and a ten pound sack of chickpea flour, and….
We are living in a world wherein seemingly/otherwise intelligent people do not apply their time and (presumably) hard-earned mathematics/computer skills in ways which might be used to, say, reverse global warming or otherwise improve The Human Condition. ® Instead, those with coding and other such skills are rewarded for devising algorithms to enable Netflix to offer me “Top Picks for Robyn” and “Because you watched….” categories. Based on the fact that in the past month I have watched episodes of Grey’s Anatomy and The Great British Baking Show, a documentary on endangered snow leopards, and a Ricky Gervais standup comedy special, the great minds in charge of such things have used their highly sophisticated calculations to try to convince me that I’d love to watch….50 First Dates? [3]
There is little hope, in such a world.
Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, I remember listening to an interview with a “computer/Internet/privacy expert” – a hacker who got caught, and as penance/punishment was hired by the corporation he’d hacked, to try to make their systems as un-hackable as possible. Former Hacker Guy went on to do independent consulting work for various corporations in areas related to internet privacy. I can’t remember all the details of the interview, [4] but what got seared into my brain were the two pieces of incongruous advice Former Hacker Guy gave, when asked by the interviewer to tell The Average Citizen ® what they can do to protect their information:
(1) When it comes to data about yourself – personal, employment, financial, recreational, you name it – fiercely guard your privacy and fight for laws to protect such information.
(2) There is *no* privacy, not anymore. Get used to it.
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Department Of It’s Not Working
After finishing [5] the (afore-mentioned) book on the efficacy of Buddhist-style meditation – about seeing life for how it really is, detaching your illusions and gaining perspective – why did I then, while standing in a concert entry line with MH, note the faces of the young, attractive females standing in front of and behind me, and think petty comments to myself (along the lines of, I wonder how long it’ll be before she looks like…well, like me.)?
Not a verbatim quotation.
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Privacy, Schrivacy – Department Of The Last Word On The Subject
Some of us realized long ago – or at least after we adopted our first feline – that there can be no privacy where a cat is involved.
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Department Of The Word After The Last Word
I was wondering: Can a Buddhist monk feel it is appropriate to use email?
My guess: Sure, as long as there are no attachments.
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May you realize that when you shut the bathroom door your cat thinks you’re doing something incredible enthralling;
May your barn doors [6] stay open so horses can come and go as they please;
May you share your squirrel-and-buddha jokes with an appreciative audience;
…and may the hijinks ensue.
Thanks for stopping by. Au Vendredi!
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[1] A large flat frying pan used for cooking chapattis and a variety of Indian and south Asian flatbreads.
[2] I don’t get it – continuing to advertise, say, the spatula to me when their records would clearly show that I have already purchased it.
[3] They are so, so wrong, to recommend to moiself any movie with Adam Sandler in it.
[4] Nor even what show ran the interview…I’m thinking something NPR-ish.
[5] Isn’t it time for another footnote?
