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Pogue Privacy “Paranoia”

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Apple customers recently learned that the cellular versions of their iPhones and iPads are storing detailed tracking information about users in an unencrypted format.

Ace New York Times tech reviewer David Pogue belittles anyone concerned about the threat to privacy. He himself has “nothing to hide,” lacks the “paranoid gene.” In conclusion, “So what?”

Chiming in online, reader “Diana” avers that “Privacy is dead. It is time to get over it” — a familiar yet incoherent sentiment which assumes that privacy is an all-​or-​nothing commodity.

If there were a spate of break-​ins in a neighborhood, would anyone feel justified in blithely asserting, “Security is dead. It is time to get over it”? Would you be making a pointless fetish of security by continuing to lock your front door or improving the lock? Should everyone suffering under dictatorship be instructed that their freedom is dead, get over it?

The costs of breaching privacy can be minor or great. With respect to unencrypted and archived tracking data, the practical costs of the vulnerability may be zero until the wrong person with the wrong motive exploits it. The danger may be a lot greater in other countries.

It’s appropriate to debate how great an apparent threat to privacy may be, and the best way of countering that threat. But it is wrong to assume that institutionally persistent but unnecessary assaults on personal privacy are either irreversible or silly even to notice.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

3 replies on “Pogue Privacy “Paranoia””

Might as well assert that the Constitution is dead, The TSA administered the coup de gras after this adminstration dealt it multiple flesh wounds.

Get over it?

Not.

I wonder how Pogue? and Diana would react if it happened to them and their information was posted online? You know these two clowns were heartily opposed to all of the provisions of the Patriot Act, but it is okay if a identity thief, rapist, thief or stalker goes after them?

Hey, you ‘PRIVACY IS DEAD” freaks -
how about somebody on a ladder outside of your bathroom window with a digital camera or a ‘camera phone’, wanting to make you the latest You Tube sensation? Or, maybe it’s OK for the police to show up, any time of the day or night, and poke around in your stuff to insure you don’t posses some forbidden stuff?
Of course, when jackasses spout the party line without even thinking about the cosequences, that’s enough to make anyone paranoid.….….….…

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