[ubuntu-uk] Privacy award

[Craig]

On Sat, 2008-07-19 at 18:58 +0100, alan c wrote:
> It is not so much the 'google' end of things. Google and etc are just 
> doing what is good for them - and me, now, - in a way that works well 
> now. Unfortunately there are cracks in the floorboards of the 
> structures in society, and we may not be aware of the importance of 
> these yet. However, visionaries can fortunately point them out, 
> however inconvenient we might find them.
> 
> Most people do not even use freedom software, they just did what was 
> natural to use windows. It was natural, by putting one foot in front 
> of the other. The route was not only easy, maybe too easy, but the 
> alternative was really quite difficult and inconvenient.
> 
> The dangers are fairly obvious with only very little thought. If 
> google did not do its stuff, then another company would anyway. It is 
> our own individual decisions, and how we shape and trust our society, 
> politics and laws, which are the key aspects of the future.
> 
> Churchill is quoted as saying that the one lesson of history which 
> people never learn  - is - the lesson of history.
> Freedom is hard won and easily lost. I wish us luck, we may need it.

It seems Google get the most grief about lack of privacy as for some
reason the media seemed to only have picked up on them. Interestingly I
was just reading an article from a private investigator who was saying
how he researched about people over the web, because it was so easy.
People enter there information, let people see it, and sooner or later
it has been grabbed and flung around the web until everyone can see it.

What's more, is people usually don't care. It is one of those things
were it isn't an immediate threat. If you can't touch it, what can it
do? A lot of people take proprietry (how do you spell it?) and closed
source for granted, before me and a couple of others started preaching
in our school, no one had heard of ubuntu, and everyone just assumed
windows was just another part of a computer, along with the hard drive
and motherboard. 

Then again, for all these complaints, it is only a few companies which
are the intentionally bad ones. Most companies are doing what is best
for the user, and what's best for the user is best for them. If that
means lack of privacy, so be it. Like so many things in technology, the
laws and authorities just can't keep up with the changes. By the time
laws are introduced restricting what people can do, it could already be
out of hand. Then again, do we want those kind of laws?

Sorry for the typing, spelling and general mistakes,

Craig