Re:At the RSA Security Conference, Things Get Testy
by Intermernet on Saturday March 01, 2014 @07:11AM
(#7324001)
Although I agree completely with your recommended course of action, and indeed your sentiment, I find it frightening to see our reliance on the emergent properties of democratic process so bluntly demonstrated.
We don't really know how to live in this society yet! No one has a definite solution, but greater public awareness will definitely accelerate the outcome, whether it be a solution for the general populous, or a "solution" for those in power.
The thing is that I don't want to erase or use a fake name in my StackOverflow or Twitter account. I know perfectly well that at any time my data could be exploited by a third party.
That's why I'm saying that the only way to get over this, is to make large part of the population aware of the issue.
And the more people use the internet the easier will become.
You can reject it, but in a democratic country that's the way things work: Politicians want (and sell themselves easily) for more votes. Exchange your vote for privacy, the administration might want to control our lives using espionage, but if MPs don't get votes they can't support the administration and I believe they will turn their back to the administration way more easily if they know that they will gain more votes (more raw power).
So all you have to do, is put the issue high on the agenda, nothing more. I'm not saying it's easy, but it's not impossible either.
Once an NSA executive goes in jail for mis-conduction will have set a precedent. Same thing will happen in Germany, etc. Then you can say that you are relatively safer because everyone who is going to exploit our data, could face prison. And that's not an entertaining thought, especially for politicians and executives.