Why Online Privacy Is Broken

Trailrunner7 writes "One of the more trite and oft-repeated maxims in the software industry goes something like this: We're not focusing on security because our customers aren't asking for it. They want features and functionality. When they ask for security, then we'll worry about it. Not only is this philosophy doomed to failure, it's now being repeated in the realm of privacy, with potentially disastrous effects. A quick search of recent news on the privacy front reveals that just about all of it is bad. Facebook is exposing users' live chat sessions and other data to third parties. Google is caught recording not only MAC address and SSID information from public Wi-Fi hotspots, but storing data from the networks as well. But the prevailing attitude among corporate executives in these cases seems to be summed up by Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who famously said this not too long ago: 'If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place.' If you look beyond the patent absurdity of Schmidt's statement for a minute, you'll find another old maxim hiding underneath: Blame the user. You want privacy? Don't use our search engine/photo software/email application/maps. That's our data now, thank you very much. Oh, you don't want your private chats exposed to the world? Sorry, you never told us that."

let 'em fight in the courts

[jkinney3]

Use the same arguments as Intellectual Property proponents. Everything I say and write belongs to me. You have to ask permission to hear it.

Re:anyone vs everyone

[starglider29a]

There are very few things that I don't want anyone to know

Gimme a 'fer instance'..

Re:User generated content belongs to the user...

[BuR4N]

No, we would be in IT support hell, maintaining our dads and moms P2P servers......

Re:User generated content belongs to the user...

[betterunixthanunix]

Just like right now, we have IT support hell, maintaining our parents' web browsers and operating systems.

Seriously, you think that there is something special about P2P that makes it particularly harder to maintain?

Re:We just need legislation

[Sir_Lewk]

That use to be how grammar worked, but now nobody gives a shit.

Re:You ARE to blame

[Kaeso]

If you expect each facebook user to generate their own Public/Private key then you're diluted.

So what's the solution?