It's Getting Harder To Reside Anonymously In a Modern City (citiesofthefuture.eu) 100
dkatana writes: In a panel on 'Privacy in the Smart City' during this month's Smart City World Congress, Dr. Carmela Troncoso, a researcher from Spain, argued that data anonymization itself is almost impossible without using advanced cryptography. Our every transaction leaves a digital marker that can be mined by anyone with the right tools or enough determination.
Most modern cities today are full of sensors and connected devices. Some are considering giving away free WiFi in exchange of personal data. LinkNYC, which was present at the congress as exhibitor, is one such example of this. The panelists insisted that it is the duty of world leaders to safeguard their citizens' privacy, just as corporations are answerable to leaks and hacks.
Most modern cities today are full of sensors and connected devices. Some are considering giving away free WiFi in exchange of personal data. LinkNYC, which was present at the congress as exhibitor, is one such example of this. The panelists insisted that it is the duty of world leaders to safeguard their citizens' privacy, just as corporations are answerable to leaks and hacks.
IMHO that's good (Score:5, Insightful)
Personally, I think the anonymity of people in massive cities is the source of many of the problems of city life.
A lot of urbanites poo-pooh the closed-minded clannishness of small town life, but part of the VALUE of this life (I live in a MN town of 1500) is that people know each other. They know each others' families, they know their histories.
If you're an asshole, people know it and will remember it. So you make SURE you don't act like an asshole. Cities? You'll likely never see that person again, so who gives a shit?
Re:IMHO that's good (Score:5, Insightful)
Small towns are full of bigots, pedophiles, racists and thieves and everyone is too afraid
Ahh. Just like large cities, then? Except in a small town, you can learn who to avoid.
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I don't know whether Jackie is a bigot, but you sure are. You have prejudged all small towns as full of "bigots, pedophiles, racists, and thieves" with "southern values", the latter of which is a double-whammy of bigotry.
I don't even understand where you got pedophiles and thieves from. Thieves are much more likely to be found in cities even on a per capita basis. I've never heard of pedophiles having any difference in distribution between the two, but you can be sure that if somebody is a known-pedophil
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I grew up in a smallish town, was 10,000, now 20,000. We had plenty of burglaries. The small 500 person hamlets had crime. One of the highest crime rates in California one year was from a very small rural town.
Of course, times change. When I came home from college once my parents chuckled when I automatically locked the car door. Then a decade or so later they had a burglary and got an alarm system.
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Funny, I live in a small town in a very red state. I found more bigots, racists, and thieves living in the bluest of blue states, Massachusetts.
Funny, I live in a small town in a very red state and all the bigots, racists, and thieves are my friends. I'm part of the in crowd and I like it that way. In the city I'd just be another medium fish.
FTFY.
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Re:IMHO that's good (Score:5, Insightful)
Anonymity is what enabled the modern world.
It was because the anonymity cities provided people where able to question religious dogma, dared to question the authority of king and queens etc.....
Yes, having anonymity also leads to people being douche bags to each other, that is the price to pay for a technological civilization.
BTW last I checked, small towns also had a lot of the same issues as big cities. Murder, drug use, spousal abuse, etc happen there too. And although I have not looked into the numbers, probably in the same proportions as major cities. So like if there is 3 murders per 100,000 in a mjor urban area, that means if you divide up the population into 66 towns of 1500 people, only 3 of them will experience a murder. Which leads to the perception that it "never happens".
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It was because the anonymity cities provided people where able to question religious dogma, dared to question the authority of king and queens etc...
Are you sure that was anonymity and not simply groups meeting in secret?
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Of course there was groups meeting in secret.
However how do do you have secret meetings if everybody knows who you are, where you are, what you are talking about and with whom at all times?
Secrecy is dependent on privacy.
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I dunno....if you have one of those clubs and try to exclude anyone, you get hit with a racist or sexist tag and get sued.....and there goes you exclusivity.
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It is not clandestine if the people meeting in a public location are known to all, if people can hear what they discuss, with whom, what they are planning.....
They reason why they can meet clandestinely in a public space is due to anonymity. Nobody knows who they are and don't care...
However if for example, il all outspoken critics of the catholic church are grouping up in a public park, the catholic church knows something is up and could move to suppress said movement.
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> Anonymity is what enabled the modern world.
FALSE.
Mutually assured destruction, plus safety in numbers enabled the modern world.
Anonymity is only an enabler of assholes. The larger question, which you are gleefully ignoring (because your diseased society has taught you to hate the truth above all else) is WHY do you think you need to be anonymous in order for social progress to take place? If progress can only happen with anonymity, then you have got waaaaaaaaaayyyyyy bigger problems than just religious
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"Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as publick Liberty, without Freedom of Speech; which is the Right of every Man, as far as by it, he does not hurt or controul the Right of another: And this is the only Check it ought to suffer, and the only Bounds it ought to know."
- Some Asshole
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Ah. You mean like this country neighbor? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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well said. It is the peer pressure that helps keep rural society in check. Without that, there is no enforcement mechanism to ensure social norms are complied with which explains in part why urban societies are so much looser.
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There is a side effect to this. Large cities are actually easier on the environment to people scattered all over the place. Whether you think the big city is good or not from an asshole standpoint, it's good from a resource standpoint, so we need to solve the asshole standpoint or we all drown in rising sea levels.
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So you think instead of having two different options (small town/city) we should instead only have one option?
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Personally, I think the anonymity of people in massive cities is the source of many of the problems of city life.
Yes, but the lack of anonymity in rural communities is the source of many of the problems of living there too. I've heard many say they moved to the big city to get away from the peanut gallery.
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But this isn't about Frank down the street. Precedent and protocol should be determined by more than your minisemiquasimicrocosm. If you can't see the big picture - a perspective that's better delivered by separating The Message and the identity that happened to write it - then defer to those who will think beyond themselves.
Doesn't make a difference (Score:2)
Who cares if someone's an asshole? They'll be naturally avoided anyway. Does the whole town have to know who's naughty and nice? Then it's about being a secret asshole and keeping up appearances. Assholes are assholes regardless of who is aware of their being an asshole anyway. They'll just make sure they slime their way out of consequences anyway. I know plenty of assholes at work and they're not anonymous. They don't care nobody helps them out, they have ways of preying on the weak and twisting arms to g
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If you're an asshole, people know it and will remember it. So you make SURE you don't act like an asshole. Cities? You'll likely never see that person again, so who gives a shit?
I have had similar thoughts. If you live in the city and lose all your friends, no big deal, just go find other ones pretty quick. No reason to value them.
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If you're an asshole, people know it and will remember it. So you make SURE you don't act like an asshole.
Things that nosy small town people consider assholish:
1. Inter-racial relationships. "Ohhh, didn't you know your daughter is dating a gaijin? And a black man at that? You must be so ashamed."
2. Material wealth. "Mr. X is driving a Lexus now. He must think he's better than us. What did he do to get that money anyway, living and working out here? Probably something illegal."
3. Niche music/TV/fashion tastes. "Did you hear that noise Mr. X was playing? He called it 'death metal'. That's the path to the De
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Is that "groupthink" or is it a matter of cultural norms? Isn't a small town just a social connection between "like minded individuals" which is made somewhat more rigid by geography? The types of differences you're talking about definitely attract attention in a small town, but it's unfair to suggest that every difference which attracts attention is viewed as an intolerable negative.
The problem I see with cities is that this "mind your own business" mentality becomes extreme to the point of dehumaniza
Re:IMHO that's good (Score:4, Insightful)
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insightful!
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If you're an asshole, people know it and will remember it. So you make SURE you don't act like an asshole. Cities? You'll likely never see that person again, so who gives a shit?
Small-town assholes are the worst of the lot.
And in any case, there are thousands of other small towns where these assholes can move, starting afresh as an assumedly wholesome, small-town type of folk. After all, "Nothing ever happens here"
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But there are the problems with not being anonymous, even in a small town. If you get a rep for being a trouble maker as a kid, the police will always suspect you even when you haven't done anything. Like Dukes of Hazzard. Social life often means going over to the next town where people don't know you and you can have a beer with your date without causing gossip. Especially if that date happens to be the same sex, or is older, younger, married, of the wrong race or religion. And speaking of religion, e
just use cash and no cell phone (Score:3)
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in NYC you can find a basement to rent in a private home for cash and a lot of times a minimal background check.
Can you really? In the UK the checks that landlords must provide are far form minimal [telegraph.co.uk]. I'm pretty sure you could find places to rent that didn't do this, but I don't think they'd be in the best parts of town!
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So how do illegal aliens do it then?
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In the UK, illegal landlords. Putting 5 families into a normal house, well beyond the legal limits, knowing the families cannot raise complaints.
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In the distant past it was simple: One person has photo ID that is acceptable at a state and federal level. Rent it out to a person who has the same basic appearance and they can rent a home in your name. Only do that one time and a steady flow of cash is paid for the cover ID owner, paper work is paid for by a group of people living in that home under the cover name.
It works as different state, city, federal databases could often never be shared as the name is not on any gov lis
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Re: just use cash and no cell phone (Score:2)
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Completely illegal in the UK, as is pretty much any changes to the number plate - you cant even change the spacing between characters.
Anonymity and modern convenience (Score:2)
On the other hand, if one wants to consider anonymity and loss of i
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Does any of that really work when massive facial recognition systems exist and cameras are everywhere.
As long as nobody takes an interest it you anonymity is possible. The moment a three letter or other LEO does take an interest they can probably track you and uniquely identify around town easily.
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You need a good doze of wake the fuck up. There are fixed cameras everywhere; bars, stores, restaurant, street lights, tablets, laptops, possibly your TV... It has also become difficult to go out without someone pointing a cell phone in one's general direction and take a picture, either having coffee or at a restaurant. Even private property owners usually contract out the camera surveillance, most often to their ISPs, and have no control over the feed retention.
[CITATION NEEDED]
Seriously. Citation needed. In my experience they're locally stored and operated, simply because the bandwidth of the cameras is far too high to send it across the WAN or Internet pipe. The cameras I work with connect at 100BaseTX. Given that manufacturers are cheapskates that means they need more than 10BaseT speeds. For the sake of argument, if a camera uses 11 Megabits and there are two cameras that's already exceeded the transmit speeds of most DSL and Cablemodem (ie, cheap) con
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https://www.att.com/shop/digit... [att.com] http://www.bce.ca/news-and-med... [www.bce.ca]
Perhaps those cameras that you have 'experience' with use 100BaseTX Ethernet as physical medium. That doesn't mean that they are using the full bandwidth (pretty much guaranteed by design), nor that video cannot stream over the Internet (cell phone video streaming and Netflix). I'm not saying that everything is stored all the time, but the client doe
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That works well until you are seen near a gov building, court, using public transport, bank, get stopped or get shared with the gov via cctv over the years.
Some nations do the CCTV sharing legally, others just set up public private partnerships and connect to federal government departments in a more discreet way. "Facial recognition: Privacy advocates raise concern over 'creepy' system Government
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Owning cars/houses/bank accounts in your own name is for plebes.
If you are wealthy, these can all be purchased through corporate fronts. Yes, you will have to own a residence (or rent one). Because a person with some level of wealth but no residence stands out in a database. But you don't actually live there.
Many years ago, when I lived in apartments, my building had more mailboxes than actual apartments (and numbers that didn't go with actual units). The manager made a decent amount of money on the side
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Mass transit sounds like a quick way to lose any anonymity you thought you had - what metro station isn't completely covered with video surveillance? I think it's even becoming common on metro buses and some taxi cabs. Walking in a city? How many cameras cover the sidewalks? Wearing a mask only gets you recognized more quickly.
What the hell is a "smart city"? (Score:1)
Is that newspeak for "orwellian shithole that tracks your every move and action to make sure you conform to their ever-increasing amount of completely arbitrary, restrictive laws that regulate things no sane government should ever even think of regulating"?
Got a nice ring to it, I must say.
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Except, they are not laws. They are TOS of various corporations.
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Live in an unincorporated area, with no community board, no community center, etc.
Because almost all of the problems come from LOCAL governments doing stupid things.
The federal government has more important stuff to do, it only gets involved in things that need regulation. They might make BAD regulations, but they don't waist time on things that don't need to be regulated.
States do some stupid things, cities/towns do a LOT of stupid things. When you hear ab
We used to call people in the woods kooks (Score:2)
Now they're the vanguard.
Have big cities ever been anonymous? (Score:2)
I remember going to Toronto around 2002 and recalling how many video cameras were all over the place. I bet it wasn't any better in the 90s either.
What type of anonymity are we talking about? Personally in large cities I enjoy the sheer fact that other people do not know me. I can go to a bar and make a total fool of myself and no one will even care or remember. Sure there are a trillion video cameras around and if someone really wanted to they could follow my footsteps through my boring life.
Contrast th
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That's why I don't like cities. Too many jerks who think they can do anything stupid and be "anonymous".
Is someone working (Score:2)
on a scramble suit?
ORLY? (Score:2)
That's all very well and good, except for the fact they do a fucking awful job of it. People should be responsible for their own privacy. Full stop.
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Well, how are they supposed to make sure they're safeguarding their own citizens, and not some other country's, unless they know exactly who everyone is?
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Or just keep the government away from it (Score:2)
With corporations already answerable, how about we simply keep the government away from the data — and make corporations provide all of the anonymity-threatening services? Then we will not need to establish yet another governmental Department (of Privacy) and live happy fulfilling lives?
Right (Score:1)
Not at all then...