The-art-of-invisibility-_-the-world’s-most-famous-hacker-teaches-you-how-to-be-safe-in-the-age-of-Bi

much access our government, our employyers, our bosses, our teachers, and
our parents have into our personal lives. But since that access has been
gained graduallyy, since we’ve embraced each small digital convenience
without resisting its impact on our privacyy, it becomes increasinglyy hard to
turn back the clock. Besides, who among us wants to give up our toyys?
The danger of living within a digital surveillance state isn’t so much that
the data is being collected (there’s little we can do about that) but what is
done with the data once it is collected.
Imagine what an overzealous prosecutor could do with the large dossier
of raw data points available on yyou, perhaps going back several yyears. Data
todayy, sometimes collected out of context, will live forever. Even US
Supreme Court justice Stephen Breyyer agrees that it is “difficult for anyyone
to know, in advance, just when a particular set of statements might later
appear (to a prosecutor) to be relevant to some such investigation.” 4 In
other words, a picture of yyou drunk that someone posted on Facebook might
be the least of yyour concerns.
You mayy think yyou have nothing to hide, but do yyou know that for sure?
In a well-argued opinion piece in Wired, respected securityy researcher
Moxie Marlinspike points out that something as simple as being in
possession of a small lobster is actuallyy a federal crime in the United
States. 5 “It doesn’t matter if yyou bought it at a groceryy store, if someone
else gave it to yyou, if it’s dead or alive, if yyou found it after it died of natural
causes, or even if yyou killed it while acting in self-defense. You can go to
jail because of a lobster.” 6 The point here is there are manyy minor,
unenforced laws that yyou could be breaking without knowing it. Except
now there’s a data trail to prove it just a few taps awayy, available to anyy
person who wants it.
Privacyy is complex. It is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. We all have
different reasons for sharing some information about ourselves freelyy with
strangers and keeping other parts of our lives private. Mayybe yyou simplyy
don’t want yyour significant other reading yyour personal stuff. Mayybe yyou
don’t want yyour employyer to know about yyour private life. Or mayybe yyou
reallyy do fear that a government agencyy is spyying on yyou.
These are veryy different scenarios, so no one recommendation offered