A few days ago, on this blog, I excerpted a couple of passages from Richard Klein‘s Cigarettes are Sublime, and wrote of a little episode in my life centered on smoking cigarettes as a way to kill time. Once I had written the post and published it here, as is usual, I posted links toContinue reading “Facebook and Impoverished Sharing”
Tag Archives: privacy
The NSA’s Bullrun Around Encryption
A few weeks ago, over at The Washington Spectator, I wrote a post on the NSA, which mentioned its historical–and historic–struggles with the pioneers of encryption: [W]hen the NSA got wind of academic research on cryptography, its agents approached those working on such research and “suggested” that all such research be vetted by the NSA.Continue reading “The NSA’s Bullrun Around Encryption”
The Asymmetric Panopticon
As I’ve noted before on this blog–in unison with many other commentators–the ‘if you’ve got nothing to hide, then you shouldn’t mind the government spying on you’ argument is among the dumbest to be made in defense of the NSA‘s surveillance program. A related argument is the ‘we don’t have privacy anyway, so quit tiltingContinue reading “The Asymmetric Panopticon”
Nice Try NSA-Defenders (Not!)
There are two very bad arguments and one rather illiterate confusion making the rounds in the wake of the NSA surveillance scandal. I’ll consider each of them briefly. First, we have the ‘it was legal’ argument: the surveillance was sanctioned by the Patriot Act, approved by FISA courts, and Congress was in the loop etc.Continue reading “Nice Try NSA-Defenders (Not!)”
The NSA Needs Better Apologists than Charles Shanor
Professor Charles Shanor of Emory university thinks that ‘liberals and civil libertarians’ are making a mountain out of a digital molehill. Apparently, we should be reassured by the fact that the NSA‘s data collection was legal under the terms of the Patriot Act (you know, that civil liberties disaster), that FISA judges approved it, that selectContinue reading “The NSA Needs Better Apologists than Charles Shanor”
Reflections on Facebook, Part Three
Facebook statuses are legendary. They have been indicted ad nauseam as archives of exhibitionism, narcissism, boring and pointless navel-gazing, repositories of TMI, and many other sins. But they still repay some attention. The Facebook status typically includes a prompt. The current one is ‘What’s on your mind?’ The one before that was ‘How are youContinue reading “Reflections on Facebook, Part Three”
Reflections on Facebook, Part Two
Facebook’ problematic relationship with privacy issues infuriates most of its users; it has ensured that no contemporary discussion of online privacy can proceed without a Facebook-related example. This has largely been the case because Facebook set out to provide a means of social networking and communication with an architecture designed to induce behavior in itsContinue reading “Reflections on Facebook, Part Two”
Reflections on Facebook, Part One
This post is the first of several posts I intend to write on my Facebook experiences. Like many (very many!) people, I’m a Facebook user. And like many of those people, I have a vexed relationship with it, a fact best demonstrated by my decision to leave Facebook a couple of years ago, close myContinue reading “Reflections on Facebook, Part One”
Bill Keller and Some Elementary Confusions About Technology and Privacy
Bill Keller argues for a national identification card, urging Americans to ‘get over’ their fears about its abuse: You might start with the Social Security card. You would issue a plastic version, and in it you would embed a chip containing biometric information: a fingerprint, an eye scan or a digital photo. The employer wouldContinue reading “Bill Keller and Some Elementary Confusions About Technology and Privacy”
Artificial Agents, Knowledge Attribution, and Privacy Violations
I am a subscriber to a mailing list dedicated to discussing the many legal, social, and economic issues that arise out of the increasing use of drones. Recently on the list, the discussion turned to the privacy implications of drones. I was asked whether the doctrines developed in my book A Legal Theory of AutonomousContinue reading “Artificial Agents, Knowledge Attribution, and Privacy Violations”
Samir Chopra 