Privacy Fundamentalism

Source: Ben Thompson
Affiliation: Stratechery

In this article, the author argues that there are alarmist privacy arguments out there and explains why one by Farhad Manjoo of the New York Times is overstated. The author argues that because the digital world is inherently not private, our concern should be focused on privacy when it concerns the crossing of the physical and digital word, with the privacy of voice recordings being one such example. The author proposes that we need to accept that online privacy involves trade-offs, that the widespread creation and distribution of data is inherent to computers and the Internet, and that we should focus privacy policies on physical/digital divide.

Keywords: Big Data , Computer Science , Privacy , Surveillance , Tech Ethics , Tech Industry