[MyData & Open Data] This man thinks big data and privacy can co-exist, and here’s his plan

[Mr. Puneet Kishor]

On Aug 29, 2013, at 5:23 AM, Amir Chaudhry <amirmc at gmail.com> wrote:

> 
> On 29 Aug 2013, at 12:33, stef <s at ctrlc.hu> wrote:
> 
>> On Thu, Aug 29, 2013 at 11:27:49AM +0100, Amir Chaudhry wrote:
>>>> When I wondered if he was deluded, I was referring to his quote, "Look at the service Snapchat. People want the possibility to send photographs which destroy themselves. There is a basic human need that you don’t want to leave traces all the time on the net."
>>>> 
>>>> See http://gibsonsec.org/snapchat/
>>>> 
>>>> There really may not be anything completely guaranteed. We just may have to settle for good enough being good enough, or some other social and cultural expectation adjustment.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> How does that statement make him deluded?  I read that quote as (1) the existence and growth of a service like Snapchat is evidence that (2) people understand and want to send ephemeral pics. That this particular service isn't properly secure doesn't change his claim that people evidently want such services.  
>> 
>> ephemeral data cannot be guaranteed, it is deluded at best and snakeoil at
>> worst. as soon as i have access to it i can copy it. see a very good parallel
>> in the entertainment maffia trying to push DRM onto us, same problem,
>> perfectly explained back in the years by Cory on the MS campus:
>> http://craphound.com/msftdrm.txt
>> 
>> the only truly ephemeral pics are the one stored without backups on old CDROMs
>> that have already degraded and contain lot's of unrecoverable decayed data.
> 
> Sure, I agree, but that doesn't change my point.  There's an important distinction between what people want (evidenced by use) and what they're actually getting.  Dr Dix is speaking about the former, and you're pointing out facts about the latter.  
> 
> This distinction is important because it's the *users* who are the deluded ones.  They're signing up to services which they think offer certain features but in reality, do not.


Thanks Amir, for articulating that very well. The bottom line is then, as I mentioned in my second post that, "There really may not be anything completely guaranteed. We just may have to settle for good enough being good enough, or some other social and cultural expectation adjustment."

Oh, and no disrespect meant to the German privacy czar by asking if he was delusional. As you say, it is perhaps not him but us who are so. It spurred a valuable discussion that we intend to keep going both here and in person in Geneva. If any of you might be able to attend, please mark your availability at http://doodle.com/knnfz3p4qi2ich2a

Many thanks,

--
Puneet Kishor