Trading Privacy For Convenience

If the government demanded that we all carry tracking devices 24/7, we would rebel.  Yet we all carry cell phones.  If the government demanded that we deposit copies of all of our messages to each other with the police, we'd declare their actions unconstitutional.  Yet we all use Gmail and Facebook messaging and SMS.  If the government demanded that we give them access to all the photographs we take, and that we identify all of the people in them and tag them with locations, we'd refuse.  Yet we do exactly that on Flickr and other sites.

Ray Ozzie is right when he said that we got what we asked for when we told the government we were scared and that they should do whatever they  wanted to make us feel safer.  But we also got what we asked for when we traded our privacy for convenience, trusting these corporations to look out for our best interests.

We're living in a world of feudal security.  And if you watch "Game of Thrones," you know that feudalism benefits the powerful -- at the expense of the peasants.

-- Bruce Schneier, Trading Privacy for Convenience (13 June 2013)