[ExI] Privacy

[efc at disroot.org]

On Thu, 31 Oct 2024, BillK via extropy-chat wrote:

> On Wed, 30 Oct 2024 at 09:48, MB via extropy-chat
> <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>>
> <snip>
>>
>> I'd be reluctant to talk with a robot, for fear of spying type stuff.  I'm
>> getting more silent nowadays: people all have phones that can record what
>> others say.
>>
>> Regards, MB
>> _______________________________________________
>
>
> I think that for the great majority of people with smartphones,
> privacy doesn't exist. This is especially true for the younger
> generation, who grew up with an always-present social media.  And that
> is not even seen as a problem. Their whole life is recorded in their
> smartphone. Older users may prefer a laptop or desktop computer.
> That is why police investigators always seize phones, laptops and any
> other computer devices.
> With AI agents now being added to phones and computers, privacy will
> only get worse. If your personal AI assistant, therapist, or companion
> is to be really helpful, it has to know an awful lot about you. These

This seems easy to avoid by just no having an AI assistant and just taking 
the loss of productivity.

> AI agents will be acting on your behalf, answering calls and emails,
> booking travel, meetings, hotels, medical checks, etc.
> (As an aside, there is no reason why the AI replicas of deceased
> people could not also have AI agents added to continue acting for them
> after their death).

My information is, sadly, spread around all of those organizations today, 
but at least by opting out of AI assistants it would not be centralized. 
Another option is a locally hosted AI assistant which I would possibly 
use, where all information is stored on my own computer. That of course 
does not still erase my information at the other end, but it is a start.

When it comes to the information at the other end, in some cases, I can 
use GDPR in europe, to force them to delete as much as possible, but that 
of course does not prove to me that they do it. It is a nice fig leaf for 
privacy though. ;)

> There is little that elder past generations can do to maintain their
> privacy. They would have to opt out of much of modern technology. This
> will become more and more difficult as technology takes over western
> civilisation.

Opting out and moving to the forest I think are two things that can be 
done. But, yes, camera surveillance, tracking an controlling (or "nudging" 
as it is called in modern english if I remember correctly) people is 
definitely getting popular among the political class, so I fear you are 
right as long as we don't experience anything similar to the persecution 
of the jews, with the disaster that followed. If such a disaster should 
happen again maybe that might be enough to make some people think about 
unlimited surveillance and what it can be used for if it ends up in the 
wrong hands.


> BillK
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