This is Carissa Véliz’s second TED Talk. It was filmed in March but only published yesterday.
In this presentation, Carissa goes into very specific examples of how privacy can change your life, which is something, @em also discussed in her PG article Privacy Means Safety.
She brings up a historical example that she had mentioned in her book Privacy is Power, namely that during WW II, France was able to save more Jews (75%) from Nazi capture than the Netherlands (25%), because they did not have detailed records about their citizen in their registry. In other words, the records France had on its citizens did not mention their religion.
Two powerful statements that she makes are:
Technology is not neutral.
and
To digitize is to surveil.
Although she doesn’t name it explicitly, these statements indicate to me that she is against digital ID. Carissa is a citizen of Spain, Mexico, and the UK where she is based, and where the Labour government of Keir Starmer is trying to impose digital ID.
This is an insightful talk that I encourage you to watch and share with as many people as you can. I want to thank @Carey from Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons for alerting me to it.
I’m also linking to Carissa’s first TEDTalk from 4 years ago because it is criminally underrated with only 4K views.
The more and more I am reading, listening, understanding all that’s happening this year - the more I’m starting to realize and believe that people are still on the hill of “It can’t happen here”.
It’s baffling. I wish people understood the importance of privacy and all that you need to do and maintain the same with tech and policy related to it.
The reckoning will be a kick in the face after which there is no coming back. Ask China and NK. It’s already started to happen here folks. Wake up and smell the stench.
It’s frustrating because it is already happening and has been happening “here” and in many other countries. I started becoming interested in privacy issues around the early 2010, so I was not as informed about the issues as I am now. However, I did notice when many countries started requiring ID registration to buy or use a prepaid SIM Card. And as far as I can remember, there was no resistance.
If anyone has any record of any voices in any country fighting against SIM card registration, I would love to know.
Along with “it can never happen here” many people subscribe to the idea that “it could never happen now”. I suspect this is what German supporters of Chat Control are thinking. But if it already happened in your country’s history, you should know better than to believe it can never happen again if we give away so much control to governments and corporations.
I also think the issue is that societal issues repeat themselves just in a different way so it doesn’t look like its the exact same thing but in principle it always is. Germany should be the first to have been against this considering the examples in the TED talk but here we are needing to fight for it to make the realization tangible. The reason in the 20th century was racial. Today it is control.
There are many reasons for this - lack of critical thinking skills, lack of awareness, too much noise in the world, people focusing on their own lives to make it better, lack of tech education, etc. Either way, the result is the same.
See, stuff like this is why I do believe humans have self destructing natures and tendencies. It’s the nature of the species. This should not have been obvious now and a lot earlier but this is more of an epiphany than a natural discovery.
I’m not sure what you mean by this. The racial aspect has not gone away. Not even a little bit.
Data is constantly being weaponized against citizens to control, subjugate, and discriminate them. It always has, but now it’s far more sophisticated. Some of that data is racial. When real people or AI systems don’t consider your job application for a job because your name sounds “Asian”, “black”, or “Jewish”, it’s racial.
In general, I think our capitalistic world drains so much of our time with work that most people do not have the time or the emotional and cognitive bandwidth to pay close attention to important political issues, be it privacy or anything else. I personally think it’s by design.
In the United States, election day is not a public holiday, which means that people need to take time off from work in order to be able to vote. This is one of the major contributing factor to why the US has such a low voting turnout. Some people cannot afford to take the time off.
Yes, I understood that. Although it was not what you meant, to me it sounded like you were saying it’s not racial now.
Yes. But I’d argue that even back then it was also for control. Maybe it was just for the control of some populations and not others, but it was still for control.
Yes, there are various reasons, but I believe that capitalism is a major one. Back in the early 20th century, and even the mid and late 20th centuray, economists predicted that technological advancements and the productivity of machines would create a world where we would have to work less. Like 12 to 15 hours a week. And despite the major productivity gains, we are living the exact oppisite of that, just because of greedy capitalism.
The gig economy has dessimated many industries, and made work more precarious with less protections. This means people have to work more just to survive. With work eating so much of your time and you health, it’s difficult to sit down and and think about all the important issues. People can literally not affor to do it, time wise or money wise. We are deliberately distracted.
No. Just because I didn’t say it doesn’t mean it’s not also racial today. What I only wanted to point out is that it was primarily racial then and a lot more than just racial today. You’re inferring more than what I said in good faith.
Sure, I suppose. I haven’t thought about it terms of control for back then.
Yes, I found out about it totally randomly last month by searching for Privacy is Power’s page on Penguin Random House’s website.
My understanding is that Cory’s book is already complete, finished and handed in to his publishers. They just didn’t want to release 2 books at the same time, which is fair.
He said he had a unique perspective on it, and I am glad we are getting books on AI from a variety of angles from different authors and thinkers.
First, yes I know. I said that more jokingly and meant that more as with how much he writes, not just books. His daily newsletters and all. He does write a lot and we are all better for it.
And thanks for linking other things. They’re helpful.
I’ve mostly read Empire of AI. Sam Altman appears to be a clinically sane cult leader of sorts with money and some tech and management skills. Just as dangerous but doesn’t raise eyebrows as much.
