thinky...

2012-09-10T04:16:49Z

... And I'm explicitly asking for help clarifying this stuff.

I'm obviously interested in privacy issues (and I'm obviously interested in things that don't fit in the neat box of the status quo); given the way that dissent and critique have been conflated with "security risks" and "terrorists" there's an obvious overlap between privacy and security issues....

There's a marvelous piece on security culture that actually covers a lot of privacy issues as well, should be required reading for anybody who knows somebody who's a part of any subculture.

One decent working definition of privacy states that an individual A gets to control who else knows what bits of their personal information. And security has to do with mitigating harm to that individual A from the (controlled/not) dissemination of information; security culture has to do with not just personal security but the security of a community/subculture as a whole - the security and privacy of each of its members.... but it's based on the concept and practice and respect of personal privacy.

And... for as much as I live in the special left-coast bubble that is my hometown, that doesn't mean a whole lot when folks in Utah who donated to Prop(h)8 got nasty letters from queerfolk (political donations mean your name, address, and recipient of donation are a matter of public record), when the names and salaries of state employees (like me, and more than one of my friends) are also a matter of public record. We could just as easily be targeted by disgruntled folk and it could easily be worse than just a nasty letter (and the internet *never* forgets).

What functional differences do you see between security and privacy? What general sorts of things do you thing should be private (for yourself, for others)? What do you consider to be "best practices" for security, for privacy?

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psybelle

thinky...