Scott McNealy: Your data is safer with marketers than governments You're better off with your data in the hands of a marketer than a government, says former Sun Microsystems supremo Scott McNealy, because you can change who you buy from, but you can't easily switch countries. “A long time ago someone said: 'You have no privacy – get over it',” McNealy said. That “someone” was McNealy himself …
If the USA screws with my data, I cannot leave.”
Sure you can. Maintain a few passports. 70% of the USA population have at least one grandparent which is an immigrant enabling them to get another passport. This percentage is lower in Europe, but still quite significant.
Granted, you will have Fuhrer Wannabies like Teresa May chastize you in front of her party conference quoting literally word for word one of Hitler's most antisemitic quotes. Just ignore her and keep your options open.
And if worst comes to worst, you can BUY cittizenship. It may not be cheap, but is doable. In the specific case of Mr McNealy in about 15 minutes to transfer some pocket change to Grand Kayman.
In fact, it is now more difficult to leave the grasp of Google+Apple+Microsoft than to leave a country.
Option A: Try getting any work done without touching any one of these or communicating with a customer which is using them.
Option B: Try finding your granddad's (Irish in McNealy's case) birth certificate and apply for a Eu passport.
Which one is easier?
...works best when it's under my control. No marketers, no government and not held in some data center.
If I choose to give info over to a private business, that's between me and them, with no third party snoopers in the mix. That info should be restricted to travel anywhere else and be deleted after a fixed period of time.
The government (and people usually throw the NHS into that) self report to the ICO far, far more than any private companies do. That's a fact.
Just because they aren't reporting themselves doesn't mean breaches don't happen, they are merely more worried about bad PR than public employees, many of whom would report to the ICO even if their bosses told them not to (sorry MPs!).
"The only time people should be worried about privacy is when government does more than protection of their lives and liberties."
Actually, I'm *very* concerned about how the government attempts to protect my life and liberty. For example, britain-attempts-brand-journalists-spies
“governments get scope creep and do more than protecting your liberties and rights. They do education. Health care. Loans.
“he only time people should be worried about privacy is when government does more than protection of their lives and liberties."
Sounds like McNealy has a bad infection of the Ayn Rand malware.
Nor a 3 customer as they are now contacting more people who were hit by their data theft discovered in November. "Your name, address, date of birth were found in the hackers possession, but don't worry about your details being used by anyone. You can check for that by providing your details to this credit tracking company, they will keep them nice and secure as well."
What about when your secret hearts desire is to buy all the pantyhose in all the colours and run around the house with them wrapped around your face, but you don't want anyone else to know this?
I'm, er, obviously asking on behalf of a friend..
PS: Pantihose? Pantyhose surely?
I always used to phrase conversations with classes of 8-12year-olds concerning data security in terms of the purchase of donald-duck or disney-princess-of-the-week underpants, and who you might or might not want knowing about it.
(No, data security and privacy isn't in any primary-school curriculum I know of, but it damned well should be! Meanwhile the state government is stripping down the teaching of how our voting systems ork because 'common' people growing up knowing how preferential polling works is damned inconvenient when trying to keep them voting for only the two major groups of idiots).
Its a lot easier for Google or Facebook to piss off their users and get dramatic losses in traffic and revenues than it is to close down the NSA or GCHQ--no matter what crap the spooks are up to. However, his contention that we should only worry about government-sponsored invasion of our privacy is self-serving at best.
And while we're on the subject of non-government data gathering and invasion of privacy, a Canadian vibrator manufacturer is caught gathering data on its customers...
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/mar/14/we-vibe-vibrator-tracking-users-sexual-habits
>a Canadian vibrator manufacturer is caught gathering data on its customers...
Oh, I'm sorry, did you think your <insert cloud-connected device here> was cloud-connected for your benefit?
Whenever someone says "cloud" it reminds me of Melbourne Metro's Myki "ticket" system. It isn't a ticket system, its a way of getting people to provide interest-free loans to the company. It also does a bit of ticketing on the side.
While he is correct, my concerns about the government using data are based on the abuses that marketers already carry out.
How about if there was an option C where marketers and government didn't collect unnecessary data in the first place. Or exchange it between different parts of the organisations to create something even worse...
Sir Tim (Berners-Lee, not Rice) recently pointed me to Solid: github.com/solid/solid. (no, not really *personally*)
This kind of thing, if implemented in enough projects, could be your option C.
With competence like that it's no wonder Sun got slurped up by Leisure Suit Larry. The issue is not who has the data but how much data they have. The more data the government or a company has the more harm they can do to people whether intentional or not. Slurp's Bloat 10 ads are showing the risk of a company having to much information and misusing it.
Willie Sutton (US bank robber) was once asked why he robbed banks and he replied "That's were the money is." Anyone with extensive customer/citizen data is a target and the more you have the juicier the target.
Has someone anonymously posted a comment on the net that is not whole hearted praise for your work? Did they imply you did something illegal? No need to spend time and effort working out who they are. Just put the URL and a small quote from the offending comment in out web site: http://duopoly.net/customer-data/, fill in your credit card number and we will send you the name, address and bank details of the offensive toe rag.
Why not sign up for our automated service? Any mention of your name in a negative context will trigger an automated alert to the NSA, DHS, or ATF. Put the video of the resultant swatting on youtube for an immediate chilling effect. At duoploy.net we have the data to keep voters in their place. Let's change the law so we can put this data to good use.
Dear Scott McNealy,
Blow it out your ass. I don't want your marketing team to bug me nor do I want my government to watch me. My business isn't yours and as long I don't do something illegal, it isn't the business of government. I will also add that malvertising is rampant. Can you guarantee me that my data that you hold won't get into the hands of malvertisers or miscreants? Can you? Our government can't so why the hell should I trust you.
Besides, if the crap that hits my spam bucket is any indication, you marketing mouseketeers haven't a clue about what I buy even with the data you hold.
Sincerely and with all due lack of respect, I remain looking for my future ex-pat life,(and yes, they are out there).
Mark85
"I am not afraid of business. But I am afraid of a bureaucrat who can impact my tax rates or health benefits or what school my kid can go to.”"
It must be hard to live in a country where all these decisions regarding taxes, heath cares or education are not democratically taken. Living in such a dictatorship must be indeed scary.
Anyway, I don't trust businesses either: their finality is to make money, not to act in the people's interest.
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