Quotable Quotes: Privacy
by Miki Saxon
Three or so decades ago friends called me a “health food nut” because I took supplements (still do). These days they call me a “privacy freak” because although I’m on LinkedIn I refuse to join Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or whatever comes next; I don’t carry a cell, find many GPS apps creepy and love my solitude.
As Aristotle said, “He is his own best friend, and takes delight in privacy whereas the man of no virtue or ability is his own worst enemy and is afraid of solitude.”
Ayn Rand said, “Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.” If that’s true, the world is headed straight back to barbarism.
Edward P. Morgan’s words ring truer today than at any time in history, “A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear it will go off in your face. It is one of the few havens remaining where a man’s mind can get both provocation and privacy.”
I wonder if David Brin was channeling Mark Zukerberg when he said, “When it comes to privacy and accountability, people always demand the former for themselves and the latter for everyone else.”
As stated, I’m not a Facebook fan for many reasons and Jaron Lanier states a major one, “Facebook says, ‘Privacy is theft,’ because they’re selling your lack of privacy to the advertisers who might show up one day.” Maybe that’s why Zukerberg doesn’t have a Facebook presence—ya think?
Danah Boyd, a senior researcher at Microsoft Research, “Defaults around how we interact have changed. A conversation in the hallway is private by default, public by effort. Online, our interactions become public by default, private by effort.”
But it is John Perry Barlow who sounds a warning that US citizens would do well to heed, “Relying on the government to protect your privacy is like asking a peeping tom to install your window blinds.”
Image credit: opensource.com
