Cyber101x Cyberwar, Surveillance and Security - Week 1 - The New Internet

CONCEALING YOUR IDENTITY ON THE INTERNET
 
 BRUCE SCHNEIER: The old saying is that on the internet, nobody knows you're a dog. And these days, it's more like, on the internet, everyone knows exactly what kind of dog you are. It is becoming harder to change your identity. And if you're a woman, to have a male name and maybe be taken more seriously. Or if you're a member of a minority to use a more common name and be treated differently. That's incredibly valuable. Even taking an alias to explore a different aspect of yourself. If you're joining a support group at some time, you might not want to use your real name. This is becoming harder. It's incredibly important. We know that being able to shed the baggage of your identity, especially if you are from a minority class, is incredibly empowering. And that's something we shouldn't give up lightly.

HOW WE GIVE UP METADATA

  BRUCE SCHNEIER: I mean, certainly, we give up metadata continuously willingly on our computers, on our phones. And every device we use these days is producing data and metadata sitting as the cloud. And in some ways, yes, we do it willingly. We accept Facebook, which is collecting enormous data and metadata about us, for free in exchange for that. Now you can argue that we're doing that as consumers willingly, but I'm not sure we're really doing it informed. I'm not convinced that we think in the morning, you know, I'm really happy my phone company is tracking my location 24/7 and maybe sharing that data with the government, because I love getting cell phone calls. We just think, I need my cell phone. So a lot of this data and metadata collection is hidden. It's not salient. We're not really thinking about it as it happens. So even though we're doing it willingly, I'm not convinced there's informed consent going on. I think that most of us believe, at some level, that we're maintaining our privacy. That if I go off and sneak around the corner, I'm thinking I'm sneaking around the corner. I don't think, well, the jig is up, because Apple knows where I am.

SOCIAL NORMS AND KIDS MAINTAINING PRIVACY

 BRUCE SCHNEIER: It's interesting to see how social norms change. We are seeing changes that for now for kids, it's public by default private by effort. Kids still value privacy enormously. And if you're a teenager or know a teenager, you know that's true. Privacy from their peers, their teachers, their parents, they don't think about the government, but they certainly think about privacy. And kids spend a lot of effort trying to maintain their privacy. Whether it's using apps like Snapchat that delete things, or scraping their Facebook wall or using aliases, kids take a lot of pains to keep their privacy. They may not be sophisticated. They might not be able to maintain privacy against the government or foreign governments, but they are trying to maintain privacy. Even though it's harder, even though public is more of a default, privacy is an inherent human need. So I think we are in the middle of some profound social changes, but we're not going to move to a world where kids say oh I never had any privacy.