Re: Schneier, Data and Goliath: no hope for privacy

On Thu, 20 Feb 2025, Salvador Mirzo wrote:

Amen! Quite an efficiency hack! =D Another "security" hack I have implemented
for my father is that I have forbidden him from getting government digital ID on
his smart phone. This is very funny, because once scammers called him and told
some kind of story that ended with them asking him to confirm what ever they
wanted by opening the digital ID app (this is how most old people get scammed
where I live) and he told them that he doesn't have it, due to security
reasons...
>
... the scammers sighed heavily and just hung up. =D

>
Lol.  If that's not a super inconvenience to your father, then I think
it's a great solution.  Over here these scams are quite a problem too.

At the moment, everything essential in society has to be able to be done on
paper, so it really is not a problem, and costs about 20-40 minutes per year in
extra writing on actual paper.
This scares me though! I fear the day when a smartphone is mandatory in order to
participate in society. This will be a sad day indeed. Add to that, centralbank
managed electronic currencies, that can be clawed back from you, or where you
are blocked from spending them in an instant, if you go against the government,
and we have a very dystopian situation indeed. =/

I also do talk to my father quite a lot about such matters.  And
anything suspicious at all, he always talks to me.  In fact, I've talked
to my entire family about such things.  To always let one another know
about these events---to talk often among us.  We learn more and so we
protect ourselves more.

This is good advice! My father and I, and my wife, talk about these things, but
we never formalized it, so that we say that we should talk to each other in case
anyone does get a weird message.
I read that in order to protect against voice cloning, you should decide on a
family password as well. This we also haven't done. But I am currently working
on a small IT-security curriculum for retired people, and that class will
include an example of voice cloning to show them how it works, and what they can
expect.

The reason we can be so good at handling this computing world is because
we are pretty much obsessed about it; we spend the entire day thinking
about it; reading about it; writing about it.  By talking more with our
families about these matters, they do learn more from us.  Of course, we
can't expect they'll be coworkers.  We need to take things very slowly
and only as much as they can handle it.  Then it becomes kind of fun for
them too and then they learn a bunch.

This is true. But this also requires some amount of simplification in order for
it not to become an energy drain. That is why I like my way of limiting
communication to phone and email. It only leaves two doors open which is easier
to defend than 3 or 4 or 5 doors open. ;)

So I find this to be a hueg benefit! I am also lucky because I run my
own company, so my business partners know that if they want to reach
me, they have 2 options, email or phone, and all of them accept that.

>
Nice to hear you run your own business.

>
Yes, it is the best thing that has ever happened to me except for my wife. I am
truly blessed and am very thankful for it every single day. =)

>
Nice to hear that your wife is the best thing that ever happened to you.
I unfortunately can't yet say the same.  I'm single, although I'd love
to have little kids running around and through the house. :)  But first
I gotta find someone who I love and who loves me.

In my experience, as long as you are living a positive life, and don't get
caught in depression, and caught by unreasonable aesthetic standards, this will
happen in time.
As for children, no such thing for me, since biologically I have an extremely
low chance of having children. On the other hand, my parents got the same
diagnosis from the doctor, and they had me, and the doctor said it was not
possible according to science, so who knows? ;)

Congratulations!  I think you've nailed it.
>
And it's interesting that I've found you here to be one of the most
upbeat ones around here.  And I guess this explains something.  You seem
to have a healthy life.  Well done!

Well... I can have my days too! ;)