Why “White Men”? I fit that category, and I can honestly say that where I work (a small private school), where I am in the minority of the 180 or so faculty and staff, I am the only person who has been trying desperately to call attention to any of these privacy concerns.

Nobody cares, and I don’t know how to get people to care. Parents want apps to keep their kids occupied, I mention privacy, they say “I’m sure it will be fine” in that patronizing parental voice.

Our various heads of various school divisions and departments over the years have wanted to “modernize” the curriculum, much of which seems to consist of wheeling in various technological Trojan horses that masquerade as nothing short of breakthroughs in the science of education, while covertly gathering every nugget of data possible, all for the sake of maintaining this perception that reading Shakespeare or Dostoevsky from a tablet will somehow imbue the students with immeasurably more knowledge and wisdom than reading from a book.

Whenever I really try to point out that most of the
garbage apps that some sleazebag company or consulting firm has insisted we should be relying on to “stay relevant, and keep the students ahead of the curve” are doing little more than gobbling up data like they are playing “Hungry, Hungry Hippos”, I am looked at like I have 5 legs, and just used them to walk out of my space ship and utter the most ludicrous thing anyone has ever heard. Or worse, like I am yet another person of non-color attacking the way they want to conduct their classes.

Nobody cares about privacy until it’s theirs. Every opportunity I have, all I do is drum into anyone around me “Don’t ever put anything online you don’t want EVERYONE to see”. Then something stupid happens, and I once again, all I hear is “but it was set to private!”

I still can’t believe how many people, even those who considered themselves technologically skilled, were shocked and surprised by the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica “scandal”, and how all that shock and surprise changed nothing. How on Earth anybody can be so surprised that a company whose entire business model is selling users’ data behind their backs, did indeed give access to that data is utterly beyond me. And then after all that, still use the site? If anyone supports the products and services of companies that do things they don’t like, they are actively participating in those things, and should really rethink their priorities.

To: Will Oremus:
Why do we supposedly hear mostly white guys saying privacy doesn’t matter? Generally, the media has a quite a well documented record of attaching more importance to what white people say or do, or perhaps that all you hear? But choosing Twitter, a company whose entire business model is based on selling your privacy out from under you, and is run by none other than a white guy, as the venue to benefit from any attention you are trying to stir up seems a bit counterproductive. Also, as you are currently concerned with such things, perhaps you might want to bring to the attention of others over there at the Washington Post the number of data hunters and gatherers that the Washington Post’s website tries to exchange my data with upon first load (12 for me, so far, including krxd.net, who are really yucky).