the.blog @scwleung

Those whom I speak with on a regular basis knows that I care pretty deeply about my privacy. In fact, much of what I’ve been doing (as well as much of my recent behaviour) has been driven by my current stance about online privacy.

And what is this ‘stance’, you may ask…

Well, it’s simple. It’s also been reiterated time and again by those more well-known and more influential than I (not to mention that they also write better). It’s this: the age of true privacy is over; now is the age when we must recognize that the best we can do is control and sculpt how the digital world records and stores our information and our thoughts. In short: Personal e-PR.

It’s probably a little more than that, actually. It’s about sculpting your online persona such that it’s personal, without being too personal. It’s letting the world see into your life, but not so much so that your lifestream is an open book. It’s ultimately having control of your personal information floodgate.

Isn’t that a doozy?

In all seriousness, this shouldn’t be a daunting task. Social networks and advertisers should be making this easy for you. However, this isn’t always the case. Corporations, afterall, are entities whose sole purpose is to increase value for shareholders, and for the most part, you are not a shareholder. In fact, many of us aren’t shareholders for these social networks and advertisers. We are, however, stakeholders in their products. So, shouldn’t we have a say in their business practices?

In actuality, I find a large majority of social networks and online advertising networks would rather promote their shareholder valued than take care of their user base. They try to subvert user rights through carefully crafted and overly obtuse EULAs or Terms and Conditions. They also try to mask their activity through layers of PR and other well-crafted ‘nice words’. These practices are underhanded and simply unjust. Needless to say, they must be stopped.

How can we possibly stop these nameless and faceless corporations, you may ask? Easy. Spread the word. Educate people about what companies are doing with your data. Read the EULAs. Show people PleaseRobMe.com. Essentially, make as much noise as possible and let the people decide. If you’re perfectly alright with your life as an open book, please do so, but know the risks. If you prefer to keep parts of your life private, then find out how you can do so. It really isn’t hard. Afterall, most of them have privacy settings you can tweak. The worst you can do is abandon it all.

Hell, I did. Facebook is dead to me.

In any case, please spend the time to think, organize your thoughts and act. Do this, not for me, but for you and your digital self.

Ciao, until next time.

scwleung

It’s no secret. I was a pirate. Not the kind who roamed the Seven Seas in search of loot to pillage. No Sir. I’m a new age pirate. I dive deep into the vastgness of the net in an endless pursuit of data. Yes, my fellow friends. I was once a software and data pirate.

But no longer. I have hung up my digital cutlass and have lain fallow my bandwidth. I have declared my early retirement, and it is not simply because I have collected enough e-riches (or iRiches if Steve Jobs has his way) to satisfy me for a lifetime.

In fact, I’m not entirely certain why I stopped.

It’s been difficult for me to nail down why I’ve stopped. So instead of mulling over it till the cows come home, I’ve decided to post some of my potential reasons. Perhaps the wisdom of crowds will point me in the right direction.

Reason 1 – Financial

Let’s be clear. I make money now. Not the mad marketing dough that’s continually purported in Mad Men. Not in the slightest. It is, however, enough for me to live off of and enjoy nice things with. Tie this in with the fact that I don’t subscribe to cable, the math points to that the money I save from not subscribing to cable can be poured into buying TV episodes and movies on DVD (or Blu-Ray).

While all this is true, it doesn’t fully explain my situation. Afterall, I was more than happy to pirate movies and TV shows when I was making money in the past few years. Also, I was more than happy to buy DVDs even when I wasn’t making money. No, this is only a partial explanation. (Though I have to admit that it is nice to see DVD prices fall.)

Reason 2 – Social

There’s two aspects of social in this case. The first is the general social acceptance and tolerance of piracy. The second is that despite the social acceptability, there are still legal hurdles currently in place, and to be enacted in the future that will try to reverse this trend.

Despite having countercultural tendencies, I don’t really think that simple social existence would sway me away from downloading. It is an interesting thought, however, that as new technologies and services appear (think Zip.ca and iTunes Media Store), I would be more drawn to them and slowly abandon my old habits.

With regards to the legal-side of rights protection, I think most people know my stance on unjust, and oft-draconian legislations. Pretty sure I don’t have to say much more than that.

Reason 3 – Personal

It is not a secret that I work far harder than I should for someone my age (I beg to differ, though). The obvious conclusion that’s drawn from this is that I have no time to watch anything. This is so absolutely untrue, I find the simple thought of it laughable. I take in so much more media now than ever before. I listen to 5 or 6 podcasts a week; I finish a video game every two weeks; I read more (legitimately paid for) books on my Kindle than I did throughout my entire undergrad degree.

Also, with my being out of the apartment so often during the day, it would make sense for me to use my full bandwidth to download all day, every day. And yet, I am not.

In any case, those are the three reasons I have pondered on for the last few weeks, as well as my attempts at debunking each of them. It’s clear that I have made little progress since I started this exerecise. Perhaps you can help? Would love to hear if you, too, have stopped plundering the digital seas. And if so, why.

In any case, that’s all from me.

Ciao

Sam

I received a mass distribution email from Charlie Angus, MP [NDP, Digital Affairs Critic] regarding the need for ACTA transparency and public consultation on the subject. If you haven’t heard much about ACTA, it’s an international treaty on copyright that is being negotiated in secret with little or no oversight into the issue. I encourage you all to read the email [below], as well as Michael Geist’s blog regarding the issue. I feel that this is a fundamentally important issue that each Canadian needs to know about.

Dear Friend of Fair Copyright,

Thank you very much for taking the time to make your voice heard on the fight for fair copyright in Canada. In addition to yours, I have received well over 25,000 emails, letters, Facebook messages, faxes and phone-calls from everyday Canadians who want their elected officials to heed the call for fair copyright legislation in Canada for users, creators and innovators – NOT just the U.S. music and film industry lobbies.

Make no mistake, your emails and letters have made a huge impact. Without the enormous groundswell of support for fair copyright, the Conservatives never would have undertaken the consultation process that they did. Will they listen to what they heard? That remains to be seen.

A factor that threatens the development of fair copyright in Canada is the ongoing Anti-Counterfeiting Treaty Agreement (ACTA) negotiations. These talks have been conducted under a heavy veil of secrecy that excludes citizen engagement, denies public or media oversight, and undermines domestic copyright laws like those currently being considered in many countries around the world, including Canada.

Please read on for more info, but I want to make sure you take this opportunity to add your voice to those opposed to the ACTA secrecy. If you’re on Facebook, please join this group and ask your contact list to do the same: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=288885939910&ref=ts#.

Documents that have leaked from the talks show that negotiators are hammering out a deal that would criminalize internet users. It would require ISPs to spy on individual internet use and shut down access to content based any potential allegation of infringement.

The most sinister of these is the “three strikes” proposal. It sets out that anyone who is accused – NOT convicted – of illegal downloading three times is summarily disconnected from the internet and prevented from obtaining another account.

Please join the chorus of voices calling for transparency and accountability on the ACTA negotiations, so that our government doesn’t negotiate away Canada’s ability to determine what fair domestic copyright laws should be.

Sincerely,

Charlie Angus, MP
Digital Affairs Critic, NDP