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Goodbye, Privacy!
“You have no privacy. Get over it!”
If you’ve been around tech long enough, you’ve probably run across former SUN Microsystems CEO, Scott McNealy’s famous (or infamous) quote. That goes back to 1999 and it raised a boatload of hackles back in the day. Here’s a more recent one for you.
“Privacy can’t be tolerated, lest, in some dark recess, a malcontent plots to unleash atomic weapons, biological weapons, computer viruses, antimatter, or any other technology that poses an existential threat.”
That one is from my great friend, Robert J. Sawyer, science fiction novelist extraordinaire, from his latest book, “The Downloaded,” currently an Audible Original bestseller. It’s also an amazing audiobook with some incredible performances by Brendan Fraser, Luke Kirby, Vanessa Sears, Colm Feore, and Andrew Phung.
Anyhow, I was listening to the book (don’t worry, no spoilers) and this quote about privacy appears. So I wrote it down. Now, this isn’t the first time that Rob has brought up the idea of a society where privacy is considered a bad idea. He did so in another book, the Hugo award winning, “Hominids.” I’m not going to tell you what Rob actually thinks about this. Read his books, listen to his interviews, or talk to him if you really want to know. What I want to do here is discuss the idea.
Is privacy a bad thing? Will there be a time when we can no longer afford the luxury of privacy? Are we already there?
Privacy in the modern world is something we already think about. Well, some people do and I suspect that, push come to shove, most don’t really care, despite all this thinking about it. Nevertheless, some people do care a great deal and among them, some already mourn its passing as we willingly share our personal data with companies like Facebook or X (the site formerly known as Twitter) in exchange for free access to the services they provide. That’s what Scott McNealy was really talking about when he made his pronouncement on the subject. He argued that with the increasing use of technology and the internet, people were essentially giving up their right to privacy. He believed that individuals needed to accept this reality and move on, rather than trying to cling to an outdated notion of privacy.
