Of course, that's true. But if a restaurant would poison its visitors, I guess it would be much more difficult to hide this than if they would steal some data and give it to a third party. Therefore I consider the probability of a restaurant poisoning people much smaller that any kind of digital fraud.MessiahAndrw wrote:On personal risk level, trusting a restaurant is more risky, for me, than trusting software I install on my computer. Food has the potential to be poisioness, infect me, make me sick, shorten my lifespan, lead to long term side effects.
Bad software has the potential to kill my computer, steal my money (which I often look at my bank statement and would report this to my bank), spam people on my Facebook, etc. Bad, but at least I'm healthy, alive, and have the support of my friends and family to recover.
Of course you only have to trust only those companies whose services you wish to use. You can also choose not to use their services at all.I agree but that's slightly beyond the control of the software I install on my PC. Once you interact over a network, how can we trust the server? Even a site claims to use open source software, how do you know the software running on the server hasn't been modified to add security exploits? We have to trust other people to some point.
That's exactly my point. You choose whom to trust and what data to give to them.I use Facebook, and I understand it's beyond my control once Facebook gets my pictures and posts, so I only post stuff on Facebook that I wouldn't care if my employer/government/worst enemy/stranger saw it. I occasionally order stuff online, so I've trusted websites with my credit card and address, but I know my bank takes fraud seriously (and they call me if I make a big order online to confirm it's me).
The question is: How much of your privacy do you want to sacrifice for this modern culture? Personally, I consider my privacy more important than online shopping, social media or mobile phones, so I don't use them. But of course, everyone has to make this decision for himself.You have to trust closed source stuff to some point, or you're missing out on much of what modern culture has to offer - online shopping, social media, video games, mobile phones, GPS navigation. Just use common sense. If security is your biggest reason to not use priority software, why not build a second computer that's kept offline that you out your sensitive data on.
See, that's what I meant. You have reason to mistrust them, and so you don't use their services.iansjack wrote:If you're stupid enough to use Facebook, or other social media, then you have only yourself to blame, and you should have far greater concerns than what use Government is making of that data.
