They just aren't that bright

Now, while Cracked.com is not considered an academically rigorous source, they are up there with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert when it comes to satire and not having to make up facts to be funny or truthful. Many of the students in my CS 280 class are concerned about privacy and government intervention in their lives. At the same time, many of them are looking for government regulation when it comes to privacy policies on the Internet.

Personally, I look at the government as the last place I would look for assistance in my life. I operate my personal and business lives as if the government is NEVER going to help me, and that's been a pretty accurate way of living my life. When it comes down to it, the government just isn't all that bright for the most part. I do hold the Canadian government in a bit higher regard when it comes to IQ, compared to the American government but not enough for me to change my mind for the most part.

Consider how good law enforcement / national security is at basic surveillance......

http://www.cracked.com/article_19677_6-people-who-turned-tables-government-surveillance.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CrackedRSS+%28Cracked%3A+All+Posts%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Or the priorities of government....Seriously, did these things need to be banned?

http://www.cracked.com/article_19192_6-things-you-wonE28099t-believe-got-banned-by-modern-governments.html


Protecting your privacy on the Internet is actually quite simple, don't post anything you don't want plastered on the front page of the Leader-Post or emailed to your boss. Don't use companies whose privacy policies aren't up to your personal standards. While Google and Facebook dominate their markets, they are not the only companies that do search or social networking. Market economics will reward a company who can provide search as good as Google while at the same time providing a higher level of privacy to its users. The drawback may be that you pay a monthly fee to use the service since they will not be able to charge as much for advertising because they don't have as much information about their users.

How much would you pay for Google quality searches without the privacy implications? Personally, I will continue to use Google as I police my own privacy. As a challenge, I will give the first person who can find an embarrassing article, picture, or status update about me $25 (it must have come from me or one of my customers - no fair making one up yourself using photoshop).

Ready, set, go!