Keith Curtis dropped out of University of Michigan to become veteran proprietary programmer at Microsoft just to get dropped out again to become activist author and film-maker about free software. Repeatedly he made choices so he talks on conflicting choices that any user today makes between State and Internet.
Shardul Pandey: These days when the world is gripped in to Snowden syndrome, people are getting cautious and confused about the conveniences, internet is giving to them. Sometime back Dr Richard Stallman said to me, "I see that the Internet is turning into a scheme that gives people convenience in exchange for their freedom. Disservices such as Facebook invite people to share lots of personal information with a company that can make use of it, and hand it to the state as well." Before also he used to say like that more often than not but with Edward Snowden's act almost all his apprehensions are established as absolute facts. On 11 June 2013 in his political notes he said, "This man is a hero comparable to Daniel Ellsberg and Bradley Manning." How do you asses it?
Keith Curtis: RMS is right that the Internet is to some extent exchanging convenience for freedom, but that is also a simplistic perspective. The Internet is changing everything: education, business, science, culture. How many know of the Harlem Shake phenomenon? That is a trivial example, but it demonstrates a global mind and that physical distance is no longer a barrier to the exchange of (generally good) ideas. Billions have heard of Wikipedia and benefit from it, either directly or indirectly (you use a Boeing airplane and a Boeing engineer used it).
In the case of Facebook, there is nothing on that site that I wouldn't post on any other as well, and often do post to multiple sites. If what I write and like allows them to pick custom and more targeted advertising, I have no problem with that. I'd rather someone try to find things interesting to me than just purely random content. Rather than just railing against things, it is better to have more specific criticisms and suggestions. Facebook has greatly improved their privacy settings.
As for Snowden, I am torn between the idea that the government must do dirty things to keep us from getting blown up, and protecting privacy and freedom. Terrorists must talk to each other over the Internet like the rest of us do. I don't think that mass surveillance is a good idea, but I do like the ability for the government to be able to listen to particular conversations sometimes. If your job was to protect other people from being killed, you'd want some surveillance capabilities. Unfortunately, because it isn't being run in the private sector, they end up building more than they need. There is absolutely no need for them to listen to my phone conversations. If they are bothering with it, then they are just stupid and wasting resources.
When I think about how the government is taking away my freedoms, I don't worry about them listening into my phone calls as much as I think about how they are creating massive debts which I will have to repay, they are devaluing the currency to "stimulate" the economy, the retirement systems are going bankrupt, they create policies which have the unintended consequence of healthcare very expensive, they have stupid energy policies which raise the cost of travel, food and everything, etc. A national healthcare system takes away a lot of freedom.
Shardul Pandey: Internet is not only about taking away freedoms but it has given many unprecedented freedoms to people across all countries. May be it has become a double-edged sword in the hands of humanity so how to further it for not to harm the privacy of individual user ?
Keith Curtis: Yes, the Internet is a double-edged sword. At the same time, we can try to fix things with specific suggestions. If you are worried about Internet freedoms and other freedoms, then vote for libertarian leaders who will do a better job balancing the tradeoffs. Obama is the opposite of a libertarian. A 50-page piece of legislation would fix our healthcare system. Obama's was 2,700 pages and which puts the government in even greater control and overall makes the system more expensive and worse. Given he doesn't care about freedom in healthcare, you can be sure he doesn't care about it for the Internet either. So many people have cellphones because of the free market, not because of any government mandate. We need programs to help the poor, but single payer healthcare controls everyone. Surveillance is a minor issue. Anyone who gets upset about it clearly doesn't realize all the other ways government is taking our liberty. The lack of freedom, in software, and in society, are the biggest challenges that face us.