Ecency Observations #5 - A Picture Reveals All

in Ecency27 days ago


Source


You have no reasonable expectations of privacy in public. That is the law in my country. We also have laws that protect our right to privacy, as this is a fundamental right to maintaining your dignity. The law is very specific though; once you're in public you cannot expect the same level of privacy as when you're in the privacy of your own home.

I personally haven't shared my image online ever since I deleted my Facebook and Instagram accounts (not so long ago). I learned that once your image is in the public domain, you have very little control over who sees it and what they do with it, or what it may mean for your privacy and dignity going forward.

You can understand my shock and bewilderment when I came across certain Hive communities requiring users to post a selfie of them holding a placard to participate. For me, this is beyond the absurd. But we'll come back to to this later.

To this day, nobody is able to identify Satoshi Nakamoto et al, despite the important work that was done by this individual(s). We benefit immensely from Bitcoin and it's technological offshoots (all DAPs including Ecency benefit directly from the concepts articulated by Satoshi et al.), yet the inventors chose to remain anonymous. I'm sure they have their reasons for anonymity. No amount of bitcoin will make them reveal themselves, not even the prospect of celebrity. True heroes in my book!

So why would a community in a decentralised app require people to "expose" their identity for participation? If there are no malevolent intentions, then I'll deduce it to utter lazyness and or ignorance. This is because there are many ways to prove if a user is human without requiring them to expose their identity. The promise of reward and community is a very good lure, and the typical user doesn't see the hook.

Perhaps I'm overreacting, but I value my and your privacy enough to feel violated on your behalf, even if you don't realise it.
A lot of people share their images online as part of their brand, business, or simply just want to be seen. This is absolutely fine if you're doing it outside of any draconian mandate.

One thing I love about Ecency and similar platforms, is that people and communities are not censored. You can participate in whatever you want, however you want. Just don't compromise yourself in the process. Big brother is watching


I would love to hear your perspectives on the matter. Am I exaggerating? Thank you for reading 🙂

Sort:  

Congratulations @kamuhive! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)

You made more than 500 comments.
Your next target is to reach 600 comments.
You received more than 50 HP as payout for your posts, comments and curation.
Your next payout target is 100 HP.
The unit is Hive Power equivalent because post and comment rewards can be split into HP and HBD

You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Check out our last posts:

Hive Power Up Day - May 1st 2024