Of Privacy and Pride

I’ve written (and said) frequently that convenience and security are in conflict. That short, easily remembered password makes your life easier. Right up until some hacker (easily) guesses it. I just got a new phone, a new Galaxy Note9 thanks to my Galaxy Forever plan with Sprint, and it offers various biometric forms of security. Then it also offered the option of keeping the phone unlocked if I was carrying it. Small print notes that the phone cannot tell if it is you that is carrying it.

Convenient? Yes. Secure? No.

So via my subscription to Walt Hickye’s Numlock News, I encountered this article in Vox about privacy and children’s data. It’s worth reading. Pride in your children may be in conflict with their security, just as convenience is with yours. Walt Hickey comments: “On the other hand, I wish concerned politicians the very best of luck in convincing new parents to not share pictures of their babies on the internet.”

Parents are going to show pictures of those cute babies. They just are.

And thus the conflict goes on!