Online Privacy Opinions and Thoughts

Troy Hunt (creator of haveibeenpwned.com) did some great coverage of this in a recent weekly update: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er_achoTZeg

Covers some of the issues with Australia's social media ban for under 16s including societal issues with it in addition to some technical. He also covered in the same one one of the best digital Id systems I've heard (albeit still with some issues). 

Sounds like discrimination is being baked in at the start, I supose it will only change with the next worldwide miscarriage of justice and become something like the Me Too movement?

This article argues that racial bias occurs because publicly available datasets are rarely diverse. I would have thought this is something that could be addressed if there was a real will to make things better. There must be enough publicly available datasets in the world for engineers to evaluate racial diversity and prioritise image quality and racial balance. 

jolt.law.harvard.edu/.../why-racial-bias-is-prevalent-in-facial-recognition-technology

Facial recognition is racially biased too, it seems to only recognise white and south east Asian faces, the darker your skin tone the less likely it is to recognise you.

Iain said:

There were amusing cases where Truth Social added AI to its platform and when asked qustions like "did Trump lose in 2020" it gave the factualy correct answer until the owners stepped in to make it answer in line with the "party line" on this and a range of other subjects

So it gives the answer the person is looking for. 

Iain said:

I only use it to find pointers to other references

I use it for the same sort of thing too, and I often check the references it gives so as to be certain of its sources.

ArchaeC said:

I read only yesterday that AI is continuing to show bias

There were amusing cases where Truth Social added AI to its platform and when asked qustions like "did Trump lose in 2020" it gave the factualy correct answer until the owners stepped in to make it answer in line with the "party line" on this and a range of other subjects.

I'm afraid AI is fundamentally flawed and I only use it to find pointers to other references rather than trusting it with answering a question reliable, whatever the platform.

Initially it seemed trained to be impartial and just give back facts now it’s a bit like an  petulant teenager.

TheCatWoman said:

We also have to be careful that AI dosen't end up causing a whole load of discrimination, by making sure it's unbiased.

I read only yesterday that AI is continuing to show bias, and it is not picking up on people who are at serious risk of harm by themselves or by others. It is far too unsafe to be relied on except in tightly controlled environments for specific jobs such as assisting in the detection of some cancers and source academic papers that mention a specific topic and that sort of thing.   

I agree Iain all that stuff did happen, you've only got to think about why the NSPC was set up over 100 years ago, and the cases they deal with haven't changed that much either. But where I have to disagree with you, is that the internet adds a whiole other level, like I said, you'd see adult magazines that had blown off a dust cart, but rarely hard porn. Poison pen letters existed, but they took some effort, now there seem to be keyboard warriors everywhere goading each other and being really really horrible and creating a climate of fear, or if you prefer creating an even bigger hole for all that nastiness to swill about in.

I'm glad that that things like child abuse are being talked about and recognised, there's a lot thats good about the internet and probably AI too, but theres a lot of bad too and at the moment the bad seems to outweigh the good. We also have to be careful that AI dosen't end up causing a whole load of discrimination, by making sure it's unbiased.

TheCatWoman said:

How is it OK that so many women in public life are threatened on a daily basis with rape and death threats, threats to their children, photo's taken outside thier houses? Obviously this happens to men in public life, but not I think to the extent that it does to women. Do we want to go back to times where it's only men who are MP's, or in senior position in public life, because women dont' feel safe enough to be a part of the public life of this country?

Things were no different when we were growing up but there was just much less publicity about it. My uncle was a policeman in the west coast of scotland and when we were visiting I would always try to eavesdrop on my fathers conversations with him as he would talk about how they visited some suspected pedo and the police beat the snot out of him or how some suspected murderer was "dissapeared" and they were doing the community a service.

Abuse of all sorts seemed much more common too, not just discrimination but SA, DA and child abuse. People were conditioned to look the other way because we "don't talk about that stuff".

At least now it is being exposed and there is much more proof to go after the perpetrators using the legal system.

So on balance it is much better now in spite of what the scaremongering tabloids would have us believe.

But who programes the AI, what is it trained on? I'm not saying the Met police are all good guys, or that the organisation as a whole is it for purpose, but there will be some good people, making choices and seeing things that a rules based AI system probably won't, like that somebodies struggling with mental health and whilst they maybe causing distress to those around them, they need help rather than punishment.

AI is more likely to follow programmed rules than a Met police officer .

TheCatWoman said:

I'd love to see the fashion industry take more responsibility

Its a sick industry, to blame mostly, for all of the deaths, smoking, diet misinformation. Child catching. As models are all plucked as children. I have a friend I met at University (who looks perfectly ordinary) she was a model at 19-20 and did a Dolce and Gabana show. At the end they gave her a paper back containing £10000 in cash. She told me that if she worked in Paris she could continue to be a model because in France you can weigh 2lbs more than in the UK. She wisely decided it was not for her. Most people even models cant look that thin unless they starve themselves, when you do that you body overcompensates by making you put on more and more weight.

I think they will remove all privacy so people have to pay a premium to get it back. Totally transparency is not a bad thing in terms of cleaning up the internet. It may affect whay we use it for. 

Dosen't AI have it's own problems though? It's been shown so many times to have biases, often racial biases.

I'd love to see the fashion industry take more responsibility for the images it portrays, it's not enough to just have the odd plus size model, or older one. We need designers to design for real womens bodies not the boyish shapes of most models, apparently real womens bodies distort the shape of the clothes! WTF! 

But it's more than just the fashion industry, the previous dentist I had was big into cosmetic stuff, he had 2 big tv screens in the waiting room showing before and after pictures from the surgeries he offered, they were all women, how younger women could look better if they had braces and how older women could look younger from having dental implants and fillers in their faces and around thier jaw lines. If they had to take a tooth out the first ting they tried to do was get you to fork out thousands for implants and they didn't do bridges or crowns. A small tooth impant would cost as much as my car did and bigger ones many thousands, is it any wonder that so many people are going abroad for these procedures when they're so expensive here and other options aren't offered? 

 It will be interesting to see how the social media ban for under 16's in Australia goes.

I dont' expect any privacy online, it's one reason why I do so little of it. One of the things that worries me is the numbers of reports I've read about people's smart speakers listening to them and sending data back to base. What these companies will do with all this information, the gods alone know, they will say, if the admit to it, that it will help improve services, but if thats what all this tracking is supposed to do, then why do I keep getting romantic fiction pushed at me on my kindle, I've never downloaded romantic fiction, I can't stand the stuff it makes me want to chuck. 

It’s not in any way ok. There is the looking at it and the reality of what it does to lives. I watch films sometimes on this YouTube channel called soft white underbelly - most of the stories relating to the porn industry tell of it being about desperation, drug abuse and exploitation of women. It’s not a world I want my sisters to have to live in I have quite strong views about it.  

The problem is also that women’s self image is damaged because of the fashion industry. Also that women don’t have any really good role models other than those deemed beautiful. So women and girls are pressured by peers from a young age to look and feel a certain way about themselves and sex. 

I think these big companies will try to avoid direct culpability for as long as possible. The internet is policed now but in the beginning it was just whatever people posted. Which in America consisted of roadkill, porn and doctored images. Really we need ai instead of police as people are too corruptible. 

When I was a child you might find some soft porn that had fallen off the back of a bin lorry or under your dads bed, but thats nothing like whats out there now. Young people are seeing so much hard porn they think thats how relationships should be, they think it's OK to be choked and to choke. It's not just sex either, it's things like Pro-Ana groups, who promote anorexia as a lifestyle choice, there are suicide groups. Then there's all the terror related stuff, not just from Islamic State and thier ilk, but far right too, there are way to many sites encouraging young men to treat women as having no rights or freedoms anywhere least of all over their own bodies. Then theres all the child porn, and paedo groups.

How is this OK?

How is it OK that so many women in public life are threatened on a daily basis with rape and death threats, threats to their children, photo's taken outside thier houses? Obviously this happens to men in public life, but not I think to the extent that it does to women. Do we want to go back to times where it's only men who are MP's, or in senior position in public life, because women dont' feel safe enough to be a part of the public life of this country?

I’m not keen on surveillance, although I’m conflicted about whether or not it’s a good thing with so much serious crime online. I worry about all the harm happening online and about money laundering. I would need to hear an in depth argument by knowledgeable people before I would come to a conclusion over how much surveillance is acceptable, but something needs to change, be it surveillance or legislation.

I would like to know the extent of online surveillance that goes on in the UK and Ireland. At the moment I’m highly suspicious of the British Government and services such as MI5 and MI6 following this case https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/2025/12/11/mi5-has-blind-spot-over-northern-ireland-troubles-psni-chief-says/

Also this case in which a woman was terrorised by an MI5 recruit.https://www.centreforwomensjustice.org.uk/news/2025/2/12/mi5-misled-multiple-courts-about-informant-who-abused-women

I don’t think it is ever morally right to inflict harm on vulnerable people in the name of a ‘greater good’, although MI5’s record shows their actions weren’t always for a greater good.

These big companies move in where ever there is new territory for them to profit from but take no responsibily for the content they channel. They would argue they are not the gatekeepers. Its a gap for someone else to sell you more security products. Privacy will become VERY expensive.

When you swim in the ocean around the UK, you think that the risk of bumping into a shark is low, in reality though its all one ocean really and the climate is changing all the time, this is kind of how I view the internet. 

Isn't that the same in the real world with teenagers, you can't be watching them 24/7?

 I’m sure they won’t be interested in you unless you’re planning something awful 

I don't have a problem with age verification there's stuff that young minds should not be exposed too, nor should those who innocently stumble across something.

Don't many social media sites go through your address book on your phone or pooter to make connections between you and others?