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by Lanari 3774 days ago
Years ago I was like Richard Stallman is totally crazy!, saying stuff like don't post my pictures on Facebook and such. Today his fear is really really justifiable...
4 comments

I'm all in favor of credit where credit is due, but that's like saying "the Unabomber was right" because examples exist of modern technology being misused in the past 20 years. If anything, his advocacy has damaged the credibility of legitimate privacy and civil rights advocates.

Surely, SURELY RMS is not one and only person you have ever heard in your entire life warn about the dangers of putting personal information online, or the dangers of government surveillance. That's all just common sense and being relatively informed and skeptical about the world and the people around you.

RMS says a heck of a lot more than "don't post your pictures on Facebook", much like PETA says a lot more than just, "treat animals ethically", or Earth First says a lot more than just, "don't destroy the environment". If sea levels rise much more in my lifetime, one lesson I will not draw from it is, "Earth First was right!"

If you care about this stuff, donate to the ACLU, not the FSF.

Really? Let's not forget the NSA revelations that occurred so recently. Thanks for reminding me to renew my fsf membership
The ACLU would make much better use of your money.
I'm also a member of the ACLU.
It's not anything a human can't do in theory, identifying plants and common architecture features. If you are uploading photos on facebook, it's far more likely you'll leak geographic data through the photo's metadata, your ip, and gps.
Metadata is basically giving your data...

Stallman was asking to not put any kind of his pictures on Facebook, which means your face is recognized now by Facebook, and there's plenty of things to do with that...

Everything that man says about privacy and digital freedom is ultimately proven true given enough time. Unfortunately he's still considered a crackpot.
Today his fear is really really justifiable...

Why, exactly?

Usually I like people to know where the photos I share publicly are taken. Indeed, that's why I go to the trouble of captioning or manually geotagging them.