What Would "Controlling Your Own Data" Actually Look Like on Steem?
Tonight I watched The Great Hack which just came out on Netflix.
Wow.
(Image via IMDB)
Want to make sense of the Trump election, Brexit, "fake news", Cambridge Analytica, and Zuckerberg testifying before Congress? I definitely suggest you watch it.
This documentary got me thinking once again about privacy. Yes, I'm all about radical transparency (see Privacy, Identity, and Human Flourishing), but there's also a place for truly owning your own data online. That means you control it and you get to decide how and when it is used by others. As an example, you might encrypt a message and only give the decryption key to people you select. Others might even pay you for the information you have which is valuable, instead of just scraping it off your social feed for free.
This stuff is really important. To get a sense of how important, please spend a few minutes and read A Cypherpunk's Manifesto. It's just over 800 words and will take about 7 minutes on average to read. Here's just a couple lines of this excellent text written in 1993:
For privacy to be widespread it must be part of a social contract. People must come and together deploy these systems for the common good. Privacy only extends so far as the cooperation of one's fellows in society.
What would privacy on Steem look like?
Yes, we can send encrypted memos easily enough by just doing a transfer and starting the memo with a #, but what about encrypted posts which only certain people can read? What might that look like?
Well, let's look at an example. Imagine you want to post something here on this public blockchain, but you only want a small community of friends to read it. You want to own this data and decide who has access. I've played with similar ideas before:
But here's a way to make it even easier with a bookmarklet. What's a bookmarklet? Well it's...
a small software application stored as a bookmark in a web browser, which typically allows a user to interact with the currently loaded web page in some way.
It's simple enough to create a new bookmark (usually in your browser's Bookmarks Bar), give it a name, and paste in the JavaScript code that will interact with the page you're on. This post from a few years ago includes a little animation showing how bookmarklets work. For this encryption example, you can use the code here in this github gist: https://gist.github.com/lukestokes/10bf255012a0de027ba4e1235f471a39
Just copy the raw code from here and save it as the "url" of a bookmark to create a bookmarklet. I gave mine the name "Encryption".
Please note, you should never install bookmarklets you don't trust as they can steal your sessions and possibly even your private keys if they are loaded into your browser memory or accessible via JavaScript. I got the code for this one from this page which includes crypto libraries hosted by cloudflare. If you're okay with that, proceed on.
Now, to test it out, click your bookmarklet, select the text below, copy it, and paste it in the "Text to Decrypt" textarea. Use the password 2o6cfqpPtHpLK7NYPvXzbqUFt and click Decrypt:
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
That right there is a real example of how we can easily send encrypted messages on Steem.
Just post an encrypted message you only want to share with your friends by encrypting it with a password you send to them via an encrypted Steem memo.
Keep in mind that what you put on a blockchain is there forever, so don't expect your secret message to stay secret forever. Most encryption mechanisms eventually become vulnerable to faster (or quantum) computers which can brute force them, but for now you're fine to use methods like this as long as we're not talking government level secrets.
I hope you watch The Great Hack, read A Cypherpunk's Manifesto, and think about what role privacy plays in your online life.
Do you find this interesting? Want to try it out? Leave an encrypted comment and send me 0.001 STEEM with the password in a memo beginning with # (or, if that's too much work, just leave the password in plain text with your comment so others can decrypt it also).
It will be nice if encrypted post is built-in to the Steem platform and it will be even better if it is made such that only a predefined group of people are able to decrypt the post by default
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I agree. I just left a comment here. Maybe you can do the same.
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
#max
435f575dc7ac676bc7c56ea565114e9f4a3fb6376cb97373ab7e819b4cba7532OmhU26C3WvasNV0UWMFRhU+XRP6L3ptKsIEfTGvpF2XcjakwyFJuW7CT1MDznCGn
This post is manually curated by @azizbd and received an upvote from @SchoolForSDG4
School For SDG4
A School For Social and Educational Development of Underprivileged Children
I need to get Netflix again! #popcorn
You can find a torrent to it on piratebay.
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Cool .. I'm loving it. By the way, you can add integrity hashes in your bookmarklet script tags like this, then you don't have to trust cloudflare with the content (you just need them to deliver the goods).
I just tried, but unfortunately get this result:
Will watch it tonight. Thanks.
I would love this to happen but with three additional features (on is quite hard to come up without centralizing stuff)...
Yeah, that would be interesting. Maybe each post could simply be modified to include a decryption key and, if that is set, decrypt the post before displaying it. That wouldn't be automatic, but you could at least, at a later date, modify a post to include the decryption key.
Yeah, that would be easy enough just to decide, in the editor maybe, what you'd like to encrypt. You could then select the text, right, click and select "encrypt" maybe with some options for who sees it (followers only, a selected list of followers, etc).
This one has me confused. Nothing can be deleted on a blockchain, as you said, so I'm not quite sure how that applies here.
For No 3, if it cannot be deleted, then at least be edited to blank ??
#3 uses a third location... the blockchain metadata will be there still (and unchanged) but pointing to nothing after the third location is "forfeited"...
Basically after the timeout, you should not "believe in the destination". Kind of like pointing to an IPFS location that has encoded data pointing you somewhere with a dependency on time. After that "particular" time, the decoder will show you nothing... or something not useful.
Assuming you know the password, you can reverse clock back and if the source is still available, see the data, but if you don't know the password... it is useless...
I know it's not perfect... and I am still thinking about how to make it bullet proof... but so far, I like the idea.
Interesting. So something like snapchat where the content only lives for a short period of time. It seems somewhat centralized to me.
It is, that was the part I was trying to say that is hard to decentralize (at least to my knowledge).
@chekohler -here is a Nice post about that movie too
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looking forward to watching this one!
I like to be cautious when "money" goes into a documentary before I start absorbing the ideas into my mind. I know from experience that I'm easily fooled!
I found reviews .. IMDB is a very popular movie database used by (among other things) file sharing plugins.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9358204/externalreviews
Of course we don't know if we can trust the reviewer. One review "The Economist" sounded familiar. I really can't say anything about this re-viewer's credibility.
Another tip: look into the CIA's connection to Hollywood but don't use Google to investigate. Google's search results have been altered to skew and even hide results even if you search for something directly. Not sure if this is "Hollywood" per say. Reply if you know, set me straight..
Thanks for the links! I wonder though, how do you determine if the reviewer is also planting a mind virus? Why value their perspective higher than your own experience when watching the movie yourself?
For example, I just read the Economist review, and it sounded to me like a lot of "whataboutism." Much of it seems to imply the documentary should have gone further and focus on the entire ad industry. That's huge and (IMO) far too big to "focus" on at all. Documentaries, to me, are entertainment. I don't look them for truth or wisdom, but for information I can think about and add to my collection as I determine my own perspectives. I think the movie accurately expressed other people's views. To me, that doesn't mean it justified those views as being accurate. I don't see that as the role of a documentary, but the role of the viewer to determine on their own. I actually liked how it questions in the integrity and motivations of the characters it profiled. It did so to a significant degree that I really appreciated, but this wasn't mentioned at all in the review (they actually implied the opposite!). Statements weren't made at face value (IMO), they were actually demonstrating different points of view and how even the people telling this story can't be trusted fully as moral or accurate actors in the play.
Also, the Economist review makes some assumptions about how aware most people are of what's going on and what happened with the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica story. My wife was barely aware. Most people are barely aware. I don't think this is beating a sick horse at all, but raising awareness in such a way to get people to think about things like online privacy.
Hey,
Off topic for this thread but I wasn't sure how to get ahold of you. Also not sure if you are checking messages here.. I'm sure you have heard about everything on with Steem recently. If you are interested in joining our Slack to discuss what's going on - reach out to me on steem.chat or discord.
Steem = internet of sovereign citizens?