Its escape from the laboratory into the environment at large was perhaps more because of the lack of credible alternatives that enjoyed the support of the computer industry as it was to the simplicity and inherent scalability of its design.
This is downright humorous. The OSI stack was not only credible, it was all-but-anointed in the minds of governments and organizations. There’s a reason people attempt to retrofit the seven-layer OSI model onto the very loosely-layered TCP/IP stack: OSI was supposed to win, and it seems some people never really adapted to the fact a simpler model pulled the rug out from under it.
It certainly seems as if the Internet is sealing up its once very loose seams. The network that carries our packets is no longer a trusted associate that enables communications. It is instead viewed as a toxic hostile environment that simply cannot be trusted.
No more than the mail service cannot be trusted.
This quote is a bit too over-the-top, in that it assumes a false dichotomy, and forgets that people cover up and lock things away and do not reveal things all the time, even when we don’t have specific people we’re hiding them from. This is especially true when the default is to hide communications, as when you mail letters: Letters sealed in envelopes are the default, postcards are unusual. Does that mean we consider the postal service to be toxic and hostile? No, it means we picked a sensible default for mail.
Picking these defaults is important: If everyone encrypts, nobody who encrypts draws attention to themselves, and, what’s more, people regard privacy as normal, as opposed to something you have to justify. After all, do you think someone who lives in a home with opaque walls is some weirdo creep who must be doing something in there to justify the opacity of their walls? No, because transparent walls are highly unusual.
If the network is no longer the rich vein of data that it used to be, then the data collected by content servers is a more than ample replacement. If the large content factories have collected such a rich profile of my activities, then it seems entirely logical that they will be placed under considerable pressure to selectively share that profile with others.
And other pressure can be placed on those companies which run such silos to not store so much data in the first place. The EU is already making moves in this direction.
I remember being a confused student back in the early 90’s memorizing the OSI model, only to realize years later that TCP/IP beat out IPX/SPX (Novell) and NetBEUI (Microsoft) because it was simpler.
The common, limiting factor of adopting “better” models is always the same thing: people.
This is downright humorous. The OSI stack was not only credible, it was all-but-anointed in the minds of governments and organizations. There’s a reason people attempt to retrofit the seven-layer OSI model onto the very loosely-layered TCP/IP stack: OSI was supposed to win, and it seems some people never really adapted to the fact a simpler model pulled the rug out from under it.
No more than the mail service cannot be trusted.
This quote is a bit too over-the-top, in that it assumes a false dichotomy, and forgets that people cover up and lock things away and do not reveal things all the time, even when we don’t have specific people we’re hiding them from. This is especially true when the default is to hide communications, as when you mail letters: Letters sealed in envelopes are the default, postcards are unusual. Does that mean we consider the postal service to be toxic and hostile? No, it means we picked a sensible default for mail.
Picking these defaults is important: If everyone encrypts, nobody who encrypts draws attention to themselves, and, what’s more, people regard privacy as normal, as opposed to something you have to justify. After all, do you think someone who lives in a home with opaque walls is some weirdo creep who must be doing something in there to justify the opacity of their walls? No, because transparent walls are highly unusual.
And other pressure can be placed on those companies which run such silos to not store so much data in the first place. The EU is already making moves in this direction.
I remember being a confused student back in the early 90’s memorizing the OSI model, only to realize years later that TCP/IP beat out IPX/SPX (Novell) and NetBEUI (Microsoft) because it was simpler.
The common, limiting factor of adopting “better” models is always the same thing: people.