Spying, privacy, and Octave

[Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso]

Against my better judgement, I am not going off-list with this. If you
guys think this topic is inappropriate for the public list, we should
continue in relative privacy.

On 25 June 2013 20:28, Ben Abbott <address@hidden>
> p.s. Jordi, I'm very unhappy about the NSA spying (particularly its
> secrecy, and the apparent insensitivity to the rule of law),

I am pretty sure we can't rely on the bullies to obey the laws they
enforce themselves. The laws are always ultimately on the side of
those with power. Any defence will have to rely on what Julian Assange
calls a physical property of reality: just like we live in a universe
where Maxwell's laws exist, we also live in a universe in which
cryptography is possible. Physical laws can't be broken, and even
Snowden has confirmed that point-to-point cryptography is still
secure.

> but don't think is relevant in our activities. Everything we do is
> available to anyone.

Not everything, no. For example, Rik is a very private person, despite
working on Octave. He works hard to keep his privacy online, and he's
a good example of what we should strive for. We also have a number of
contributors who do so using pseudonyms. I still have no idea who is
"forkandwait", despite being a prolific contributor on the help list.
Possibly the NSA knows, but I hope they don't.

In a similar vein, I think it should be possible for someone to attend
OctConf, and if they so wish, not broadcast to the world what they are
doing and where.

> So while I object to PRISM in principle, the suggestion that we
> boycott all modern communication systems

I didn't suggest we should boycott "all modern communication systems",
unless you think Jitsi and Ekiga are outdated communication systems.

Skype's non-free nature makes it harmful to society in many ways, most
obviously by being wiretapped. There are alternatives. We should
consider them.

> does not appear to be an effective means to protest (to me).

I am not specifically advocating protest at this point. I'm advocating
taking our privacy into our own hands.

- Jordi G. H.