Re: GNU Accessibility Statement Online

Interesting argument.  My only question is, would I have access to my own 
data on the server?
Anyway, I agree privacy applies to everyone equally and not just persons 
with disabilities, but I think one difference is that the disabled persons 
accessing the server are easy to identify, and therefore there is an 
inherent privacy issue for them in particular.
I don't know if this is why the statement appears in the GAS.  Perhaps Chris 
can answer.
--le

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sina Bahram" <sbahram@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2010 2:28 PM
Subject: RE: GNU Accessibility Statement Online


With all due respect, I don't believe anyone deserves or needs privacy more 
so or less than someone else. Privacy should be an
inalienable  right given to all individuals or none. So, I respectfully 
disagree that folks with disabilities are any different than
those without disabilities, or certain ethnicity groups, and so forth.

With respect to your seemingly circular argument that cloud computing 
somehow is more or less secure than self computing. I do not
accept this as a reason nor as a valid excuse. It seems that your primary 
argument against cloud computing revolves around the
decentralization of information from one's own ownership. In other words, 
you claim that because my data resides in Boston, New
York, or Beijing, it is somehow less secure than if it is on a computer 
system I own.

If you like, I can actually point you to several academic papers which have 
shown quite effective double blind security measures;
for example, using something like pgp for communication layer, AES for data 
protection, anonymizers for privacy protection, and
things such as the onion router for protection against tracing you down via 
TCP/IP access patterns.

So I believe if appropriate measures are taken, it can actually be far 
better with respect to privacy concerns that one's data is
not on computers that one owns. That way, it is not tied to a physical 
object that can be linked to you. To this end, I posit that
keeping the data on your own computer can be just as, if not more so, 
harmful to privacy, and I disagree with the free software
foundation's inaccurate advice to keep data in one easy to surveil, easy to 
capture, and easy to associate place. The techniques you
suggest and advocate for can actually harm privacy related concerns, not 
advance them.

All of this having been said, why are we mentioning it in an accessibility 
statement?

Why?

Just talk about accessibility, not about privacy.

Take care,
Sina

-----Original Message-----
From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
[mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Chris Hofstader
Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2010 12:23 PM
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: GNU Accessibility Statement Online

Hi,

I don't disagree and wanted the statement removed but it is a GNU statement 
and must, therefore, it needs to reflect the
fundamentals of FSF.

Also, people with disabilities need privacy more so than others as 
everything from insurance premiums to potential lawsuits may
cause problems when and if someone gets access to their information. 
Remember, a person with disability will cost more to insure so
companies may be reluctant to hire them for that reason alone.

If asked about this statement, though, we can point to Bill Gates who, in a 
COMDEX keynote address a bunch of years ago, he made a
strong statement against server based programs, citing a value of putting 
computes in the hands of the individual and also raising
privacy concerns.

Also, there are people in jail in China because Yahoo turned over records 
stored on their servers. Why not expect that the US
security infrastructure would be following all transactions on Skype, MSN, 
etc. giving them a lot of information into which they can
cast a wide net.

There's a lot of problems with server based systems ranging from privacy to 
a centralized data bank that can be mined for all sorts
of reasons.

Lastly, there is the question of who controls your computing and your data. 
Local systems put you in charge while who knows what
google might do with or to your information.

Of course, I could be wrong.

cdh
On Mar 27, 2010, at 11:03 AM, Sina Bahram wrote:

> The following statement really got to me:
>
> "and please don't invite users to do something on a server that they could 
> conceivably do on their own computers."
>
> I understand that Stallmann is one of the leading activists against
> cloud computing, but why on earth are you allowing such an agenda to creap 
> into a statement on accessibility?
>
> In my opinion, this one statement completely undermines the rest of the 
> things you're trying to do.
>
> Take care,
> Sina
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Chris
> Hofstader
> Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2010 9:00 AM
> To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: GNU Accessibility Statement Online
>
> Hi,
>
> For a couple of months, Richard Stallman and I have been working on
> the GNU Accessibility Statement (GAS)  which takes a no nonsense
> approach to endorsing the rights of people with disabilities as regard 
> software within the context of free software. I've never
read a more strongly worded statement from any organization regarding 
software and people with disabilities.
>
> GAS also takes a strong stance on free software values but does not
> endorse any specific license, although we would like people to use GPL.
>
> You can read the statement at:
> http://www.gnu.org/accessibility/accessibility.html
> and send comments to me that we can consider for future revisions of the 
> statement.
>
> Thanks,
> cdh
>
> __________
> View the list's information and change your settings at
> http://www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind
>
> __________
> View the list's information and change your settings at
> http://www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind
>

__________
View the list's information and change your settings at 
http://www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind

__________
View the list's information and change your settings at
http://www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind

__________
View the list's information and change your settings at 
http://www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind

Other related posts: