{"id":15940,"date":"2022-01-20T22:41:37","date_gmt":"2022-01-20T22:41:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/?p=15940"},"modified":"2022-01-21T06:11:42","modified_gmt":"2022-01-21T06:11:42","slug":"the-fallacy-of-privacy-vs-childrens-safety-explained-for-noplacetohide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/article\/15940","title":{"rendered":"The Fallacy of &#8220;Privacy vs: [Children\u2019s] Safety&#8221;: why Privacy always wins over any singular concern, and why deployment of #EndToEndEncryption is essentially a binary choice, explained for #NoPlaceToHide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The <a rel=\"tag\" class=\"hashtag u-tag u-category\" href=\"https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/article\/tag\/noplacetohide\">#NoPlaceToHide<\/a> campaign has, as-ever, flushed out a lot of argument like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We don\u2019t believe that this is a binary issue: privacy vs children\u2019s safety. <br><br>We believe it\u2019s possible to have both, and that we all need to work together to implement an effective solution that protects both privacy and children. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NoPlaceToHide?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#NoPlaceToHide<\/a> <br>Visit: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KEdemrFnV3\">https:\/\/t.co\/KEdemrFnV3<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/g03gLOKMMK\">pic.twitter.com\/g03gLOKMMK<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Marie Collins Foundation (@MCFcharityUK) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MCFcharityUK\/status\/1484191619595210754?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 20, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><figcaption><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MCFcharityUK\/status\/1484191619595210754\">https:\/\/twitter.com\/MCFcharityUK\/status\/1484191619595210754<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This is pretty easily explained and dismissed; but first, a quick digression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Metcalfe&#8217;s Law (and its nitpicks)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>There&#8217;s a famous law of communications that the &#8216;value&#8217; (whatever that means) of a &#8216;network&#8217; increases as the square of the number of participants; <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Metcalfe%27s_law\">this is Metcalfe&#8217;s Law<\/a>, and it&#8217;s a rough and ready (if <a href=\"https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/metcalfes-law-is-wrong\">arguable and nitpicked<\/a>) metric to express something intuitive about networking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most typically: if you have a social network with only 10 people on it, then the &#8216;value&#8217; is 10-squared, or 100, as that&#8217;s the maximum number of direct communications relationships that the network can provide; <em>however <\/em>a network of 250 people can have 250-squared relationships, or 62,500, which is A LOT BIGGER than 100.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And a network of 1 million people has a value of one trillion, which is immensely bigger; and lo! \u2014 a social network containing 1 million people overall tends to be a lot more valuable to its participants \u2014 with more <strong>purpose <\/strong>and information \u2014 than a network containing only 10 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"608\" height=\"312\" data-attachment-id=\"15941\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/article\/15940\/screenshot-2022-01-20-at-22-10-34\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-22.10.34.png\" data-orig-size=\"608,312\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-22.10.34\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-22.10.34.png\" src=\"https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-22.10.34.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-15941\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-22.10.34.png 608w, https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-22.10.34-150x77.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 608px) 100vw, 608px\" \/><figcaption>you know that google can do maths for you, right?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Okay, but what does this have to do with Children&#8217;s Safety and Privacy?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Basically, if we accept that there&#8217;s any meaning at all to Metcalfe&#8217;s Law, it means that we are content to measure the value of networks two-dimensionally \u2014 the square \u2014 which yields the number of relationships that it can hold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, there&#8217;s a third dimension which I have already mentioned \u2014 <strong>purpose <\/strong>\u2014 and that makes matters even more interesting for comparing relative values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With Metcalfe&#8217;s law we assume and ignore that we are measuring the value of a general purpose network, but actually if we factor purpose into our maths \u2014 if we stop treating &#8220;purpose&#8221; as a continuum \u2014 then we get:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>network value = square(participants) x (number of purposes to which the network can be put by users)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For a trivial example: when we consider &#8220;children&#8217;s safety&#8221; we are considering this revised Metcalfe&#8217;s Law by a large amount; for a network with 100 participants, of whom 33 are kids, and if we consider the kids safety to be 1 purpose, then the value is measured:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>100 (overall participants) x 33 (kids) x 1 (safety) = <strong>3,300<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2026but the network value as a whole is probably better measured as something like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>100 (participants) x 100 (participants) x 100 (purposes) = <strong>1,000,000<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2026because there are hundreds, if not thousands of purposes to which a network can be put: sharing with friends, selling cars, charity collections, gig reviews, party invitations, etc; and as such we can see that (like it or not) the value of the network as a whole <strong>vastly <\/strong>outranks the restricted case of online safety for the subset of kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the figure of 33% kids is not accidental \u2014 child safety advocates tend to quote numbers of one-fifth to one-third of internet users as being children:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1682\" height=\"1676\" data-attachment-id=\"15942\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/article\/15940\/screenshot-2022-01-20-at-22-26-32\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-22.26.32.png\" data-orig-size=\"1682,1676\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-22.26.32\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-22.26.32.png\" src=\"https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-22.26.32.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-15942\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-22.26.32.png 1682w, https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-22.26.32-800x797.png 800w, https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-22.26.32-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-22.26.32-768x765.png 768w, https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-22.26.32-1536x1531.png 1536w, https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-22.26.32-100x100.png 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1682px) 100vw, 1682px\" \/><figcaption>search: &#8220;nspcc&#8221; &#8220;users are children&#8221;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>So there you have it \u2014 to rephrase the challenge: <em>&#8220;there is no such singular thing as <strong>&#8216;privacy&#8217; <\/strong>to compare to <strong>&#8216;child safety&#8217;<\/strong>&#8220;<\/em> \u2014 because what you are weighing the relatively small set of one-or-a-few &#8220;child safety&#8221; requirements against is a never-ending list of purposes to which a network can be put:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>securely sending bank details<\/li><li>organising a surprise birthday party<\/li><li>sharing a cancer diagnosis<\/li><li>looking for love<\/li><li>exploring your sexuality and gender<\/li><li>escaping an abusive partner<\/li><li>booking travel tickets<\/li><li>having an extra-marital affair<\/li><li>organising an anti-government protest<\/li><li>seeking abortion advice<\/li><li>doubting your faith<\/li><li>and many, many, more, including some which are <em>terrible\u2026<\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Privacy&#8221; is a feature or quality that is innate to each and all of these purposes \u2014 rather than a thing in and of itself \u2014 and this is why the hydra-headed use-case that is &#8220;privacy&#8221; will <strong>always <\/strong>be more important than any singular, or small tranche, of circumscribed use-cases of any kind whatsoever, irrespective of how we feel about the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because the <strong>value of the purpose-space of a network is N-cubed<\/strong>, and any constraint on one-or-more dimension of that will massively diminish the value of the network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And <strong>why is it effectively a binary issue?<\/strong> Because if the scores are 1,000,000 vs: 3,300 \u2014 or whatever \u2014 then the bigger number wins. And the number for &#8216;privacy&#8217; will always be bigger, massively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The #NoPlaceToHide campaign has, as-ever, flushed out a lot of argument like this: This is pretty easily explained and dismissed; but first, a quick digression. Metcalfe&#8217;s Law (and its nitpicks) There&#8217;s a famous law of communications that the &#8216;value&#8217; (whatever that means) of a &#8216;network&#8217; increases as the square of the number of participants; this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[410,707,700,535,574],"class_list":["post-15940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-end-to-end-encryption","tag-metcalfes-law","tag-noplacetohide","tag-online-abuse","tag-online-safety"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-23.07.34.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15940"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15959,"href":"https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15940\/revisions\/15959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alecmuffett.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}