TED Talk. Mikka Hypponen: How the NSA betrayed the world’s trust

13.11.2013

We will, we will watch you!

Is there any such thing as digital privacy? Aren’t we still sharing personal information far too generously and aren’t we all thoughtlessly jumping onto the cyber-fuelled bandwagon, just because it pretends to be the done thing? We are exposing our sometimes innermost secrets to a seemingly tangible community; after all, it is such a good feeling to be ‘liked’ by our diligently accumulated friends, 500+ at least, whom we trust blindly. Human vanity displays itself in many shades. So does human voyeurism. When friend turns into foe, the resulting mudslinging is witnessed by the same interested internet public. And then the desperation is individual and very real – and not just fleetingly virtual.

Serving our privacy on a universal silver platter is a decision we can take or leave. We’ve got nothing to hide, so why worry even when being spied on by heavyweight entities? Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure Corporation in Finland, tells you why.

It is a privilege for goodmeetings to have been given permission by TED to frequently publish selected, thought-provoking talks.This is the first one we are able to share with our readers.

What is TED?

TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences — the TED Conference and TEDGlobal — TED includes the award-winning TED Talks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize.

Header image: ©Christina Feyerke