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Jake Williams @MalwareJake
, 7 tweets, 2 min read Read on Twitter
I'm writing a new blog post but I need some help. We have a problem in the tech industry with consent vs. informed consent. Problems with confusing the two are not unique to infosec. Medicine has been practiced for millennia, but informed consent is at best ~50 years old. 1/n
Legalese terms of service can't be comprehended by a large percentage of a user base. Even if you understand what is being collected, do you understand how it will be used? A patient can't give informed consent without a discussion of risk. 2/n
Doctors don't routinely downplay risk in a procedure. This comes from two sources:
1. Liability
2. In most cases (electives are a counter-example), the doctor has a product (the procedure) the patient needs

These do not hold true in the technology field. 3/n
In the tech field:
1. There doesn't seem to be meaningful liability for failing to protect data (or the user)
2. You have something the user wants, not needs (in most cases).

The dynamic creates a perverse incentive to downplay risk, neutering the concept of informed consent 4/n
So I've laid out the problem as I see it, but I don't have a solution. The problem statement is: How do we get to a place where informed consent in technology is actually informed? 5/n
Here's what I'm sure won't work:
1. Educate users - we use too many services and nobody reads ToS (or the multitude of updates)
2. "Make them pay" - okay, but who are them? Are the fines meaningful? Do fines help the user or just the government?
6/n
I'm legitimately interested in how to solve this problem. I'm sure there's a way, but I unfortunately suspect it will involve more government regulation. Please reply with your thoughts. I'll be using some replies in an upcoming blog post. Note if you don't want to be quoted. 7/7
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