[gzgieqae] Security of social networks

The problem with trust relationships in social networks is you are not necessarily trusting someone else, but actually their computer: whoever has access to their account, often through illegitimate means (and even legitimate means like subpoena or border search).

One way to strengthen trust networks is to increase computer security, preventing illegitimate access.  This is being actively worked on, but it seems ultimately extremely difficult: the computer and the person are two separated physical entities.

The other is to re-engineer society so that misplaced trust causes less harm.  This too seems a large and difficult problem, but perhaps easier than above.  One sinister political aspect is, the powerful are often in the best position to abuse privacy breaches, so might have less incentive to fix society.