Software developer of the popular antivirus, John McAfee gave a surprise talk at the Def Con hacker conference in Las Vegas. McAfee talked about how many Internet companies have been sluggish in protecting their users' data privacy.
In his speech, McAfee particularly identified Google as one of these Internet companies. He stated that the search giant has become passive in protecting its users' data.
"Google, or at least certain people within Google - I will not mention names ... would like us to believe that if we have nothing to hide we should not mind if everybody knows everything that we do. I have to take serious issue with that," McAfee said during his talk, captured by BBC in video.
In the conference, he warned Americans to avoid using smartphones and suggested that mobile apps are used by the government to spy on clueless customers who do not read the privacy user agreements each time they download. McAfee further discussed that such intrusion of privacy will eventually rob people off of their freedom.
"I hear people say 'I don't care - I've got nothing to hide'. It's not a matter of hiding anything. Here's the issue: unless you are willing to stand up, to take a stand to do something, then we're all lost," he said.
He added that there will be a shift in human behavior if everybody knows all the information about everybody else; therefore, intrusion of privacy should not be tolerated. To help people expressed their complaints and anger online, he presented a site called "BrownList."
"This taps into anger in a positive way," he said in a brief interview with Reuters before his speech in Def Con. "Instead of getting angry and shooting at somebody on the highway, or yelling at your wife, you can log onto the site."
McAfee founded the McAfee Associates, a computer anti-virus company, in 1987 in Sta. Clara, Calif. He left the company in 1994 and made different ventures since then. The latest was DCentral1, a free Android smartphone app which displays information about the permissions of other installed apps, launched first quarter of this year.
