Evil AJAX
Please consider the following article about some possible malicious uses of AJAX. I neither agree nor disagree with this writer. Every technology has implications. Does that mean that technology is bad? The English language itself has been used to incite violence, and to communicate terrible and frightful things. The door provides the means to admit people from one room to another, even bad people who have bad intentions, but does this mean that the door itself is evil? Does it make sense to nail the doors shut? Or to forbid the construction of houses with doors? What about the windows?!
The culture of “security” around web applications is interesting. The hammer can be used to break into a house, but nobody is proposing to ban the hammer. The hammer is far too useful. In my work, I have had to deal with overzealous server teams that close every digital door in the enterprise. One day, it took me 30 minutes to figure out how to send an important file to a colleague in another department. Everything I tried failed because the file appeared to be malicious.
People are afraid, fine. People want to maintain some privacy, fair enough. But would we all rather just be ghosts? We used to be afraid of computers because they made us anonymous: see W. H Auden’s poem, The Unknown Citizen. Being recognized by name by the people we do business with is comforting, and assures us that our business is important. Why is it frightening to be recognized by name by a machine? People remember things about us all the time, and they tattle and gossip. Is it really more frightening that a computer can remember things about us?
For my part, I try to live my life as if everything I do will eventually be known. I can weave paranoid scenarios with the best of them. But, every instrument that can be used for good can also be used for bad. Are the measures we are taking causing more problems? Is our fear of possible consequences depriving us of incredible benefits as well? To answer my own rhetorical questions: I think so.
What do you think?