a good point. while I appreciate all the usual parables to explain the issue, to me it’s quite simple. namely, me and the evildoers have a fundamental disagreement on the concept of “whose shit is my shit?” the moment their actions indicate it’s theirs, I am in active resistance mode.
If they can send me over the second half of my thesis I would appreciate it enormously! 😀
The analytics tools that I am personally uncomfortable with involve dynamic, changing forms of data. I run GPSLogger on my phone (without a SIM card) and continuously log the GPS data to a text file. This data is then synced to my computer when WiFi is available. I can display this data on a map using gpx-viewer, and show very detailed tracking data of myself.
I have explored this map with some friends/family. They get to see a time-stamped movie of my life - my trips to work, to the shop, when I go out, if I go on a trip, etc. The data displayed in this manner is somewhat intimate, personal information. Anyone I have shown this to has said that they would not be so comfortable with such a map of their lives existing… Well, if they are carrying a active phone with a SIM card, it does.
To think that a company like Google can own such a map for a very large number of people makes me uncomfortable. On top of that, each of those map trajectories can be associated with an individual and their personality… They have the ability to pick out specific trajectories on the basis of the political ideologies or shopping behaviors of the personas behind them. This is extreme. I am of the opinion that the convenience afforded by a these technologies does not justify the allocation of that super-power to the companies that enable the technology.
A few years ago Facebook enabled a “Graph search” feature. This allowed users to create search queries such as"Friends of friends of X who like the page “X” and went to school near Z". That tool seemed super cool on the surface, but it quickly became obvious how something like that could be easily exploited. Later on in Snowden’s book I learned about XKeyscore from the NSA, which is like an extra-powerful no-consent-needed graph search that is available to some people. This is not just targeted ads.
I guess that what I am trying to convey is… For me, making the privacy-conscious choice is about not contributing to the ecosystem of very concrete tools that give super-powers to groups of people that may not have my best interest in mind. In my mind it is something very tangible and concrete, and I find many of those convenience tradeoffs to be clearly worth it.
Calling defeat before even trying is not only not grounded by facts - it’s playing right into their hands (their = data exchange companies and nodes in that network)
I got into a long discussion with friends at work who were saying it’s silly to worry about protecting my SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER and getting upset at companies for leaking it because “if it’s gonna get out it’s gonna.” Like…WHAT. How goddamn okay are you people with fighting to prove you’re you and not the person who stole your identity? The fuck. For real.
Removed by mod
They had a choice: stop being stupid, or keep being stupid, but also be an insecure bitch about it.
The second one is easier.
That’s why you never say data. They’ve heard it all before. Call them a cuck. They’re fucking your computer and you’re left to watch, anti-libre software.
Bootlickers gonna lick
But why should we do anything to help future generations not be victimized? /s
I feel like this still slightly misses the problem. I couldn’t give less of a shit whether they do or don’t make money from my data, I care that they are tracking so many things for that purpose that I can be identified and many lifestyle habits are visible, which is a problem when the data ends up with someone who wants to use it to spy on me. Which probably has never targeted me specifically, but my data is almost certainly in a tool capable of this. Because this happens frequently.
Of course this happens because they want to make money from it and sell it, but even if they only want it to idk customize my feed to make me like their website more and it never leaves their server, I’d still have to worry about data breaches. Or just someone else taking over and deciding that selling it is great, actually.
And even though I have decided that I personally don’t really care enough to deal with the downsides for quality of life, that doesn’t mean I don’t want this to stop via legal means.
Bots, bots everywhere
For many people it’s easier to not care… they don’t want to bother with long term consequences of their behaviors.
I simply ask them if they would be OK with a company taking money out their bank account.
Your data is valuable. Why give it away for free?
I simply ask them if they would be OK with a company taking money out their bank account.
This is as unconvincing an analogy as
, and for the same reason.Unconvincing to whom? That campaign did an amazing job of equating copyright to property ownership for an entire generation.
It’s not accurate, but I think we’ve seen that it can be very convincing for most people.
Which generation is that? I’ll be honest, I’ve yet to talk to someone who really gives a crap about where the content they’re consuming is coming from. Hell, most people I’ve dealt with don’t give a crap about content being pirated whenever it happens to be the more convenient option.
I wouldn’t recommend trying to trick people into caring about their privacy: it’s not good for your reputation or your long-term relationship with them.
I would recommend it. People need to be manipulated into doing the right thing.
How is that any different than what all those shady companies do?
The result differs.
Ah, yes, the ends justify the means, Dr. Mengele
It does.
“Hey I’m going to buy your location data tonight.”
“I like to know where you go on Thursdays”
This what Google, Facebook, X, your ISP, and the junk apps on your phone actually get from you, and everyone around you when you use their creepy apps.
Hit me up on Mastadon, use Tor, use DDG, we should have an restraining order against these creeps. Worse yet they don’t just want it for themselves they sell and share it with company, countries, anyone they like, and don’t tell you.
This is how I WANT to talk about because it’s how I feel. Their just strangers, I wouldn’t tell a stranger on the street any of this. I feel like this is such a fringe thought for people though.
Focus on action. Delete X, Get Y, Change Z. They will ask why. Stop talking about privacy. Make them ask you.
It’s like this. Your front door is left open and while, magically, no one can touch or take anything in your house, strangers are allowed to enter at will and eyeball everything, see all your bills, your kids stuff, your laundry, dirty and clean, etc. How would that ever be ok? And yet we say this is ok electronically every day.
You front door is forbidden to be ever closed (if you want to have an access to the street)
“You can always choose not use the street, no one forced you to sign up for an outside account”
Yeh, it’s not like virginity, the organisations chasing this data don’t live entirely off of new additions to their databases, the data is valuable to them when it’s a constant flow so if you are interested in guarding that data and stopping it from being shared too widely then there’s never a point at which it’s entirely too late. It is worth noting that it’s near impossible to maintain the type of privacy you might have expected maybe in the 90s, early 2000s but, if you succeeded in reducing how much data you give away even to some limited extent then you are successfully starving those that seek that data of something valuable. Information about you that’s years old is probably not worth very much. It all feeds in to the machinery of this surveillance economy so I’m sure it’s useful to some extent, but that machinery seems to be endlessly thirsty so it obviously needs a continuous supply.
The problem is not that the beastly corporations are doing something beastly again. The problem is that we allow these beastly corporations to exist.
Why don’t you send nudes to your ex? they’ve already seen you naked before
Yeah my exs, why don’t you do this?
And furthermore - the companies in question are true megacorps, ie evey bit of additional power/money they get (and for the matter of this pov: you give them) goes to absolutely the shorties practices and abuses ever.
It’s a moral thing - I protect my data for the same reason I recycle or consider my (indirect*) carbon footprint.
(*indirect bcs more like which companies or people I support)
With your data you support misinformation, deregulation lobbying, (any) government shitty things, ad culture, anything to protect the stock market as-is or their stock falls, dogshit approach to keeping their respective monology over their market, … and their size and reach allows them to just be bigger than a lot of things like municipalities, even smol countries, the quid-pro-quo aint in the peoples favor.
I simplified example (bcs someone else already made it happen) - imagine, if Google autonomous cars go on sale, suddenly railways projects disappear around you.
