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> old grumps I'm 22 and privacy-conscious. I also love tech, but I really enjoy my personal privacy and knowing that I'm not being surveiled all the time. I am

by tuxxy 8y ago

> old grumps I'm 22 and privacy-conscious. I also love tech, but I really enjoy my personal privacy and knowing that I'm not being surveiled all the time. I am also a FSF supporter and try to run libre code wherever possible. Convince me: why should I give up my privacy to use products that will inevitably treat my data irresponsibly?

stef25 8y ago
Define irresponsibly. Your plaintext passwords, ID scans and physical address getting leaked is one thing. Using your basic demographic data for advertising is something else. An obvious solution is just to use bogus data: name, email, dob, address, burner phone. Only thing you can't fake is your credit card but I'm sure a lot of companies do actually accept payments where the name of the card differs from the name on the account.
- Lubnah 8y ago
  Disposable gift cards can be loaded with up to $500, and cost about $5. If you buy your cards in cash, they're about as private as the security cameras are in whichever convenience store you pay for them in. Based on what we know about Target's shopper surveillance and behavioral identification efforts being capable of targeting pregnant women with pregnancy products, who didn't even know they were pregnant yet, themselves, even seemingly benign store locations can be pretty lacking in actual privacy. Between electronic survellance of mobile device identifiers, blue tooth signatures, free wi-fi usage, versus brute force video analysis yeilding facial recognition results for targeted ads on flatscreen monitors as you pass by bus stops, the status of tracking in public spaces is weird, although you really can ditch credit card tracking. The only problem is, the truly huge companies have assuredly been routing around that idea for years, by diversifying their information channels.
  - stallmanite 8y ago
    Plenty of services reject prepaid cards though which is infuriating.
- kaybe 8y ago
  It's called cash. There's a reason not everyone wants to get rid of it.

by tuxxy 8y ago

stef25 8y ago

Define irresponsibly. Your plaintext passwords, ID scans and physical address getting leaked is one thing. Using your basic demographic data for advertising is something else. An obvious solution is just to use bogus data: name, email, dob, address, burner phone. Only thing you can't fake is your credit card but I'm sure a lot of companies do actually accept payments where the name of the card differs from the name on the account.

Lubnah 8y ago
Disposable gift cards can be loaded with up to $500, and cost about $5. If you buy your cards in cash, they're about as private as the security cameras are in whichever convenience store you pay for them in. Based on what we know about Target's shopper surveillance and behavioral identification efforts being capable of targeting pregnant women with pregnancy products, who didn't even know they were pregnant yet, themselves, even seemingly benign store locations can be pretty lacking in actual privacy. Between electronic survellance of mobile device identifiers, blue tooth signatures, free wi-fi usage, versus brute force video analysis yeilding facial recognition results for targeted ads on flatscreen monitors as you pass by bus stops, the status of tracking in public spaces is weird, although you really can ditch credit card tracking. The only problem is, the truly huge companies have assuredly been routing around that idea for years, by diversifying their information channels.
- stallmanite 8y ago
  Plenty of services reject prepaid cards though which is infuriating.
kaybe 8y ago
It's called cash. There's a reason not everyone wants to get rid of it.