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I have some choices, but many of them require astronomical trade-offs in quality of life. For example, I do like the anonymity of cash, but using it for all of
by ve55 5y ago
I have some choices, but many of them require astronomical trade-offs in quality of life. For example, I do like the anonymity of cash, but using it for all of my bills, rent, online goods (not everything can be found in the city I'm in), and being paid exclusively in it from work is certainly not very easy (it is worse than this too - it is literally more expensive and we are seeing attempted reporting requirements for all cash transactions $600+, in addition to the ones we already have for $10k+). Even if I spent several hours a day going through tedious routines in attempt to preserve my own privacy to the utmost extent, I would still find I'm not only at a massive disadvantage in life (especially socially), but also that there's still countless sources of data on me that I simply cannot avoid (Sure you can avoid Facebook. But will everyone around you and that knows you avoid it? If not, you will still be tracked!).
To be clear, I don't advocate for a perspective of complete helplessness, there are a lot of things I do to reduce surveillance and tracking of myself. But I cannot have privacy be the sole criterion for living my life, because it would, simply put, result in a terrible life.
- chiefofgxbxl 5y agoTo get to my apartment complex requires that I drive down a street where at least one house I know of has a street-facing Ring doorbell. Is that thing always recording? Can the police obtain video from that device without a search warrant? Are the owners of that house even aware of the privacy implications behind these devices, and even if so, do they care? How about that story with the local pizza shop digital ad board that had hidden cameras recording people and performing facial recognition without their knowledge (https://www.bitcoininsider.org/article/1241/norwegian-pizza-store-used-facial-recognition-monitor-patrons https://www.bitcoininsider.org/article/1241/norwegian-pizza-...). Now it's becoming mainstream "loyalty" (spy) tech: https://retailtouchpoints.com/features/news-briefs/caliburger-to-showcase-facial-based-payments-at-nrf https://retailtouchpoints.com/features/news-briefs/caliburge.... I strongly agree with you that upholding privacy is not a personal choice, but a societal one. Any attempts to suggest otherwise is blaming the victim.