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When I go shopping, or even to my doctor now, I leave my phone in my car. I work very hard to not let my phone be required for as many transactions as possible

• adolph 4y ago
  Why leave it in a car instead of using a Faraday bag? Example product, no affiliation: https://www.amazon.com/Mission-Darkness-Non-Window-Faraday-Phones/dp/B01A7MACL2 https://www.amazon.com/Mission-Darkness-Non-Window-Faraday-P...
• blantonl 4y ago
  The joke about the $1.39 made me laugh, but it also made me wonder: At what point will there be a tipping point where the pitchforks come out and the general public's "patience" with regulation catching up to this crap begins to unravel and actual violence or "direct action" begins to occur against these actors? Because while we're focused on individual political officials actions as a distraction, these types of warehouses are getting bigger and bigger, making more and more money for the owners, and becoming used more and more for malicious activities.
  • archildress 4y ago
    I've thought about this many times, and my answer is: when there is a massive, at-scale leak of seriously disruptive personal information. Think Google search history, medical files, or databases of credit card transactions. When it takes enough peoples' lives off the normal track, people will finally be fed up.
    • zx85wes 4y ago
      The outrage would only be temporary (again). And then things would go back to 'normal'
    • npc54321 4y ago
    • npc54321 4y ago
      Someone should leak everyone's nudes from google photos/iCloud etc. Including names and everything. That would wake people up.
      • buscoquadnary 4y ago
        They did it was the fappenning. The only difference is it happened to celebrities so the police got right on solving that.
        • NetOpWibby 4y ago
          This should be done to politicians that lobby for data brokerages. They only do the correct thing when personally affected.
          • Scoundreller 4y ago
            > This should be done to politicians oh c'mon, nobody wants to see that. Send me a goatse [dot] cx link or something more vanilla
          • techsupporter 4y ago
            John Oliver supposedly did just this earlier this year: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/apr/11/john-oliver-last-week-tonight-data-brokers https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/apr/11/john-ol... But there's been nothing on it since. Given how Oliver's show tends to run, I figure the topic will be back towards the end of the season.
        • 4y ago
  • winternett 4y ago
    The best way for us as individuals to regain power and protest over misuse and collection of our data is to defiantly and deliberately "corrupt" that ill gotten data... Go into really kinky sex shops and just browse around... Go to Chuck E Cheese and crash a kid's birthday party and jump in the ball pit (especially if you don't have kids). Buy diabetic socks, especially when you don't need them, or even lingerie for the opposite gender from Target. Host wild phone conversations with your friends in a nonsensical language, and do it as much as possible... Cover your front phone camera with black tape when it's not in use... Talk frequently about the opposite of what your real plans are directly into every microphone placed on every Internet connected device... Never use the same password you use on important resources for social media... Adopt a great new pseudonym, and never verify yourself on any of your social media accounts, they can't demand that info, they're not the Government. Hack the planet. :P
    • Banana699 4y ago
      > lingerie for the opposite gender There is... there is lingerie for men ??
      • edent 4y ago
        Yes? Boys aren't restricted to superhero underoos and boxer shorts you know!
        • winternett 4y ago
          Underoos! now that's a blast from the past!! Hah!
        • Banana699 4y ago
          God I hate the internet.
      • winternett 4y ago
        Anything is possible in Pennsylvania... Trust me (worth the downvotes, and I don't really live in PA mind you) :P
  • JumpCrisscross 4y ago
    > what point will there be a tipping point where the pitchforks come out and the general public's "patience" with regulation catching up to this crap begins to unravel and actual violence or "direct action" begins to occur against these actors? There is no public consensus on this. American voters are fine with free, ad-supported software. They’re fine with surveillance in exchange for convenience. They likely don’t understand the cost. Personally or systemically. But a combination of digital-privacy thought leaders (a) overlapping with communities embracing political nihilism, (b) experiencing a filter bubble where popular support is perceived where there is none and (c) having been corrupted (politically speaking) by crypto has stymied policy progress. There are no pitchforks. There is no angry mob. To the degree there is consensus overseas, it arises from nationalism with respect to security (India) or competitiveness (Europe).
    • winternett 4y ago
      > There are no pitchforks. There is no angry mob. To the degree there is consensus overseas, they arise from nationalist impulses with respect to security (India) or competitiveness (Europe). If only the "anti-vax" mob could have been motivated towards upholding Internet privacy... We'd perhaps have a far more relevant and meaningful protest in the U.S.
      • JumpCrisscross 4y ago
        > if only the "anti-vax" mob could have been motivated towards upholding Internet privacy They’re a natural demographic! But connecting to them requires showmanship, crossing a partisan line for some, and bridging to the anti-Big Tech crowd. No easy work.
    • sillystuff 4y ago
      > There are no pitchforks. There is no angry mob. This is true. Even Snowden's revelations didn't have much effect outside of tech circles. US congress even got away with passing a law to retroactively make some of the revealed illegal spying on Americans legal. The public either does not care or feels impotent. Governments love corporate surveillance as it allows them a source of data without having to worry about scrutiny they might face by collecting the data directly. It feels hopeless that surveillance capitalism will ever be able to be reigned in.
  • Spooky23 4y ago
    Never. Because we’ve allowed media to become entertainment and the internet killed print, and as a society we’ve lost the ability to sway the population with anything approaching fact.
    • bornfreddy 4y ago
      Never, and there never was. Media always was entertainment. Internet is just print v2.0. As a society, we never were able to sway the population with facts. If you look at the history you will see the same things happening over and over again. That doesn't mean we shouldn't fight for what is right, just don't be discouraged if the effect is less than desired.
  • mindslight 4y ago
    The pitchforks are already out, as part of the larger anti- technocratic/bureaucracy movement. Unfortunately, as that movement has gained popularity, its energy has been captured by Trumpism with its siren song of simplistic not-even-wrong answers. I'm not singling out Trumpism here, despite its seemingly exceptional virulence. Basically every political movement gets coopted and neutered this way in the US, once it gains enough popularity. There's money to be made, after all.
    • hcmacro 4y ago
      Worth Googling "Larry Ellison Trump" or "Safra Catz Trump"
• neodypsis 4y ago
  Do you use Android? Edit: why the downvotes? It is a valid question.
  • chasil 4y ago
    I use de-Googled Lineage. I've been thinking about switching to /e/os on my next devices. My carrier still knows where I am, but Google does not. They might get a subtle hint if I connect to wifi. My default browser is Bromite, configured to open everything incognito by default.
    • neodypsis 4y ago
      What is the difference between Lineage and /e/os? Both seem to be a de-Google Android? I've tried Lineage before but it simply stopped working with some apps.
      • chasil 4y ago
        The /e/os distribution bundles MicroG, which Lineage has flatly refused to consider. MicroG pretends to be Google Mobile Services, allowing more apps to run. It requires signature-spoofing, which is a major architectural change to Android.
    • ByThyGrace 4y ago
      Won't your carrier have some data-sharing agreement with Google or an intermediary/subsidiary/associated third party?
      • LegitShady 4y ago
        The carrier's 100% sell the data
      • winternett 4y ago
        There is absolutely no reassurance of any privacy any more. Several VPN providers have been caught for leaking data to corporations over time as well. There are too many points where any software can be compromised, e.g. the APIs and libraries required by any application, to ensure proper privacy. It's wiretapping conducted on everyone using devices they purchased by private companies (that uphold no responsibility for proper use or securing the data) without any justifiable cause... God help you these days if you do warrant a wire tap, but at least the Government is usually a bit more secure and regulated concerning storage and use of that data.
• kornhole 4y ago
  You are not crazy nor paranoid. You are just ahead of others. Those of us who take the precautions have heard it or ask ourselves the same thing quite often. I no longer use a SIM with my phone running a custom OS. I pay cash and wear a mask in stores to thwart the facial recognition. None of this is an inconvenience to me but rather a more liberated way of life.
  • deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
• alexashka 4y ago
  You're paranoid in the sense that you're making a conscious effort to prevent someone else doing something that doesn't harm you in any way. Wait until you find out the shit they put into your water, your air, your food and your mind through mass media. You'll end up living in the woods if you take your trail of thought to its logical conclusion. So either you're already in the woods, and then you'd not be on HackerNews, or you're playing 'I'm making a difference by drinking through a metal straw that I carry around to save the planet'.
  • winternett 4y ago
    Every bit f action driven by paranoia counts towards fighting the system. I'm not at the metal straw point yet though... I drink bottled water.
  • namaria 4y ago
    This defeatist "give up civilization or accept all it's evils as inevitable" is a very simplistic way of seeing it. Open society will always have a chance of improving as long as some people are paying attention to something that interests them and making some effort.
• toast0 4y ago
  > I'll eagerly look forward to getting my $1.39 from the class action suits once the lawyers all get paid. If you sign up for the $1.39, that's an admission of using an Oracle product, which allows them to force you to do a licensing audit. I hope you don't have any old JREs.
• hilbert42 4y ago
  "When I go shopping, or even to my doctor now, I leave my phone in my car." I don't blame you, I go one step further, I use a rooted deGoogled phone with location defaulted to off and all apps with few exceptions such as browsers are specifically denied access to the internet. Even then I use multiple browsers for different jobs/sites with JavaScript defaulted to off. Oh, and I nearly forgot to mention the phone's VPN-type firewall. When I go shopping I mostly use cash even for large purchases say up to $1k or so (I'll actively go to an auto teller and withdraw cash first rather than use my cards). I keep online purchases to an absolute minimum and when I do I make them with 'corporate' type cards. I don't see this as paranoia, rather it's common sense. Anyone, who runs a logcat log-displaying program on a rooted smartphone without additional privacy protection steps being taken is astounded - in fact horrified - at the amount information that's being stolen from one. The log entries flash past in their thousands much faster than it's possible for anyone to ever read them. I've little to hide and my lifestyle is really pretty boring and ordinary but I'm absolutely affronted how this situation developed without proper laws being in place or enacted (not long ago the privacy of telephone circuits was considered sacrosanct and laws rigorously protected us from being monitored). In the grand scheme of things I recognize that my efforts are pretty futile but at least I gain some satisfaction in trying to combat the bastards. I don't quite understand why the general attitude of the population to maintaining one's privacy has considerably lessened in recent decades, and similarly why existing privacy laws are not being upheld as they once were.
  • Xeoncross 4y ago
    It hasn't hit yet. The CCP hasn't come arrest me for speaking against a government official and the Saudi government hasn't arrested me for dancing and the Australian government hasn't arrested me for participating in a protest, etc... One day soon all Americans will start facing consequences for even benign actions and then they will care.
    • hilbert42 4y ago
      Absolutely, like the frog in heating water, we'll realize the fact when it's too late.
• jotm 4y ago
  I have a work/comms phone and a home/media phone. Don't care about privacy from companies/etc, that doesn't actually affect me irl right now. People I know affect me and those who insist I have to answer within 10 minutes are the insane ones.
• kurupt213 4y ago
  Lol, $1.39 for your lifelong internet history being submitted in discovery