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There are many service and product vendors that accomplish this, depending on the exact things they sell. Mullvad being a premium example - you can maintain as
by observationist 2y ago
There are many service and product vendors that accomplish this, depending on the exact things they sell. Mullvad being a premium example - you can maintain as much anonymity as you want; they get their money, retain only whatever they are legally required to based on the nature of the transaction, and it can even be entirely anonymous through cryptocurrency.
It is possible, and even admirable, for companies to do this. The only reason to hoover up as much identity data as possible is to maxmimize earnings, reselling harvested data to the highest bidder exclusively, or to the greatest number of purchasers.
It's not necessary or good to contribute to panopticon surveillance. The game being played is not anywhere close to informed consent or educated consumers making rational choices. It's universally deceptive and the underlying intent of the system is to maximize the amount of money being extracted from consumers while minimizing the cost, creating chains of middlemen and operators inflating the price of a good or service without adding value to the end-user.
It's not a valid free market tactic - it is not morally or ethically justifiable, despite the endless rationalization and dodginess muddying the water.
If it's not illegal, it will be done. If the penalty doesn't outweigh the profit, it will be done even if it's illegal.
We need some serious protections of consumer data, with c-suite decision makers going to prison, billion dollar companies shut down and liquidated, and a ruthless FAFO regulatory system put into place. Our current laws are oriented around 1980s notions of computer security and our data protections are rooted in quill and parchment era verbiage. We need to recalibrate and relegislate based on a modern understanding of personal data, with principles of ephemerality and cryptographic protections baked in that protect and support individual citizens first and foremost.