Technology versus Privacy

erica74

Ted_YNWA wrote: »

It is the users that post every aspect of their lives to social media.

Personal responsibility comes into it.

This.
If you don't want it stored somewhere online, don't put it online. If you want to use technology (and I mean technology, not social media, because as soon as you start up a brand new phone/laptop and put in your email account, that's the beginning of your footprint) then you need to make your peace with technology companies having your information.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

Neon_Lights

Wexfordboy89 wrote: »

You do know that even when u close your Facebook account its still technically open.all your info pics are all still saved incase you reopen your account.at least that used to be the way unless they changed it

Gdpr will change that in Europe anyway

Malayalam

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

I don't have a smart phone just the old fashioned push button yoke, I have a private facebook account with no friends just so i can follow things of interest to me, I did not upgrade to windows 10, I don't share private details online although yep my family photos are on my hard drive and a hacker would probably be able to get them, I end up having to use my card as I live in a very rural area and the nearest cash machine is 20 miles away - I can only presume a cashless society is near at hand. I don't shrug my shoulders, I say what I feel like online. I just know it is recorded, for all the good it does whoever has to wade through the awesome oceans of data stored about us all. Good luck to them. I hope they enjoy it.

acronym Chilli

erica74 wrote: »

This.
If you don't want it stored somewhere online, don't put it online. If you want to use technology (and I mean technology, not social media, because as soon as you start up a brand new phone/laptop and put in your email account, that's the beginning of your footprint) then you need to make your peace with technology companies having your information.

There are degrees of it though. And if you put your mind to it you can keep your foot print small and predominantly non-corporate. However, you will not be as connected as otherwise.

MOH

moonlighting wrote: »

What amazed me was the data they had on the locations i have been around the world. exact hotel locations. scary stuff. I know google stores your search data but didn't expect all the extra data as-well.

Google parses all your emails to "help" you. Including attachments. So if you had flight or hotel confirmation bookings sent to gmail, that's where it comes from.

A friend had problems with her printer earlier this year, downloaded her boarding pass as a PDF and sent it to me to print out and post back to her (don't ask, it was the easiest solution).

The day before the flight my Android phone helpfully popped up a notification that "my" flight was leaving in 14 hours. Checked back through the messages and the only mention of the flight details was in that boarding pass attachment.

And I'm generally pretty paranoid, I've got most of the privacy settings locked down, but stuff's still shared between apps. (Although possibly naively, I've still got location history turned on. I don't trust Google not to retain the data anyway even if I turn it off, so I figure I may as well get some benefit from it).

Heisenbug

Google are actually going to stop 'parsing' mails in Gmail. Even for free accounts.

I'm unable to post links.

Wibbs

moonlighting wrote: »

What amazed me was the data they had on the locations i have been around the world. exact hotel locations. scary stuff. I know google stores your search data but didn't expect all the extra data as-well.

Switch off location services on all devices/apps. Including - and most forget this one - digital cameras. Avoid Google as much as possible. Use other search engines, avoid gmail like the very plague.

Go for an old style phone. If you have to go smart phone again avoid Google. Apple may be a pain in the hole, but even the slightest scandal with them gets well publicised unlike with Android. The latter is far less secure and more hacked and tracked. Plus having an "air gap" between your phone and other services is a good bet. If all your crap, phone, search, mail is on Google you're boned.

Set Facebook to maximum security if you need it for close mates/family. Otherwise avoid it. It's mostly sh anyway.

Have very different usernames/accounts tied to different email accounts for every account you have online. Have slightly different date of births on all accounts. Use the Irish version of your name from time to time. Change passwords regularly.

Don't use cloud services. You wanna back up your stuff? Big external hard drives are cheap.

Post nothing on the internet you wouldn't want publicly viewable. Remember the scandal where Hollywood starlets got hacked and their bums and boobs ended up online? There are no pictures of my mickey on the internet, because I don't take pictures of my mickey and put them on the internet. Simples.

MOH

Heisenbug wrote: »

Google are actually going to stop 'parsing' mails in Gmail. Even for free accounts.

I'm unable to post links.

I've seen numerous stories that they won't read emails for ad-targeting purposes, but it's less clear whether they'll actually stop reading them.

http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/google-gmail-ads-emails-1202477321/

JupiterKid

Some interesting points raised here. It seems like Google is as bad a culprit - if not worse - as FB for privacy invasion and data mining. I'm not a Luddite and will not countenance going completely offline (I mean here I am posting on an online forum so that would be pretty ironic and indeed hypocritical) but I will take many of the aforementioned suggestions on board.

Facebook seems to be all about people feeling the need to share details about their families and their personal lives, but there are many of my FB "friends" who keep posting and sharing to a minimum. I suppose we indeed are culpable in all this creeping data and privacy intrusion if we keep posting up things online.

Anywho, I see a big backlash against this tech-driven privacy invasion in the coming years. People just don't realise how much about their personal lives are stored away by social media and internet companies and the more films like The Circle, the better. It's just a shame The Circle was such a weak film.

Wibbs

JupiterKid wrote: »

Some interesting points raised here. It seems like Google is as bad a culprit - if not worse - as FB for privacy invasion and data mining.

IMH Google are way worse. If you plug into their ecosystem(google search, gmail, android, chrome, cloud storage). If you do they know what subjects you search for, what websites you visit, your likely sexual orientation(at least what you jack off to), how many apps you install and which ones, where you live, what your gaff looks like, your likely political affiliations, where you eat, what you tend to buy, where you go, what you watch, a recording of your actual voice for voice commands, who you talk to online and how many conversations you've had with them, your images(and other people tagged in them and where you took them) and so on. Hell, if you're dumb enough to give them your genetic code so you can find out your ancestry then they even have your personal how to build you plan.

The potential power they have is staggering and that's just today. This stuff is rapidly changing on a weekly basis. Think back just ten years and compare and contrast. Now imagine this in another ten, another twenty. Knowledge has always been power, but never before has so much knowledge about so many been in the hands of so few. Do you really want the Sheldon Coopers that run Google to have such power? Some of the stuff the heads of that place and others have come out with is worrying. never mind when AI's get involved down the line.

Anywho, I see a big backlash against this tech-driven privacy invasion in the coming years.

Maybe JK, maybe not. Individuals yes, maybe even groups of individuals and hopefully some governments might, but the general mob liking Facebook feeds, snap chatting pics of the latest cake they ate and commenting on Tube vids? I'm not nearly so confident. The mob is easily swayed and placated. Give them what they think they want and give them their dopamine and social hits and they'll happily play along, with the odd minor objection when you don't get the dose just right. Easily fixed and the more info you have the more you can avoid such dosage issues.

lazybones32

JupiterKid wrote: »

Thoughts?

As long as people click "Accept" or "I Agree" without reading the small print
, then that is tough sh*t. People aren't being tricked into things, they are walking into it with their eyes wide open.
I learned the phrase caveat emptor in commerce over half my life ago...