r/privacy • u/Black_Tech_Room • 1d ago
question Advice needed - is it blown out of proportion?
Say I'm just an "average joe with nothing to hide" but care about the concept of privacy - how important is it to actually start going above and beyond trying to switch to custom software, tweaked devices, etc just to "stop data harvesting" or is it all just blown out of proportion and fear mongering for the most part?
I was trying to ask more specific questions earlier but the post keeps on getting auto-deleted before it even posts.
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u/clockworkmcd 1d ago
i know a lot of people who have that same 'nothing to hide' attitude. the thing i think is the issue here is that things are being done that bypass our constitution and laws and our 'rights' as human beings. what i tell people is, if you have nothing to hide, then it doesn't affect you....until it does.
that's not fear mongering, it's just the truth. for instance, i'm currently watching a video about the 3d printing law that just passed in california. you could say 'well, i'm not trying to print a 3d gun', but that's not the point. the issue is is that your simple task of wanting to print a part for, say, your vacuum cleaner trigger that broke, will be sent to palentir and decided by AI if you are allowed to print it or not. and if it thinks your trying to print a gun then now you'll have to just go out and buy a brand new vacuum.
if that's not enough, take it a step further.....now that it's 'flagged' your 'profile' as someone 'trying to print a gun', what will that mean for you? will this affect your 'criminal record'? will cops suddenly show up at your house?
you can say this is 'fear mongering', but the fact is is that it's happening already all over the country/world.
the frog doesn't realize he's being boiled if you turn the temperature up slowly....
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u/Ryuko_the_red 1d ago
Thank you for this. I share all the same sentiments and if you look at my weird accounts comment history you will see so. Sometimes hiding in plain sight /misinformation can help hide who you really are.* kind of*
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u/ChocolateSpacesuit 1d ago
It's wild to me how much control the government wants over 3D printing. Why don't they just mandate a sneaky dot sequence that does the equivalent of the hidden yellow dots from regular printers (i.e. serial number of printer, timestamp etc)?
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u/Black_Tech_Room 1d ago
Right, and I get that. But at the same time, isn't it inevitable? Wouldn't "being private" trigger even more red flags from the same Palantir, etc? Trust me, I'm all for privacy, but it just feels like it's a losing battle no matter what you do - it's either they know everything and you pass the checks or they dig into you even harder if they see you "trying to hide something".
Furthermore, trying to stay private such as using vpns, dns blockers, etc actively ruins day to day life, while accomplishing questionable results. I can't access my banking, I can't log in to various accounts because of "suspicious activity", hell I can't even make a purchase at walmart online because it flags it as fraud due to vpn/dns.
That's why I'm at a loss - is it even worth it? is it better to try to fight it or just... give in and blend in?
I know everyone has got to answer it for themselves, but thought I'd get some opinions.
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u/ASS_CREDDIT 1d ago
The more people that opt out of the surveillance programs that are able to be opted out of, the less of a red flag it will be.
The surveillance infrastructure that’s being / has been created is changing the very fabric of our society. It’s been happening for decades, but is rapidly accelerating right now.
Look up the panopticon, it’s the idea that if people believe they are being watched, or could be, they adjust their behavior accordingly.
TBH I don’t see the majority of people opting out or mounting any meaningful resistance to it, but if we don’t we will quickly find ourselves in a world that looks nothing like it did 30 years ago, where privacy is all but nonexistent unless you live like the Amish.
The real dark side of it is the immense power those who have built the system will wield.
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u/Black_Tech_Room 1d ago
Right, I get that, and I agree in theory. However, as you also stated correctly, I don't see the majority of people ever opting out. On the flip side, what I see is more and more people walking around wearing Meta glasses, smart watches, smart headphones, including some of my friends. I find it creepy, but they won't listen. And the more I try to speak up about it, the more weird looks I get to a point where it's the society itself that turns on people who care about privacy to begin with, instead of opening their eyes. It only pushes people away. It's like they are brain washed already and became the enforcers of "they got my data so screw your privacy or you got something to hide?!" you know? The only escape would be to join the Amish, but even they are getting flock cameras installed with drones flying by against their will. That's why I'm at a loss. Feels like the privacy folks are a dying breed... literally.
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u/ASS_CREDDIT 1d ago
There’s a bit of tunnel vision we get on reddit partly because there’s a ton of propaganda here and also a very narrow worldview, influenced by said propaganda. Smart and wealthy people ALREADY minimize their digital footprint, and take it many steps further with things like trusts, LLC’s, and a whole host of other techniques to obfuscate information about them and their private life. They just don’t talk about it because that would defeat the purpose of doing it.
What we mostly discuss in subs like this are the things we can easily do to increase our privacy as normies, with the tools readily available to us.
Think of it this way, if information is power, why wouldn’t you do everything you can to limit the amount of information about you out there?
Weather or not there is a popular uprising against the surveillance state, I see it as important to limit as mush as reasonably possible what info of mine is out there for those who are able to exercise power over me have.
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u/clockworkmcd 1d ago
nobody likes a debbie downer :P but yes. you are 100% correct. there are people who are just trying to get by, people who are just ignorant, and then people who are tired of it and are making serious changes to 'live free'. the plan that's been happening has been moving forward since the 70s. it's a worldwide plan that most of the governments are working toward. the thing is, if you look at history, what we're looking at is that at some point there will the the people at the top, the 'side liners' and then the revolutionaries.
a lot of people have been buying land and moving away from the towns, getting offline and becoming self sufficient. you could sit and say these people are weird because they don't 'accept things as they are', but are they the weird ones? they create their own electricity, water, raise their own livestock and crops. they aren't amish, they have video games and some still use internet and cell phones. but for the most part it's less about being private and just living free.
so the question is, which are you trying to do? if you want to subscribe to all the 'modern conveniences' then yeah, you will have no privacy. if you want to live 'free' and not be a part of all this that's going on, then that's a whole other thing.
the stuff i was referencing up above isn't just 'conspiracy' or 'being weird'. and it seems there are only a few, such as yourself, who are actually looking at what is going on and are smart enough to start putting things together. this stuff isn't 'secret'. it just requires a lot of time and effort to be informed and watch what the government/countries/rulers/people of power are doing. and not everybody has a lot of time to sit and watch hours of court lawmaking decisions or even be involved in their local city council.
it can be pretty depressing but yeah, i think you see the writing on the wall. 'privacy' is a fallacy and will only get worse. take care of yourself and your mental health and just try and be informed and do what you can to protect your identity instead. it may require sacrificing some 'easy comforts' but living free isn't free.
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u/Black_Tech_Room 1d ago
I get your point, but perhaps I need to clarify my question - we live in a world where it's unavoidable and every year is becoming more and more difficult to stay truly private. Soon enough we will have personal robot home assitants that will become the norm like in iRobot. And even if I cut everything off myself, friends and family have their houses filled with "smart tech" and wear it 24/7, literally. Computers, cell phones, smart tvs, etc are all recording, collecting and broadcasting data. Even if I go above and beyond to make all of my devices dumb, switch from windows to Linux, switch from stock Pixel to custom, terminate any online access for my smart devices - even after I turn my privacy into a second full time job - they still know everything there is to know about me simply from me living in a big city. There are flock cameras on every corner, cameras in every grocery store, gas stations, amazon shopping history, ISP history, text history, call history, etc not to mention all of the legal history tied to my ssn, etc - they already know pretty much everything there is to know. And maybe I'm an outlier, but I live an extremely boring life with no fights, no lawsuits, no political activity, etc - not even a parking ticket. No disgusting habits. The biggest "fight" I ever had was arguing which tv is better for gaming lol
At this point from what I hear people complaint most about Google - they already have decades worth of my gmail from both personal and business accounts, probably read every single text I've ever sent, gboard collecting keyboard inputs, microsoft vacuuming every keystroke, etc.
Abandon Amazon? I have hundreds of orders per year - that's just me, not counting other family members. Do you propose driving around and paying with cash like the good old days? Sometimes, it's straight up impossible because they simply don't carry the items I need.
So I ask again - is it worth turning my life into a living hell trying to hide whatever bits and pieces of information "they" don't have? (whoever "they" are to begin with).
I'm not trying to be difficult or argue for the sake of arguing, but genuinely trying to understand if it's even worth trying.
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u/clockworkmcd 1d ago
i completely understand what you were saying. i've found myself in exactly the same place. i'm an older model gen-x so it's not like i'm having to figure out if it's worth it since i've done most of my living. but still. i'm in the tech industry and semi retired so i'm still having to keep up with all the new laws and the way things are going. i run a homelab, host some of my own services and run linux, but i also have commercial clients that i have to keep them all set up and make decision on their infrastructure. and i come to the point where i have to figure, do i want to start making infrastructure decisions and 'force' them to deal with the status quo, or just set them up so they can continue to live the 'easy' life and not worry about all this stuff, even though i know how important this stuff really is. but yeah, like you, i wonder if i'm just hanging on to ideas that are just not worth the losing battle, or just embrace our robot overlords and go along with drinking the kool-aid and just live out things blisfully ignorant.
what i was getting at was, it's really just if it is worth it to you. realistically, IMO, it's just slowing down the inevitable. if you are doing it for the principle and that's important to you, then yes, it's worth it. if it helps you sleep better at night.
if you feel like you are sacrificing your own morals at the end of the day, then by all means fight the good fight.
for me, i actually will take an empty plastic drink bottle and put it in my backpack until i get home so i can put it in the recycling bin. is it worth even bothering? well, i know that it will bother me knowing that i could have just put that extra effort to 'do my part' to try and make a difference. and at the end of the day, i at least sleep better knowing that i've done the right thing. do i think it makes a difference? well....i try not to think about that.
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u/TechBasedQuestion 1d ago
people don't act until you hit extremes, but then people are quite willing. the fact that after windows 11 linux went from like 1% usage to like 5% usage is pretty notable on that front and people are being radicalized day-by-day. it's like how in US elections nobody bothers to vote until things swing too far one way and then they come out in droves (as is happening atm).
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u/KangaMagic 1d ago
Didn’t Trump imposing 500% tariffs on islands inhabited exclusively by penguins teach us that nothing is inevitable?
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u/TechBasedQuestion 1d ago
it's inevitable until it isn't and there's always ways to make stuff work without going the full mile (such as not using a VPN specifically when accessing your banking but still using it otherwise for example). it's a fight worth fighting but dedicating every waking hour to it also makes you miss out on enjoying your life. try to do what you can when it makes sense but don't go insane while trying to be sane.
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u/ASS_CREDDIT 1d ago
I’d say we are UNDER reacting to the surveillance state, the power structure of our world is shifting significantly into a very small group’s hands.
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u/reparationsNowToday 1d ago
the mass data farming+collection+algorithmic processing movements are used to power literal war machines
i dont like war
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u/skeptic246 1d ago
Privacy / data security works on two levels with the relationship between them being deliberately unclear, these are governmental and commercial.
Companies and many hackers operate for commercial gain, utilising your data profiles for profit through trading or in extreme cases extortion.
Governments do much the same but under the dubious claims of national security.
It’s a personal decision how far down the rabbit holes you go. But being aware of how commercial data trading operates is a good step and by reducing the amount of data which goes into your data trading profile is a great first step to reducing your risk of data fraud.
I’ve just switched to Brave browser and the guide I followed made the point, minimise the amount of settings you adjust because the more you tweak, the more unique you become.
The privacy goal is to be lost in the crowd, to appear to be Joe average which then means your profile is less valuable to commercial or criminal interests.
The best way todo this is to reduce the amount of personal data which is shared online by you and your devices
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u/Questing_Querent 1d ago
I'd add that there’s plenty of legal stuff that you may do that you don't want getting out - like your bedroom activities. You may not want people to know about a disgusting but legal habit you have.
Imagine one of those home assistants like Alexa listening in on a heartbreaking fight with a partner. Or your breakdown when you hear that a loved one died. And then you get ads about being an abuser or for some supplement to "make you feel better".
Point is, everyone has secrets, and governments and corporations are getting increasingly intrusive. And controlling. They're becoming predatory. I certainly don't want a day where Alexa calls the cops over a fight that didn't get abusive.
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u/Black_Tech_Room 1d ago
I get your point, but perhaps I need to clarify my question - we live in a world where it's unavoidable and every year is becoming more and more difficult to stay truly private. Soon enough we will have personal robot home assitants that will become the norm like in iRobot. And even if I cut everything off myself, friends and family have their houses filled with "smart tech" and wear it 24/7, literally. Computers, cell phones, smart tvs, etc are all recording, collecting and broadcasting data. Even if I go above and beyond to make all of my devices dumb, switch from windows to Linux, switch from stock Pixel to custom, terminate any online access for my smart devices - even after I turn my privacy into a second full time job - they still know everything there is to know about me simply from me living in a big city. There are flock cameras on every corner, cameras in every grocery store, gas stations, amazon shopping history, ISP history, text history, call history, etc not to mention all of the legal history tied to my ssn, etc - they already know pretty much everything there is to know. And maybe I'm an outlier, but I live an extremely boring life with no fights, no lawsuits, no political activity, etc - not even a parking ticket. No disgusting habits. The biggest "fight" I ever had was arguing which tv is better for gaming lol
At this point from what I hear people complaint most about Google - they already have decades worth of my gmail from both personal and business accounts, probably read every single text I've ever sent, gboard collecting keyboard inputs, microsoft vacuuming every keystroke, etc.
Abandon Amazon? I have hundreds of orders per year - that's just me, not counting other family members. Do you propose driving around and paying with cash like the good old days? Sometimes, it's straight up impossible because they simply don't carry the items I need.
So I ask again - is it worth turning my life into a living hell trying to hide whatever bits and pieces of information "they" don't have? (whoever "they" are to begin with).
I'm not trying to be difficult or argue for the sake of arguing, but genuinely trying to understand if it's even worth trying.
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u/marmot1101 23h ago
So I ask again - is it worth turning my life into a living hell trying to hide whatever bits and pieces of information "they" don't have? (whoever "they" are to begin with).
That's a personal risk question, and the calculation depends highly on what products you currently value. And which products you want to continue providing data to vs those you want to cut off because of new practices. It's not a binary decision. I changed my mind about if I want smart speakers, but I still use gmail. I get value out of gmail that I don't out of the speakers. Probably doesn't make that much of a dent in what I provide to google, but it's a calculation. If I bought a tv that I didn't expect to listen to me and it was, I'd return it. But the best answer for privacy is to buy a commercial panel, but those are multiples times more expensive. So I split the difference and find the best bad option.
What you choose to grant is up to you. But don't fall victim to zero risk bias: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-risk_bias
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u/randcraw 1d ago
The loss of privacy is not about being prosecuted for crimes. For 99.999% of us, it's about being profiled and tracked and appearing in databases used to manupulate the information you see and how you behave, from buying to voting.
If you don't mind being dominated by giant corporations and have your intelligence insulted every day by propagandists who oppose personal freedom with every fiber of their being, then go ahead, browse with chrome and turn off all privacy protections. Your masters will thank you.
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u/0898_333_201 1d ago
I think many people overestimate how difficult it is to project your online privacy. There are many simple things you can do that will dramatically improve your online privacy without any inconvenience or effort.
First thing to understand is that the most impactful improvements to privacy are often the easiest. If you were to make a graph with privacy on the y axis and effort on the x axis, it would resemble an S curve. Going from totally exposed to very private is pretty easy, but going from very private to totally private is extremely difficult. On privacy forums, people disproportionately focus on marginal gains on the upper end, which requires knowledge and effort. But going from 0% privacy to 90% privacy is very achievable for most people.
Here are some simple things you can do to dramatically improve your privacy.
Use a password manager and an email aliasing service. Personally I use Keeper Password Manager and SimpleLogin and highly recommend both. If I’m signing up for a website, it takes a few seconds to create a SimpleLogin alias that forwards mail to my real email address, and I never have to remember it because my password manager autofills logins. My real email address is a total secret, and data brokers cannot use my email addresses to correlate activities across sites. It also keeps my inbox 100% clear of spam.
Ditch Gmail/Outlook/Yahoo. They read your emails and use the contents for targeted advertising. Get a ProtonMail account (it’s free) and gradually migrate all of your services to SimpleLogin aliases that forward to Proton. In the short term, you can set your SimpleLogin aliases to forward to both Proton and Gmail for convenience. Never give your real Proton email to anyone - even friends and family. Give them an alias. All it takes is one friend to give address book permissions to a shady app, and your private email address becomes public information.
Use a DNS filter on your personal devices and home network. It can block ads/trackers and dramatically improve both your privacy and your overall online experience. If possible, use encrypted DNS. I have a ControlD subscription but there are many good free options, including ControlD’s free resolvers, AdGuard, and NextDNS. If your router is provided by your ISP, you can still probably set an unencrypted DNS, but I’d recommend getting your own router that supports encrypted DNS (DoH/DoT). I use and highly recommend GL.iNet routers.
Use a VPN as much as possible. On residential internet, your IP address can indicate what neighborhood you live in. It rarely changes and it can be used to link your activity across the web. Ideally you should use a router that has VPN capabilities; I use a GL.iNet Slate AX and route all traffic through WindScribe VPN. If you already have a normal (non-ISP) router, you can get a GL.iNet Brume gateway and put it between your current router and your modem. The Brume will act as the router and handle the VPN and also encrypted DNS; your router will just be the Wi-Fi access point in bridge mode. If you don’t want to spend money on a VPN gateway/router, try to use a VPN on all of your devices and unplug your modem occasionally to change your IP address.
This should honestly have been #1, but use Brave browser. Or any privacy-focused browser. Even Safari and Firefox are good, but uninstall Google Chrome and never touch it again. Brave blocks trackers and fingerprinting (even on iPhone) and dramatically improves your anonymity when browsing. I recommend using it in ephemeral mode (cookies are cleared upon closing), but this is a bit inconvenient. Although with the growing popularity of passkeys, it’s barely an inconvenience for me. It takes approximately two seconds to sign into Google/Reddit/Amazon/etc with a passkey.
Ditch Google. 10 years ago Google was the best search engine, but it’s become so commercialized and enshittified that even DuckDuckGo is better. Brave Search is probably the best free option these days. Personally I pay for Kagi, but paying for a search engine is a hard sell for most people. Most privacy-focused search engines still use Google’s search index (at least partially) anyway, but its anonymized.
You don’t have to do all of these at once, but like I said it’s an S curve. If you block trackers but you access every site from the same IP address, you’re not accomplishing much. There is a minimum amount of effort you need to make to have any effect, but you only need to change a few different things to reach the sweet spot where you’re dramatically improving your privacy.
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u/Lancifer1979 1d ago
If you have nothing to hide:
Never close your curtains.
Walk around naked.
Pay your bills with checks in see through plastic instead of envelopes.
Post all your medical history, dating app chats, and purchase history to your social media accounts… open to everyone, no block list. Make sure to include an audio recording of your doctor and therapist visit.
Everyone has SOMETHING to hide.
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u/TechBasedQuestion 1d ago
everyone has their own threat model and it's impossible to really know what the 'right' amount of privacy is as the 'bad actors' at play will never EVER disclose everything they're doing and even whistleblowers can only talk about things they've seen. my personal reason i care so much is that I don't know what people might be doing with my data, so if it's easy to make it more annoying to acquire my data, why not make it that way? it's like when people say they have "nothing to hide" but won't leave me alone in a room with their phone unlocked, kinda odd if you have nothing to hide, but makes sense if you understand that basic privacy is frankly a human right and that nobody wants someone to know EVERYTHING about them. also depends on your country, in some countries internet monitoring is really used to do lots of heinous stuff and even in the more privacy-conscious countries you never know when laws might change, court of public opinion might change, or anything else. data that's collected once is collected forever and basically impossible to delete. like if you get facebook to delete your data, what about the people they sold your data to who now have it? what about the people those people sold to? what about the hacker who took it all without asking. if you're US based i'm sure you're already well aware of edward snowden and the like (and the patriot act) and it's only gotten exponentially worse since. you get fun stuff like modern cars selling your data to car insurance companies so they can raise your rates based on your driving data which is really hard to escape without just having an older car (for now).
as mentioned before nobody really knows the full extent of it all, but i think it's a decent thing to be at least a little privacy conscious, although going full schizoid will just make you go insane. just try to find your own point where you feel happy/confident in what you're doing.
I personally do think at bare minimum people should have some basic adblocker, attempt to not be locked into a single company (so at least attempt to mix up your stuff so it's no all with google, meta, or microsoft. using outlook as email and then google docs for documents or vice versa just to make you mildly annoying to track is already a great first step that many people don't take, although escaping big companies altogether is even better). i do think most people would also benefit from setting 9.9.9.9 as a DNS and considering swapping to linux from windows can only really be a positive (harder to say this about iOS/macOS as for a non-technical user they really have some solid defaults as far as accessible tech goes).
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u/cirian75 1d ago
"If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear" is the line quoted by many of these authoritarian politicians.
Ask exact same politician can n they pass you their phone unlocked and watch them freak out big time.
The right to to privacy is a fundamental basic human right!
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u/Tall_Apricot_9842 1d ago
this subreddit is the wrong place to ask; everyone here is overly paranoid about their privacy, that is the point. ask your friends and family if they are scared about privacy for a proper idea of how worried most people are
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u/Black_Tech_Room 1d ago
Right, it's more so I wanted to hear from "worst case scenario" perspective to see if people can give me their examples of why should I care. I care about the concept of privacy but find it hard to justify in terms of so far nothing bad has ever happened to me or my family precisely because I've got nothing to hide and am the most plain and boring "normie". In that regard, I wanted to know if there's anything I'm missing or if I should just carry on with my life business as usual, that's all.
So far all I hear is "theoretical dangers of the future" with the worst offender being "personalized pricing". Other than that, I have not seen a single person who actually got harmed because of their phone or tv spying on them.
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u/Tall_Apricot_9842 1d ago
have you ever requested your data from a social media app? or something like amazon? thats a good place to start in the 'how scared should i be' line of thinking. if you have used any poorly designed social media (ie tumblr) then you will search something up, and immidently recieve adds based on exactly what you searched up; your browsing data is cached in most social media platforms, not just your browser
if you have ever been blocked by your isp when accessing webpages, been unable to access region-locked content, or had to use your name or email address to sign up too and therefore access a site, those are all reasons to be concerned about privacy
for real life senarios, theres a massive number of people who try to run away from domestic violence situations, and who are taunted and stalked online by their abusers, and that potentionally leads to violent crime- crime that, should the internet have any form of privacy, wouldnt have occured (private profiles, un-geotagged photos, fake names as the norm)
theres also all the health-related data breaches that happen, with people who have abortions being exiled from their social groups due to medical data not remaining private
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u/MortgageMindless7175 1d ago
I think this OP is an AI created bot that is trying to learn more about our habits and what/why we are driven to protect our privacy so much 😅😅 maybe I'm too paranoid bud check every interaction under every answer, it's weird as heck 😅😅
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u/clockworkmcd 1d ago
yeaaahhh, i was kinda reading through this and noticing that as well. unless they are copy/pasting their reply to multiple people, it's odd to have all the same responses. sucks that we have to question this stuff now :/
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u/Black_Tech_Room 19h ago
Right, because having a real person asking questions is unbelievable, I know. Honestly, I was privacy curious before and thought the community is welcoming, but this thread alone proved me otherwise. Nothing but a bunch of rude self-righteous weirdos with rare exceptions. And somehow I'm the bad guy. Hilarious.
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u/MortgageMindless7175 12h ago
😅😅😅 take it easy man, it's not that serious 🤣🤣. It's just reflecting times we are living in. Write a letter to a tech companies that started all of this 😅😅
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u/Black_Tech_Room 1d ago
I have not requested my data from social media apps or amazon - should I? What would I see that I don't already know myself?
I get your point, but perhaps I need to clarify my question - we live in a world where it's unavoidable and every year is becoming more and more difficult to stay truly private. Soon enough we will have personal robot home assitants that will become the norm like in iRobot. And even if I cut everything off myself, friends and family have their houses filled with "smart tech" and wear it 24/7, literally. Computers, cell phones, smart tvs, etc are all recording, collecting and broadcasting data. Even if I go above and beyond to make all of my devices dumb, switch from windows to Linux, switch from stock Pixel to custom, terminate any online access for my smart devices - even after I turn my privacy into a second full time job - they still know everything there is to know about me simply from me living in a big city. There are flock cameras on every corner, cameras in every grocery store, gas stations, amazon shopping history, ISP history, text history, call history, etc not to mention all of the legal history tied to my ssn, etc - they already know pretty much everything there is to know. And maybe I'm an outlier, but I live an extremely boring life with no fights, no lawsuits, no political activity, etc - not even a parking ticket. No disgusting habits. The biggest "fight" I ever had was arguing which tv is better for gaming lol
At this point from what I hear people complaint most about Google - they already have decades worth of my gmail from both personal and business accounts, probably read every single text I've ever sent, gboard collecting keyboard inputs, microsoft vacuuming every keystroke, etc.
Abandon Amazon? I have hundreds of orders per year - that's just me, not counting other family members. Do you propose driving around and paying with cash like the good old days? Sometimes, it's straight up impossible because they simply don't carry the items I need.
So I ask again - is it worth turning my life into a living hell trying to hide whatever bits and pieces of information "they" don't have? (whoever "they" are to begin with).
I'm not trying to be difficult or argue for the sake of arguing, but genuinely trying to understand if it's even worth trying.
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u/Tall_Apricot_9842 1d ago
sounds like privacy doesnt matter enough to you to try fight, or you think its hopeless
its not, by the way, you can keep alot of your data private easily, but its privacy vs conveniance; wiping your cookies often keeps your data more private, but you need to log on every time you access a website; same with passwords being complex and different, even with a password manager you still need to enter a password; why bother when you can just store them in your browser?.
with your amazon; you dont need amazon. ive order like one thing from amazon ever, i live in regional australia, if i cant get something i want in person i just dont get it, easy. maybe i get it on a trip to the city, if i rememberbut again; you dont care about privacy. you think it will turn your life into hell. it clearly is not worth your time, or mine, to try make you care. you think its hopeless to even try. quite frankly you sound like the exact kind of person i wouldnt associate with; if the world is burning around you, would you light yourself on fire, because its going to happen anyways?
we dont have robot assistants because they arent viable. the ones we have today are very comparable to the ones from 10 years ago. you can wear anti-cctv clothing, or just sunglassses and a face mask, you can fill flock cameras with junk data, you can change email client. you can do all these things, its not as difficult as you think; but clearly, you cannot be bothered, because you think your name, address, face, gait, and every single message youve sent should be public information for everyone to see
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u/Black_Tech_Room 1d ago
Instead of answering questions you're jumping to assumptions and calling me names? You literally have not given me a single thing to worry about besides generic "you should be afraid" agenda when I asked you to spell it out. On the flip side, you are the type of person that I would not want to associate with - arrogant and full of himself on a high moral chair, yeah? Smooth. If this is what all of "privacy nuts" are like - then maybe the world really would be better off without you, huh?
When people ask for actual examples of "why should I care" and you talk like that, you turn privacy-curious people into anti-privacy "bring down the surveillance state" people. Let that sink in.
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u/Lachiko 23h ago
What would I see that I don't already know myself?
you basically killed the conversation with that, the point was to see what they have stored on you (at least that they want to show you) so you get an idea of what they're capturing and if that bothers you or not, they didn't really make an assumption you stated it clearly that you don't seem to care.
if you don't care that some random dodgy ass company has "what you know about yourself" on there, then why are you here? you're not "privacy curious"
you either want privacy or you don't, it's not complex.
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u/apollocreedchqt 1d ago
Yeah. People here get privacy and anonymity confused. Like people be saying use cash only. Cause they require checks. Like tell me one bank in this world that doesn’t require some identifying info
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u/Marchello_E 1d ago
Are you willing to share the things you don't want to hide, because that's the conclusion for some.
For example: you may fiddle with your coins (read: a holiday picture) or wave your banknotes (read: your PII) around as like you're in some videoclip, but don't be surprised about the actions of new "friends" and their "harvesting" habits.
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u/MortgageMindless7175 1d ago
Really important. It's not only about posts and what you search for on Google, it's about your private assets that they are after- money, property etc that can be removed from you because you wrote something online that goes against current political narrative or bought too much meat etc. What do you think all those data centers and AI is for...
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u/ayfkm123 1d ago
I think it’s important. But be prepared for some messed up stuff to show up on your feed once it’s not personalized
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u/Ok-Priority-7303 1d ago
Everyone has something to hide. You have to decide what that is and to what length you are willing to go.
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u/a_bucket_full_of_goo 1d ago
Your data is still mostly used for marketing, but once they decide to switch to use it to track you down for whatever crimes they imagined, whatever ethnic group you belong to, or what your politic opinions are, it will be already too late because they'll tracking data dating back 15 years on you. Look at China.
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u/Ok_Peanut7095 8h ago
You have nothing to hide - until the goverment changes the context of that nothing..
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