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Privacy Resolutions for the New Year
Chris Hoofnagle writes "EPIC has released ten privacy resolutions for the New Year. In addition to losing weight next year, lose all those data brokers who are after your bits."
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Some of these are pure common sense...others seem to border on paranoia...
FBI Witness Protection Program.
I wonder if EPIC has anything to do with this scary-yet-insightful video-flash movie.
So why isn't your email publically available in Slashdot?
Difference between "not caring" and "inviting disaster"?
Ok, sure I use cash, but what do you tell cashiers who ask for your home phone number or even street address?
And if you work for a retailer who makes you ask these questions, how are you supposed to deal with customers who don't want to give out this info?
Welcome to the no-privacy age!
Disclaimer: yes, you are correct in questioning my mental sanity. But then again, insanity is just a different view of reality, right?
and get a life in the process. oh, wait...
The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. -- G.B. Shaw
I got a tin foil hat for Christmas!
From the Privacy Resolutions:
I can understand why people want anti-spyware when running on windows boxes, since they also do a good job with cleaning recent files and such.
I can also understand why people would want firewalls for privacy. They're more convenient than actually locking down all ports and services manually
But anti-virus? And as a privacy measure? I don't get this. I have run without anti-virus for almost seven years, on various Windows boxes. I have never been virus-infected.
Whenever I am called out to do virus disaster recovery, it's almost always for people who have an antivirus solution installed. When are people going to drink the kool-aid, and understand that anti-virus solutions don't help.
My advice would rather go something like this: Set up your mail client so it won't auto-infect you by receiving mail. Don't open attachments. Don't install warez. Don't be so freakin' naive and gullible. Stop believing strangers send you naked Britneys.
http://virtuelvis.com/
Don't ever click the unsubscribe links from those annoying emails.
Read all your mails in text based mail client (MUA) to get rid of those bugs crafted in HTML code to trace your activity.
So sweet. This is the best /. story this year because it can get rid of all those credit card offers.
I called up the phone number in step 5 and was notified of a web site that would remove credit card offers and insurance offers for 5 years or permanently!
Guess what I signed up for?
https://www.optoutprescreen.com/
So sweet. Less junk mail is a good thing.
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
You don't seem to understand what it's all about. Publishing my email address here will bring me lots of spam. Nothing more, nothing less. When EPIC and related people say "privacy", they mean collecting personal data, like your buying habits. The threat from this is very different from spam in your inbox. It's a more "philosophical" matter - you don't want a marketer to know what brand of condom you prefer, even if there is no practical consequence. Well, and I say, fuck it, I don't care.
Grab a clean razor and dig the RFID tag out of your forearm.
To understand recursion, you must first understand recursion.
Very scary-yet-insightful indeed, BUT: This is different from the media landscape we have today, ... ehhh, how?
Protect Your Privacy in The New Year!
1. Engage in "privacy self defense." Don't share any personal information with businesses unless it is absolutely necessary (for delivery of an item, etc.). Don't give your phone number, address, or name to retail stores. If you do, they can sell that information or use it for telemarketing and junk mail. If they ask for your information, say "it's none of your business," or give "John Doe, 555-1212, 123 Main St." Don't return product warranty cards. Don't complete consumer surveys even if they appear to be anonymous. Profilers can build in barely-perceptible codes that link you to the survey, and this data goes straight to direct marketers.
2. Pay with cash where possible. Electronic transactions leave a detailed dossier of your activities that can be accessed by the government or sold to telemarketers. Paying with cash is one of the best ways to protect privacy and stay out of debt.
3. Install anti-spyware, anti-virus, and firewall software on your computer. If your computer is connected to the Internet, it is a target of malicious viruses and spyware. There are free spyware-scanning utilities available online, and anti-virus software is probably a necessary investment if you own a Windows-based PC. Firewalls keep unwanted people out of your computer and detect when malicious software on your own machine tries to communicate with others.
4. Use a temporary rather than a permanent change of address. If you move in 2005, be sure to forward your mail by using a temporary change of address order rather than a permanent one. The junk mailers have access to the permanent change of address database; they use it to update their lists. By using the temporary change of address, you'll avoid unwanted junk mail.
5. Opt out of prescreened offers of credit. By calling 1-888-567-8688, you can stop receiving those annoying letters for credit and insurance offers. This is an important step for protecting your privacy, because those offers can be intercepted by identity thieves.
6. Choose Supermarkets that Don't Use Loyalty Cards. Be loyal to supermarkets that offer discounts without requiring enrollment in a loyalty club. If you have to use a supermarket shopping card, be sure to exchange it with your friends or with strangers.
7. Opt out of financial, insurance, and brokerage information sharing. Be sure to call all of your banks, insurance companies, and brokerage companies and ask to opt out of having your financial information shared. This will cut down on the telemarketing and junk mail that you receive.
8. Request a free copy of your credit report by visiting http://www.annualcreditreport.com. All Americans are now entitled to a free credit report from each of the three nationwide credit reporting agencies, Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union. You can engage in a free form of credit monitoring by requesting one of your three reports every four months. By staggering your request, you can check for errors regularly and identify potential problems in your credit report before you lose out on a loan or home purchase. Currently, these reports are available to residents of most western states. By September 2005, all Americans will have free access to their credit report.
9. Enroll all of your phone numbers in the Federal Trade Commission's Do-Not-Call Registry. The Do-Not-Call Registry (http://www.donotcall.gov or 1-888-382-1222) offers a quick and effective shield against unwanted telemarketing. Be sure to enroll the numbers for your wireless phones, too.
10. File a complaint. If you believe a company has violated your privacy, contact the Federal Trade Commission, your state Attorney General, and the Better Business Bureau. Successful investigations improve privacy protections for all consumers.
Personally, I do care about privacy. Or rather, I would if it was conceivably possible to have any, but as Scott McNealy accurately said back in 1999, there is no privacy, get over it. He's right unfortunately...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
you don't want a marketer to know what brand of condom you prefer, even if there is no practical consequence. Well, and I say, fuck it, I don't care.
Dear Sir,
We at Foo Health Insurance have reviewed your personal customer file. It appears you use condoms from the SuperStrong[tm] brand, which is statistically consistent with a promiscuous sex life. Therefore, as a precautionary measure, and to better serve you, we have cross-checked your medical claims file and successfully determined that you have started taking tri-therapies recently. What's more, your credit record seems to indicate that you would be better served by another health insurance company. We therefore regret to inform you that you will no longer be able to enroll in your current plan. Please find enclosed a list of plans you are eligible to.
Regards,
Joe S. Bastard, Foo H.I., Inc.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Engage in "privacy self defense." Don't share any personal information with businesses unless it is absolutely necessary
Or... Give them disposable information that allows you to cease hearing from them, or know when/if they have distributed your information without consent.
To this end, I highly recommend Spam Gourmet which allows the on-the-fly creation of disposable email addresses.
If you walk into McDonalds and really want to sign up for their win a free cheeseburger contest, you give them an email address like cheesy.n.youraccount@spamgourmet.com and you will only ever receive 'n' emails to that address before it dies.
Of course if you then receive emails from Pizza Hut, you know exactly where they got the email from.
If you never want to hear from the person, give them this address: me@privacy.net.
Any emails sent to that address receive a reply to the effect of: "whoever gave you this address didn't want you to have theirs".
Useful stuff!
Indy Media Watch-Proctologist of the Internet
Then when your employer, the **AA, Microsoft, the FBI, or your spouse starts complaining about what thet found due to our lack of privacy, you could say "It might have been the PlausDen.A virus - not me!"
Not that I personally want this virus installed on my system... I just want the possibility that I may have had the virus.
Shee, some of this reads more like instructions for spies trying to survive in hostile territory.
Now, I've long believed that the best response to some clerk asking for my address on a cash deal is, "why?" or, "I already get your catalogs." I'm already *in their store*, so no further advertising is needed, eh? I wish there was some way for the clerk to get that fact into the store's database.
But there are some things about me that I would dearly love to have marketing folk know and share widely. I'm not a 59-year-old retired veteran, for example. I have no actual or legitimate theoretical interest in offers "for singles only." There's lots of stuff I'm not buying, not just from you, but not from your competitors either -- maybe it's because I don't want it at all? I don't smoke at all, or encourage others to, so why would I care that you are selling expensive imported cigars?
Anyone studying me in detail would see that I tend to actively preserve my unawareness of types of products that I don't use until I decide to use them, then do my own research and usually end up with one that's *not* heavily promoted. I wish some people would dig *that* out of their data mines.
"These days it's all secrecy, and no privacy..."
Mick Jagger wrote that line in a song called Fingerprint file, in 1974.
Don't believe this "privacy is dead" stuff. The data companies want you to believe this. The fact is, we've regained some privacy as a result of several federal privacy laws (most notably, the do not call registry) and laws passed in California. A 1999 law made it more difficult for companies to get and sell SSNs. We're making progress here, and if you follow just some of the resolutions, you will put a serious damper on the ability of data brokers to track you.
The enduring problem is information assymetry--they know how to collect data about you in subtle ways. For instance, just giving a clerk your telephone number enables the company to call Acxiom or Experian and use "enhancement" to get your real name, addresss, and email. If we want to slow this down, we need to become more costive with our data. Merry Xmas, Chris from EPIC.
How did you know I was picking my nose?
Is it just me that finds those electronic trails useful to working out where all the money went? Yes, I could write everything down, but it's so much easier... ...and why is the bank knowing what I've bought really such a terrible thing?
A lack of privacy is simply one of the small concessions that people must make when living in a society. There is no way to have anywhere close to absolute privacy while living in a modern society. Period. If you want that much privacy, you can easily find a remote corner of the world to live in.
I don't respond to AC's.
I won't look.. I promise.
/sneer
IMHO they are the ones who walk around in tin foil hats.
e direc t.html
:-/
Despite all their privacy ranting on how the world is trying to guess the size of your penis....
Note the link for http://www.annualcreditreport.com
actually links to:
http://www.epic.org/privacy/fcra/freereportr
That's right... they redirect, and that link only. Hmm... they aren't doing any sort of tracking are they?
Put the tin foil hats back on, and get back in the blast shelter.
I would like to add that if you are an American citizen the ONLY people you have to give your social security number too are your employer and your department of motor vehicles.
You can also ask motor vehicles to not use it nor to distribute your personal information.........they do.....every wonder how those "welcome to the neighborhood" coupon books and sales circulars find you?
That does sound great, and I'll be setting up an account shortly... thanks for the info! A question: wouldn't it be easy for the businesses to program their systems to always change the N (the middle number) to something much higher? Does SpamGourmet allow one to specify a meta-max to prevent such things, or allow one to axe an address spuriously inflated (or even one created blind)?
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
Dweeb. The way THAT works is they report you as a deadbeat, your score goes to 300, and NO ONE will give you credit. Hope you aren't buying a house or car soon . .
Given that life on this planet is only temporary in the first place, the concept of "credit" (as it refers to economic prowess and compensatory dick size comparisons) is mostly irrelevant and superficial.
It's always cool to have the latest expensive toys and live in peer-approved neighbourhoods and drive the trendy cars, but if those are your primary motivations you are defective as a human being.
Just my humble opinion.
As a college student who has yet to take the plunge to get a credit card, I was wondering if someone could clear something up for me. I was under the impression that checking your score too often took points off your rating. Does this new free annual check affect your credit rating in any way whatsoever?
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
You sir are a victim of the good manners your parents taught you. You probably even answer the phone and speak with telemarketers when you don't want to. Here's what you do when confronted with a cashier who matter of factly asks you for your phone number, your zip code, street address or any other information when you are paying cash money for something. It's what I do and it works every single time. I say NO! So should you. I also tell them I will spend less time coming to any store that bothers me like this. Heck, I won't even go into a Radio Shack anymore and they don't even try do that address/phone number BS any longer. So if you are paying cash, not buying a controlled item where a registration is required like a gun or a nuke then you should know they have no right whatsoever to ask you for diddle. Nadda, nothing, zippo, zilch. Say it loud and say it proud. NO! (pet peeve)
Enjoy your Karma, after all you earned it. Feel your Karma Joe, feel it burn.
I have always objected to this question because it incourages redlining.
I tell the clerk when they ask "can I have your zip code"
"No, I am sorry, I need to use it my self" or
"No, I am sorry, I don't have it with me."
The best thing to do is be polite and explain that you object to the question.
When they ask for this information you can just say 'no'
When they want the little card I tell them that it is discrimatory against people who are retarded or otherwise not smart enough to know how to fill out the form.
If they won't give me a discount, I don't buy the stuff.
I really hate the way that the store CVS does things with their cards. It makes me so uncomfortable that I make a point of NOT shopping there unless I have to.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts will try and charge you sales tax on items that you buy in New Hampshire.
Even though this in unconstitutional, they don't care. The state is run by a mafia called the state government.
So, if you pay with a credit card there is a record that they can use to get you with and charge you the tax.
If you pay with cash they can never know.
Do you get it now?
Plus: when you pay with cash the credit card companies don't get their 4% which they don't deserve.
Check out the site they recommend you use to opt out of receiving credit reports, https://www.optoutprescreen.com/
To protect your privacy, you have to give them your social security number, in addition to your name, address, and date of birth. Oh the irony.
Now before I get modded down, I be to remind whoever might read this that what I am saying is FACT. - bogaboga
"6. Choose Supermarkets that Don't Use Loyalty Cards. Be loyal to supermarkets that offer discounts without requiring enrollment in a loyalty club. If you have to use a supermarket shopping card, be sure to exchange it with your friends or with strangers."
Huh? This really seems quite trivial. And anyway, if you're so paranoid that you don't want anyone to know what you're buying from the grocery store, you can always:
1) Not use the card when you're buying your monthly supply of liqueur, cigarettes, and condoms
2) Give a made-up name when you get the card. It's not like they care enough to check.
Big deal, you don't need insurance anyway.
ONLY people you have to give your social security number too are your employer and your department of motor vehicles.
Whew! I was worried that I would have to supply my social security number to the Social Security Administration.
Also try http://spammotel.com/ ... same thing, but useful for non-expiring relays.
"Good news, everyone!"
#9 is an oxymoron. How will expose one's own private into is going to protect ANYONE's privacy? Either people in EPIC are morons, or they are the biggest hypocrites working for telemarketers. What Do-Not-Call Registry really does is to tell telemarketers that these are actual marketing opportunities instead of some automated answering machines at the other side of the phone. As a result, telemarketers will call the suckers who sign up. And yes, the telemarketers will definitely get away with it, because they can just use caller I.D. spoofing services to shift blames, just like e-mail spammers have done for years.