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Report: Internet Users Feel Powerless To Protect Their Privacy From Corporations
Mark Wilson writes: A paper produced by a team at the University of Pennsylvania confirms something many people have probably thought true for some time: the notion that internet users are unhappy with the way their privacy is undermined by advertisers and online companies, yet feel there is nothing they can do about it. While marketing companies like to present an image of customers who are happy to hand over personal information in return for certain benefits, the truth is rather different. Rather than dedicating time and energy to trying to stop personal data from being exploited, people are instead taking it on the chin and accepting it as part and parcel of modern, online life. It's just the way things are.
Is the article implying that there IS a way to protect our privacy? How?
and those Facebook pictures.
Herman Munster at 1313 Mockingbird Lane is probably less than pleased with me though.
Everybody expect free services. Nobody want to pay for anything, and they all expect privacy. Maybe it's time to wake up. Facebook, Google, Amazon or Apple are not charities, they are for-profit companies. They must find way to monetize their users' data. At the same time, Facebook probably wouldn't have been if it had been paywall'ed.
Somebody correct me if I'm wrong but I use Firefox with the following add-ons: AdBlock (no whitelist), Better Privacy, Google Analytics Opt Out, HTTPS-Everywhere, Noscript, Privacy Badger and Self-Destructing Cookies.
If you want to preserve your privacy, then DON'T PUT PICTURES OF YOUR COCK ONLINE!
Why would they feel powerless... When they are already essentially willingly giving out their personal information on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media services...
Internet users by the hundreds of millions give all their personal communications to online ad companies, including Google and Facebook. They have cheerfully gone from running their own mail programs to using Gmail or Ymail for everything. They gladly blab the private details of their lives, with photos, to Facebook and Twitter. They kept visiting signs once banner ads started... and then ran javascript from ad companies. They fall all over themselves every time there's a new service that vacuums up all their data, when there's no reason for that data to leave their own computer.
Sorry, internet users, but fuck you. The internet didn't used to be like this. You are the ones who supported turning the fucking thing from a true peer to peer network into a centralized, data-mined clusterfuck of overcommercialization and profiling. I don't want to hear how you don't like it. You made all the choices that led here.
OK, to be fair: not every last one of you. But enough that those who didn't were a rounding error and could be ignored.
So the Facebook generation that demands every online service be priced at how-fucking-dare-you-charge-me-for-this is now claiming there's nothing that can be done about the privacy they blindly signed away 473 EULAs ago.
Oh, that's rich.
Don't worry though. If you thought this was bad, I'm certain IoT will make these privacy concerns look like a 12-year old boy with a telescope.
It's one thing that your supermarket knows what food stuffs you bought recently. And a local sports store knows what socks & running shoes you bought recently. And a local electronics store knows what multimeter you bought the other day. But all these stores normally don't have that data from each other. They can't connect the dots, unless they are all part of the same company AND you used your frequent shopper card.
So each store only gets a limited 'view' of your habits. Only the place(s) where you buy food, might suspect your eating habits. Only that sports store might suspect your sports habits. Etc, etc. Okay, your bank may get a list of transactions at several places, but not get all details about what you bought or did at each place. This is how it is expected in the 'offline world'.
Online tracking might feed the data into a bigger mother company, advertisers that aggregate data, companies that 'voluntary share' some operational data, etc. Sure, there might be laws against some of that sharing. Sure, privacy policies may lead you to believe such things are out of the question. But can you rely on that? Are you sure?
If not, this allow painting a much more detailed picture about one's life. Would you want such a detailed picture to be painted? Would you even want the records to be kept that allows this to happen? For me personally it's "NO" for the most part, perhaps on the fence for a few aspects, and the word "creepy" comes to mind. Not exactly matching with what's already technically possible, and what some companies are known to be doing these days (yep FB comes to mind. But they're far from alone).
That sounds like the first part of that twelve step bullshit.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
If you want to preserve your privacy, then DON'T PUT PICTURES OF YOUR COCK ONLINE!
As we discovered in the John Oliver interview with Edward Snowden, it's the NSA's job to put pictures of your cock online, not yours!
But you don't have to use Facebook... ...to be tracked.
You know all those "share via social media" buttons you see everywhere? Do you think they just exist to make it easy for users to repost content? No, they're for tracking anyone and everyone who goes to those sites (i.e., all) who don't have the trackers filtered through the likes of PrivacyBadger and ad-blockers.
And the ratio of users that use those is minuscule enough that the users of the blockers themselves (like me) can be tracked via browser fingerprinting ridiculously easily anyway.
The general population is powerless against the corporations unless they simply give up entirely and go dark. What a nifty fucking choice, eh?
Get down off your high-horse, Lord Farquaad.
--
BMO
I'm gonna summon APK, but blocking Facebook's tracking (and Google's, which is even more pervasive) is not difficult, at least for now. If hosts files and privacy-enhanced DNS servers are too much to ask, there are browser plugins. You mentioned some. My point is that the people who feel so powerless now are exactly the ones who got us into this mess, because they were and are so complacent about every invasion into their privacy if they can only avoid learning anything about anything. If people treated shoes like they treat computers, most people would have to buy shoes with Velcro fasteners because they wouldn't even consider learning how to tie a shoe.
I think this must affect younger users more, having been around when there were no cell phones or computers I don't feel as trapped.
This powerlessness I don't understand though, all you have to do is not use the stuff.
Just how brainwashed are we?
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
It seems to me that the problem is that the user does not want put in the effort to learn about the tools and services they are using. It's conceived as overly complex, probably because of a combination of factors like zealots, technical jargon, corporate bullshit, etc. Even when it is not it's conceived as intrusive. The fact of the matter is that humans are stubborn creatures, and many humans think that when they graduate they don't have to learn anything new, ever. Most people don't have advanced degrees in economics and related fields to advertising, so they simply cannot comprehend how data mined they are being and why it is bad, often because off short-sightedness, "if you have nothing to hide .." comes to mind. Narcissism takes precedence to security with a lot of people, evidently, just look at facebook membership rates and the amount of facade-building (fake/phony/w/e) profiles with all kinds of information others with different frames of mind can use and abuse.
The only reasonably safe software is software you can and _do_ audit, where you can access source code to see what programmers have done. No closed source ecosystem can ever provide this. Stop putting everything in services, cloud, whatever and learn about the tools you are using, computers are good at numbers, so you can assume they can be useful to encrypt your stuff to keep it safe, too. RTFM.
You can do something. You can do many things. Turn on, tune in, drop out: Would you leave your laptop with a total stranger? No? Why would you leave your data with total strangers then?
$0.02
"To err is human, to forgive, beyond the scope of the Operating System"
Yes willingly, nobody has a fucking gun to your head to use this stuff, lack of willpower in a toy store is not "oppression".There's no trickery in any of this, you voluntarily (and often eagerly) sign up for a service and pay for what you use in either dollars, eyeballs, rabbit skins, whatever. Bitching about the privacy costs of of a FB account is like bitching about the electricity bill while sitting in an air-conditioned room, it will always be modded up because people hate paying bills.
Of course government spying is a whole different ball of wax, nobody signed up for that!
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Step 1: Don't use a so-called "smart" so-called "phone." Step 2: There is no step 2.
Why is Acxiom never mention in privacy? They collect data on people independent of social media and independent of any consent or even knowledge they are being tracked. They have information on you even if you've never joined any social media site. They track your credit card purchases, everything you buy, and who knows what else, and they are selling the data to who knows who. They sound way more dangerous than FB and google combined.
And also if computers were shoes, Apple would have invented velcro.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
And the dynamic is the same. People have yielded control over their lives in exchange for perceived benefits, and now they've got buyers' remorse.
Not everyone does that. I don't and im concerned. The problem is that it's not really an option as they are always inventing new ways of spying on people that are trying to opt out.
I'd pay money for a Facebook or GMail that didn't sell/give my info to others. I can probably solve the second by running my own mail server, but I don't have the knowledge yet.
But, of course, if someone were to try to make Cashbook, they'd end up having the community split between themselves and Facebook. And who knows, Facebook might sue over a patent.
Too late...you gave that up when you hooked into the internet, "friended" 3,495 people on facebook, twitter, instagram, said yes to every EULA, turned on tracking for your phone etc...you think government, corporations are just going to give that up?
This is utter rubbish. If you don't give personal information, then they have none. I post this as (AC). I'm not on FB or Twit or Pin or any of the others. I don't own a cell phone. I have worked for a 3 letter government agency (so it stands to reason, I know better). I do own equipment to do signal acquisition and analysis. It might sound anti-social, but the corporations haven't started blackmailing people (yet). If anything bad happens to a social networking company with a lot of data, there are a lot of really bad actors that will offer a lot to bail them out (or supply cash demanded by shareholders or creditors). Companies are required (by law) to maximize profits. They could obey laws to protect privacy, or they could obey laws to maximize profit (or just pay off creditors). Companies have always screwed customers/users over creditors. This is how they operate. Its the way. Don't worry about Facebook or Google or Twitter or Pintrest, worry about the NYSE, Bankers, the Russian Mafia, the Italian Mafia, the PLA (China), and dozens of others who never ever worry about your personal privacy, non-disclosure agreements, or whether you are an 80 year old grannie living on a $600 monthly pension, they will try to bleed you dry either way. Companies aren't the government. You can pressure the government (this is what voting is for). Corporations know you by dollar bills, and your picture isn't on them. You worry about government security (again, people protest), but corporations will not pay the slightest attention to you. Decisions about your information will go on in a back room somewhere, and you have 0 say. If laws are broken the company can be dissolved before charges are laid, big players 'leave the company' before the deal goes, so they 'were not privy to the transaction', and since the company doesn't exist anymore, no one can be charged. The zeroed bank accounts are your problem.
I will just climb to the top of the mountain and yell out, at the top of my lungs, "Help me Anonymous Coward!"
I do not think "hitting you up" is probable or, even, possible.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Keep feeding an ever changing pile of garbage into the databases.
Never give any accurate data.
And saying this, I know that the data breach in Washington DC the other day has info from up to 30 years ago.
They had all my information and I am surprised it was in a system that had network access to the internet !
I need a new tinfoil hat !
This is my opinion based on what little I know and understand of the rumors and lies Thanks, Randal
And after all the abuse of privacy, the outcomes aren't even that good.
I searched for one item, went to a store and bought it the same day, and for months I'm being shown adverts for an item I am no longer searching for. It doesn't 'know' something about me, it's taking a guess and it's wrong.
It is not primarily an ad blocker, but as most ads are served via JavaScript, not allowing domains like ad.doubleclick.something will greatly reduce the flood of unwanted ads and scripts.
The RequestPolicy website also recommends NoScript as additional measure BTW.
C - the footgun of programming languages
You used all the summoning keywords, what have you done!? You've doomed us all!
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
This post sounds plausible. However the combination of boldface, ALL CAPS, unnecessary exclamation points (!), and absolutisms ("...it's an undeniable fact") has my B.S. meter pegged.
Hey, Windows users, there is no such thing as "forward" slash, there is only slash and backslash.
If you want to protect your data from corporations, don't type it in. This is like being afraid of green sweaters. Don't buy one!!!
It doesn't. It tells people bullshit. What the 12step junk keeps telling people has been pretty aptly lampooned by South Park.
They are NOT powerless. They are NOT helpless. And most of all they don't need the "aid" of an imaginary friend. For fuck's sake, what people need is getting their act together. Find someone you trust, talk to him, realize that it's your life and that you HAVE the power, that you CAN overcome the crap and that YOUR LIFE IS YOURS. And YOURS alone.
That also requires one huge step, and that's admitting that you have fucked up. We've been so brainwashed into thinking that you must never fuck up. Hell, you do. Constantly. Everyone does. But as long as you learn from it, it's ok. That's what mistakes are for, to learn from them.
When these people start realizing that something's not running right, when they came to the realization that it's not going right, they ARE already learning. They ARE already digging themselves out. And that's what they have to do, because they, and only they themselves, are the ones that can save themselves. Not some imaginary buddy, not some psychiatrist, not some friends, however well they may mean it.
If you want to overcome the crap you're hooked on, you can. What matters is your will to do it. Nothing else matters.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Under data treaties that were signed, the basic Consitutional Right to Privacy is enforceable for all Canadian citizens, not just in Canada, but also in the US (US/Canada Data Treaty) and the EU (including the UK btw).
Period.
You can sue.
I know it's unusual for Canadians to sue, but sometimes we have to do it to stop Evil.
This is one of those times.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
As long as our politicians have to suck from the corporate tit to get campaign money, this will never ever change.
Jack of all trades,master of none
Corporations are DIRTY and care for nothing but profit, so even reading the fine print doesn't always work (if they even offer it): http://www.newser.com/story/18... http://www.newser.com/story/19... http://www.newser.com/story/17...