Privacy

[Antigravitas]

I just realized I have no sense of privacy. I don't know if that's how I grew up, but if anyone else has insights I would really be interested in them.

[Lord Garon]

I assume you're talking about Internet/WWW type privacy. Its a pet peeve of mine. Maybe because my Dad was involved in a high-security profession.

 

I'm not sure, exactly, why it bothers me so much. Maybe because the lack of it allows the criminally intent to take advantage of me (ID Theft, malware, etc). Maybe because its valuable information to advertisers, yet all I get in return for not having it is being inundated with useless advertising I don't want. (I support local businesses and my community, NEVER shopping online.) Maybe its cause the WWW and http was meant and designed to share linked information, not support commerce and thereby attract those criminally intent I mentioned before. (We have a Planetary Shopping Mall instead of a Planetary Library, even though secure, transaction based protocols existed PRIOR to the WWW) Maybe its because I just don't like the idea of Big Brother and Big Business watching my every move for reasons I'm unaware of and may not agree with.

 

I served in the military and taught in public schools; my life is, basically, an open book. I'm fine with being background checked, fingerprinted, tested, and otherwise having no privacy at all, IF I know why and make the choice. We have no choice on-line, other than to not go on-line. It shouldn't be all or nothing. And, it especially shouldn't be how it is because of corporate greed (advertising and marketing).

 

Bill Gates (Microsoft) and Netscape are primarily responsible for monetizing the WWW, IMHO. They could have separated the WWW from a secure commercial protocol, but they didn't. Because of that, we have criminals and Big Greed on the Web and no privacy. It aggravates me, because I'm old enough to have watched it happen. I'm old enough to remember when the Web didn't, and couldn't, suck every bit of privacy information out of users browsing the web. I remember Google's founding, and their corporate motto, and their abandoning of it.

 

I'm guessing you grew up in the on-line age, with all the problems already in place. Lack of privacy is the norm now, and its just what the movers and shakers of the Internet, and governments, want. I didn't, and I watched as less and less privacy led to more and more misuse of personal information.

 

I'm a leech on the Nexus. I don't have a paid account, because I NEVER give credit card info online. I don't support their ad revenue, because my browsers are locked down hard and don't display ads (vectors of privacy issues). I actually hate to be that way, because the Nexus is such a useful website. I try to help people with Skyrim here, as a sort of "payment" for my leeching. But, I just don't trust the web, the entities my communications cross just getting to the Nexus, so the Nexus suffers. Maybe that's a reason to be concerned about privacy, and, necessarily, security on-line; the lack of privacy generates users like me and hurts legitimate websites.

 

Your business used to be your own. Now it belongs to people, both criminal and not, who make money off knowing it, whether you allowed them to know it or not. Why do they hack Sony and Chase Banks? Because its valuable to them and they can. The exact same reason they violate your privacy.

Edited December 16, 2014 by Lord Garon

[kelticpete]

well, I was an info-dumper for a long time. signed up to every website, gave real birthday, etc.

I also used to post a ton to facebook.

 

then I realized I was giving information away free and that

a) other people made money off of and I did not

b)this was used to create a profile of me

c) I did not like this.

 

I deleted my facebook timeline from the past, set all my profiles stuff that only friends could see anything I put up.

I also started using cookie blocker on my chrome. it is a bummer that google, facebook, yahoo, get info from me...but no spyware/adware secondary sites get to track me.

 

for example, if you read an article on zergnet and then answers.com and then ign, like 200 cookies are made that let various companies track you.

doubleclick, which is google's ad tracker..can't track what ads I see. neither can comanies like quantserve, score and research.

 

my brother in law works in internet security. he said giving websites your real birthday or even your gender just give them data to crunch. so I either leave it blank or if it is required, but the wrong ones.

 

so to sum, I tend to block cookies, limit what I put up, and not give away my vital stats.

 

i always used kelticpete on websites and there is some other person that also has used kelticpete. so hah internet!

Edited December 22, 2014 by kelticpete

[Vagrant0]

Not to get into the tin-foil hat stuff too deeply, but every cellphone made since 2007 has had GPS capabilities which can be used to track your movements without alerting you that it is active. Every phone with a camera and a microphone can have these things engaged remotely at any time in order to spy on your behavior. Every selfie you take and upload not only provides a record of your appearance, but also what you are wearing, doing, where you are, ect. There are currently bots with image recognition software that scours facebook, myspace, imgr, ect collecting data related to what is being uploaded at any given time. They don't even need to ask you your information now.

 

The generation which is being born now will have no concept of privacy by the time they are adults. Not their information, not their bodies, not the thoughts in their head. This is the road we've been heading down for the last 30 years, which has only been furthered with social media, mobile smart devices, and even government policy. And there is nothing which will change this course.

[Morrovvind]

I can see stuff like GPS tracking really come in handy. What if you were travelling to a foreign country (or even walking down your own street!), and got kidnapped and forced into slavery or torture? Wouldn't you want the government to know where you are so they could rescue you? If they offered me a chip to put into my fingertip or something so they could track my location, sure, I'd get it.