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The GDPR is now in effect. This is an attempt (mostly good) to give people control over their personal data. Specifically, companies must ask you to opt-in to data collection, and you have the right to opt-out at any time.
Of course, too many companies are trying to abuse the situation. For example, I received several notices with an "accept" option that would opt-in to more ads, newsletters or data collection than I had before. I was particularly annoyed by the new Sonos privacy policy. It states that not opting-in to their full data collection means that your Sonos products will no longer work. Which, of course, makes no sense at all - there's no reason why a loudspeaker needs to send my music listening habits to the mothership.
This is an example of a practice called "forced consent", and is explicitly forbidden by the GDPR. Max Schrems, an Austrian attorney and privacy expert, has gone to war on exactly this kind of abuse. Just minutes after the GDPR came into effect, he filed separate complaints against Google, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp - all of which have similar forced-consent policies: opt-in or you cannot use their products.
Schrem's efforts are funded through noyb.eu (none of your business), which is a crowdfunded platform and organization that works for privacy rights online.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Apparition on Sunday June 24 2018, @12:55PM (17 children)
I've brought this up time and time again, and the answer is always one of two, (usually both):
The battle is lost, and has been lost for about ten years now.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by BsAtHome on Sunday June 24 2018, @01:02PM (8 children)
The battle is never lost. You have no obligation to agree to anything. You do have a mind of your own. Don't you think your own thoughts?
(Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Sunday June 24 2018, @01:14PM
your brain implant needs to restart to finish installing updates
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(Score: 5, Insightful) by Gaaark on Sunday June 24 2018, @01:48PM (5 children)
But the flock of sheeple is soooooo large!
Individual, lone wolves like us are few and far between and it's difficult to convince sheep that the farmer DOES mean them harm.
@Apparition is talking of changing the mass mindset, not his own.
I've experienced the same responses they have:
When I compare their "if you've done nothing wrong you've got nothing to worry about" stuff to 1939-ish Nazi Germany telling the Jews they have to register with the police, I get that "man, you're nuts" look (I'm sure many Jews said the same thing: "if you've done nothing wrong...". But it is comparable...they can just track your whereabouts easier now. Today's governments are heading in a BAD direction.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 24 2018, @02:58PM (3 children)
The real problem with being a lone wolf is that it makes you stand out from the crowd, and you get even more scrutiny.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Sunday June 24 2018, @05:28PM
Unless the wolf is dressed as a sheep.
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Sunday June 24 2018, @09:12PM
Possibly, but that's not necessarily enough reason not to be one. You may feel strongly enough to want to make a stand on moral grounds against these abuses, for better or worse.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday June 24 2018, @11:23PM
I'd rather be a lone wolf and smart enough to, say, 'Get the hell out of Germany' then a sheep that ends up served with mint at Auschwitz.
I'm glad I dumped Windows long ago. Only used Facebook for a few days before realising it was shite.
DUMP shit before it becomes 'difficult' or dump it when it's a pain, but dump it before it becomes the final solution.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by jelizondo on Sunday June 24 2018, @04:03PM
As Facundo Cabral (a philosopher disguised as a musician) put it: “My uncle, the colonel, said he was only afraid of fools, because they make such a large front that it is impossible to cover it.”
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Monday June 25 2018, @01:58AM
And the thing is, you soon realize that THEY are the only ones who have something to lose.
They soon come around and say, well, ok you can keep your adblocker on, but you will only
get X articles per month, or Ok, we will stop sending you spam, but not block you at our website,
or yes, we will still process your orders even if you don't agree to all of our terms.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 24 2018, @01:28PM (4 children)
Well, I do have things to hide... like who I do business with... because I know good and well information like that will be used to ensnare both me and my business partner in misunderstandings over who got paid while the perp runs off with the loot.
Example... right now, should I get a letter in the mail from AT&T, no matter how urgent the letter is marked, I know I do not have to heed it. I do not do any business with them. Its only something to try to buy their package, when they have already demonstrated to me all I will get from them is hot air, and yet more offers.
If I get email from someone I do business with, I will read it, and will try to work with them... and if the information gets out who I do business with, I may well be phished, and the perp profits handsomely by misdirecting payments.
I don't want the days I leave the house to be public knowledge either, given how many homeless are rummaging through my neighborhood these days.
Nor do I want my banking credentials public.
Am I trying to hide anything? Yes!!!! For nefarious purposes? No... I need this privacy for my own protection!
If my Government forces me to reveal all my cards like this, are they prepared to protect me from all those others which will gladly use that info to defraud me? How will they do this? Instantiate Sharia Law? Somebody phishes me and *they* hunt him down and cut off his hands so he can't use a keyboard anymore? Keep 'em all penned up in feeding centers with tubing running into their mouths and out of their ass because they can no longer care for themselves?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday June 24 2018, @01:33PM
*Institute
These days you don't even need to be in the same country as the person you want to defraud.
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(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday June 24 2018, @03:54PM (2 children)
I argued Google around and around. Remember when they wanted everyone to prove who they were? I got a warning that my account would be suspended and/or deleted because I wasn't using a "real identity". I was asked repeatedly to verify my identity. As I recall, this all started soon after G+ kicked off. I think that was the particular program for which they demanded verified identities.
I finally told them that I'm a mature man, and that in my lifetime I have created enemies. I wasn't willing to publicize my real identity, because one evening, I would come home to be greeted by an executioner.
That last argument put a stop to their demands, and my account was never suspended.
In reality, I fear a hitman as much as I fear one of my own dogs attacking me - possible, but so unlikely, I can't waste time considering it. I haven't made THAT KIND of enemies, lol! (or, have I?)
(Score: 1) by jelizondo on Sunday June 24 2018, @04:06PM
Easy, publish your real address and find out!
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday June 25 2018, @02:02AM
I never told them anything.
I simply ignored Google+.
I never had any arguments with them at all.
THEY are the only ones who have anything to lose here. Certainly not me.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 24 2018, @03:42PM
There is also, "we have to give up some freedoms to protect teh children!". Although that is some seriously WTF thinking right there.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 24 2018, @04:47PM
"The battle is lost, and has been lost for about ten years now."
And it's entirely thanks to people like you who have just given up. Well done.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 25 2018, @04:49PM
#2 is the big one for me (also, you couldn't delete your account, but that appears to have changed recently). I have no other way of remotely contacting some friends than facebook (the ones who have no phone service or change their number every other week or who have jealous boyfriends) and that keeps me connected. I've got plenty to hide, but I'm not enough of an idiot to say what I don't want heard or paranoid enough to suspect the Zuck has it in for me. The NSA already knows everything that goes into these kinds of databases and a lot more anyway...