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posted by martyb on Monday February 25 2019, @04:23PM   Printer-friendly
from the What-do-you-read,-my-lord?-Words,-words,-words. dept.

We should each take privacy seriously, even online, and there is a distinction between privacy and security. The latter is a choice, the former is a right. Despite that it is not feasible for most people to read the terms and conditions for the online services which they use, especially when these terms of service weigh in with multiple tens of thousands of words per document.

Private text messages aside, who really cares about data privacy, right? If your photos, contacts, calendar, email, browsing history, search history, musical tastes, files, thousands of status updates, likes, shares and physical movements are all in the cloud, who really cares?

Please read that last paragraph again and let it sink in – that is probably more data than your nearest and dearest have about you. Yet generally speaking, people don’t seem to be concerned that such volumes of data are out there and being used without our consent.

PayPal’s terms and conditions are longer than Hamlet! The vast majority of people will not have the time, or inclination, to read and decipher thousands of words in legalese to work out where their data is going. Ipso facto, this data is being shared without our consent, regardless of whether we have accepted the terms and conditions or not.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 25 2019, @08:58PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 25 2019, @08:58PM (#806558)

    But USA is just one country.

  • (Score: 2) by The Shire on Monday February 25 2019, @09:29PM (4 children)

    by The Shire (5824) on Monday February 25 2019, @09:29PM (#806583)

    Other countries have fewer protections than the US. I double dog dare you to demand your human and moral right to privacy in China.

    • (Score: 2) by dry on Tuesday February 26 2019, @03:08AM (2 children)

      by dry (223) on Tuesday February 26 2019, @03:08AM (#806743) Journal

      China is not considered part of the free world. Try it in much of Europe or a Commonwealth country.
      You sound like one of those Americans who go on about being better then N. Korea, find a really low bar and be proud you're not the worst while claiming to be the best.

      • (Score: 2) by The Shire on Tuesday February 26 2019, @03:51AM (1 child)

        by The Shire (5824) on Tuesday February 26 2019, @03:51AM (#806767)

        one of those Americans who go on about being better then N. Korea

        China is not in any way comparable to North Korea. You sound like one of those snobby euro types who prefer to make false analogies because they can't refute the original argument.

        The EU privacy laws are little more than a cash grab. Meanwhile there are cameras on every street corner and rampant censorship of the net. The EU is little better than Russia at this point.

        • (Score: 2) by dry on Tuesday February 26 2019, @04:43AM

          by dry (223) on Tuesday February 26 2019, @04:43AM (#806788) Journal

          They're both authoritarian regimes, so comparable.
          Anyways, glad to hear America doesn't have cameras, license plate readers or security screening as well as never censoring in the name of copyright, keeping boobies away from people or outsourcing censorship to private business.
          You really need to make a trip to the outside, perhaps to Bree.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @07:47AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @07:47AM (#806849)

      If you were a double dog in China, you would probably be in a stew. Careful, my young 學生, words have consequences!