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SoylentNews is people

posted by cmn32480 on Wednesday May 13 2015, @10:37AM   Printer-friendly
from the we-await-the-shitstorm dept.

I'm about to give up.

On the one hand, I see countless people get loyalty cards and enjoy discounts on their purchases. They connect with friends on Facebook and Twitter. They use apps on android or apple smartphones to give them turn-by-turn directions, find out where their friends are, or find places of interest. Their e-mail is "in the cloud" where they can get to it from multiple places. They use services like dropbox to share files. They get their news on-line and read e-books. I could go on and on.

On the other hand, I see opportunities for tracking and profiling in every one of those activities. So much so that it seems like one would be under constant observation and surveillance. We are just data points to be sliced and diced and marketed to — a society of consumers rather than customers.

So, I've got a major "ick factor" knowing about these practices and yet I'm hard-pressed to explain any negative consequences to otherwise intelligent people. "I don't do anything that's THAT interesting." "I've done nothing wrong, so I don't worry about it." "I like getting the bonuses and discounts."

Yet, I see companies expend great amounts of money implementing tracking mechanisms such as cookies, super-cookies, clear gifs, as well as huge databases of purchases, travels, and interests. I don't believe they are doing this for purely philanthropic reasons.

In no particular order, I include these for consideration:

I use a variety of Addons while browsing the web using Pale Moon: a custom HOSTS file, Self-Destructing Cookies, Ad-Block Plus, Ghostery, NoScript, Better Privacy, Flashblock, and Ref Control. I have a firewall and use anti-virus products. "In real life" I prefer to use cash over charge cards for my purchases. I have no loyalty cards.

What say you Soylentils? Am I being unreasonably paranoid? Or not paranoid enough? What dangers, really, are there? Why not sign up for all those loyalty cards and social apps? What privacy protections do YOU use?

 
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  • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday May 13 2015, @01:31PM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Wednesday May 13 2015, @01:31PM (#182358) Journal

    the ability of government to use it to intimidate members of the public

    The members of the public could intimidate members of the government, too, if they chose to. There are, after all, millions more of us than there are of them. And information tools and hardware to track members of the government are widely available. Americans have all the tools they need, really--guns, materials, know-how, communications--to change this situation abruptly. But will they?

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2015, @02:32PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2015, @02:32PM (#182389)

    If someone tries to intimidate members of the government then they will be labeled as a terrorist and the government will come down hard on them whenever possible. The government has infrastructure to handle mass protests and are able to monitor and cut them short before they become big. The government will not let such a movement reach the critical mass needed to bring about change. Keeping power is the only thing the government is able work together for.