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Personal Privacy in a Surveillance World -- How Important is it?

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

martyb writes:

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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2015, @01:55PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2015, @01:55PM (#182369)

    It is not impossible that they would not have thought of people poisoning the well, and may have things in place to make sure that doesn't happen, or can be tracked to individuals doing the poisoning.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2015, @04:59PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2015, @04:59PM (#182468)

    It is not impossible that they would not have thought of people poisoning the well, and may have things in place to make sure that doesn't happen, or can be tracked to individuals doing the poisoning.

    Which is why I typically give them an old address and phone number when they twist my arm for such information. I am also not above, uhhh, slightly misremembering old addresses and phone numbers. My memory can be somewhat selective when it comes to salesdroids trying to get this information out of me. It makes it look like an honest mistake was made by me or the sales droid.