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from the you-mean-sombody-hadn't-realised? dept.
The New York Times published an article on Sunday confirming what we've all assumed — that internet privacy policies are so full of loopholes as to be meaningless. They found that of the 100 top alexa-ranked english-language websites, 85 had privacy policies that permitted them to disclose users' personal information in cases of mergers, bankruptcy, asset sales and other business transactions.
When sites and apps get acquired or go bankrupt, the consumer data they have amassed may be among the companies' most valuable assets. And that has created an incentive for some online services to collect vast databases on people without giving them the power to decide which companies, or industries, may end up with their information.
"In effect, there's a race to the bottom as companies make representations that are weak and provide little actual privacy protection to consumers," said Marc Rotenberg, the executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a nonprofit research center in Washington.
Original Submission
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 30 2015, @10:55PM
Recently I had to get some medication from a pharmacy. I was so concerned about being followed home that I parked my car a long distance away. Then walked around the entire market in circles (inconspicuously) before entering the pharmacy (making sure there were no other customers in at that time. All of them could be spies for all I know). Then I tried to stay low key and kept an eye on everyone in the pharmacy and any cameras they may have. Then I spoke with the pharmacist like a regular dumb person and asked for the medication (while changing my voice and speech pattern slightly so it cannot be easily recognized by an algorithm). Then paid in cash the full amount, without getting back any change (I already had notes and coins for every final value) while taking care not to touch the cashier's hand. Then I got out and quickly put the medicines in my pocket and walked around in circles making sure no one follows me. I was still quite concerned about the pharmacist entering my description into a computer, so that a match can be made.
What a sad world we live in today.