Jump to content

What privacy can get you


RV_

Recommended Posts

Excerpt:

"The fight for data privacy must be won in the middle.

No declaration, no call to arms, will sway the worst offenders. No public swell, no great big hack, has changed how money gets made.

Corporations will continue to reap our data, package it into ad-friendly profiles, and, for a price, deliver the right ads to the right users as determined by the right algorithms of the moment, because that is the formula for profit. And if a few privacy fiascos happen along the way? Well, pay the government-mandated fee, introduce a couple new controls, and, most importantly, march onwards.

This is where you, the people, come in.

Every single Data Privacy Day, companies, organizations, and privacy rights advocates make their best case for why everyday people should care about privacy. “It’s a human right,” we say, forgetting that one international charter does not hold sway on most of the human population. “It’s threatened every day,” we say, forgetting that the most common privacy threats happen away from plain sight, difficult to see and to understand. Even when we offer well-intentioned privacy tips, we forget that privacy today has become management. It’s fiddling with settings. It's saying “No” on countless forms. It’s auditing and dumping old apps and clicking through the permissions on your current ones. It is, for many people today, inconvenient.

That’s why, for this year’s Data Privacy Day—which has been expanded into Data Privacy Week—we’re doing something different. We’re going to explain the most convenient advantages and benefits of privacy.

This isn’t about what you have to do to get some sense of privacy online. This is about what privacy gets you.

Fewer all-knowing ads

Today’s advertising landscape isn’t necessarily new, it’s simply hyper-charged beyond our wildest predictions. For decades, advertisers delivered their ads to the people they believed most likely to buy their products—investment managers advertising in the pages of The Wall Street Journal, joint pain medication companies airing daytime television commercials, when retirees are most likely to watch.

But in the early 2000s, the ability to grab user attention was revolutionized, as emerging tech companies began hoovering up entirely new types of user data that could be used to build “profiles” that advertisers could then select to buffet with ads. No longer did companies have to rely on a little bit of guesswork when sending their ads out based on zip codes or age ranges. Instead, companies like Facebook built new infrastructure for advertisers and marketers, selling access to users’ attention based on these newly collected data streams.

In 2021, the end-to-end encrypted messaging app Signal tried to reveal the invasive nature of Facebook’s advertising profiles by purchasing Instagram ads that would tell users exactly why they’d been selected, based on their characteristics, to receive the advertisement.

“You got this ad because you’re a newlywed pilates instructor and you’re cartoon crazy. This ad used your location to see you’re in La Jolla. You’re into parenting blogs and thinking about LGBTQ adoption,” read one of the ads, which, like all the others made by Signal, was banned by Facebook before ever being rolled out.

Several ads purchased by Signal that were banned

Sneaky as these privacy invasions may be, they are only half the picture. The other half is third-party ad-tracking cookies. Third-party ad-tracking cookies, which are going out of style, enable companies to track your web browsing activity across multiple sites. It’s why your search for luggage on one site could deliver a relevant luggage ad on a separate website.

And at least when it comes to stopping third-party ad trackers, we have several solutions.

Much more in the full article here:

https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2023/01/what-privacy-gets-you?utm_source=blueshift&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=b2c_pro_oth_20230131_janweeklynewsletter_v4_1_167515092500&utm_content=What_privacy_can_get_you&bsft_aaid=18a8abbd-b7b6-422b-8352-283554e9475a&bsft_eid=c15a8a3b-c7c1-26e7-f217-f3e958e43eda&bsft_clkid=b4c84c30-34b3-4e0a-a8b6-8441ae9256f0&bsft_uid=5e997408-3efa-4edf-8132-a367895358d1&bsft_mid=92af4150-7aa0-49f5-851f-4396d9d6121d&bsft_mime_type=html&bsft_ek=2023-01-31T17%3A05%3A21Z&bsft_lx=24&bsft_tv=24

RV/Derek
http://www.rvroadie.com Email on the bottom of my website page.
Retired AF 1971-1998


When you see a worthy man, endeavor to emulate him. When you see an unworthy man, look inside yourself. - Confucius

 

“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” ... Voltaire

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you for posting this.  And since it's about privacy, I have a question.  The link you provided for the article--is all that stuff after the question mark in the first line (where it has "?utm_source") used for identifying you?  I see "email campaign" in there, and "newsletter," so I'm guessing you saw this article in a newsletter you received via email.  Do you know what all the stuff after that does?  I'm wondering if it identifies you (subscriber to the newsletter) as the one who forwarded the link. 

I truncated almost all of it and this will take me to the same place:

https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2023/01/what-privacy-gets-you

So all that stuff isn't necessary for bringing up that website, which makes me curious about what it's there for. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The issue is way past fewer all knowing ads, faster browsing, and potentially fewer spam and robocalls.

Many companies selling YOUR  data are making inferences about your behavior and selling that information to employers and businesses.

Safeway had a customer slip and fall while shopping.  It went to a civil lawsuit at which point Safeway pulled the shoppers purchase history at the store and told the jury that he fell because he was a alcoholic given the amount of liquor he was buying.  Nobody knows to whom Safeway is selling your purchase information.  Safeway isn't sharing that information with their customers.

Costco keeps track of all your purchases.  In our case, it dawned on that we were buying cartons of cigarettes for my wife's mother who was a serious smoker.  The purchases, however, show up on OUR shopping record.  Costco swears that they don't sell your shopping information, but they violated HIPAA and paid a fine.  If your going to violate HIPAA your probably not to concerned about your customers privacy.

On a personal note about a decade ago a friend sent a on-line survey that asked political questions and then matched with the Presidential candidates running for office and also made an assessment of your political leaning.  It was a real cool website.  

The question list was extensive with a hundred questions on a wide range of issues.   They even let you go back to their assessment of your political orientation and see which questions were responsible for their characterization of you.

In my case, in their eyes I was a "right-wing, Libertarian".   I went back to the questions to see what "made me right-wing".   It was the questions on economics.  I have enough credits in economics that I actually worked for the Federal government as an economists.  All my answers to the questions were CONVENTIONAL economic beliefs that are taught to all economists in college.  

I suspect the geek that did the labeling did not understand the difference between what is taught in economics in college, versus the political views of economic theory in the popular press.

About a decade later I did a search on my name and one of the services was willing to sell to all comers my personal information, but it led with my political beliefs as "though registered as a Independent voter, Vladimir's political beliefs are those of a "right-wing, Libertarian"  That followed a come on for a additional fee they would learn more about me.

If I were still of working age and applying for a job as a economist there is a world of difference between telling people that I believe in conventional economic theory, versus that my thoughts were right-wing.  As an employer would you hire a economist that was a "right-wing, Libertarian".  Would you hire ANYONE that had been characterized  a "right-wing"??

I used the normal privacy guards when I was on the website.  But the power of relational databases to link widely separated data is amazing.  

We in this country, have a "social" policy similar to China's Social Credit scores.  In our case, it is the private corporations that control Americans Social Credit scores.

Here is an article on social media and Social Credit scores from Deustsche Welle. 

https://www.dw.com/en/hello-big-brother-how-china-controls-its-citizens-through-social-media/a-38243388 

Worth reading.  It is worst here, than in China.  At least in China as a individual you can easily game the Chinese government.  It is a lot more difficult to game Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter and a host of other social media sites that are tracking and INTERPRETING your private information.

 

 

 

Vladimr Steblina

Retired Forester...exploring the public lands.

usbackroads.blogspot.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just since the first of this year I've seen this in action. I bought 2 wire racks from Amazon just after Jan 1. Now every time I open Microsoft Edge home page I see adds for those same wire racks. That is adequate proof for me my information is being sold.

 

 

2000 Winnebago Ultimate Freedom USQ40JD, ISC 8.3 Cummins 350, Spartan MM Chassis. USA IN 1SG retired;Good Sam Life member,FMCA ." And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country.  John F. Kennedy 20 Jan 1961

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Blues said:

Thank you for posting this.  And since it's about privacy, I have a question.  The link you provided for the article--is all that stuff after the question mark in the first line (where it has "?utm_source") used for identifying you?  I see "email campaign" in there, and "newsletter," so I'm guessing you saw this article in a newsletter you received via email.  Do you know what all the stuff after that does?  I'm wondering if it identifies you (subscriber to the newsletter) as the one who forwarded the link. 

I truncated almost all of it and this will take me to the same place:

https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2023/01/what-privacy-gets-you

So all that stuff isn't necessary for bringing up that website, which makes me curious about what it's there for. 

Blues you are right and I do usually truncate the ID stuff off the URL. However I believe they are doing big data for themselves like folks who want to know if you heard about them from a newsletter/friend/online/newspaper/magazine.

But again I use Malwarebytes Premium, browser guard, and have Nord VPN when I want to watch news or content from another country. However despite being able to spoof my location with Nord I have too much US content now and have not even tried to watch the BBC as if there or whatever.

The reason I posted the article is the paranoid conspiracy theorists always do well with a grain of truth. That online we are tracked and Google is in the lead doing the tracking is not in dispute as all Big tech wants to have the key to our wallets to sell other companies.

But to run around yelling the sky is falling ignores the simple remedy - unplug your computers and stay offline.

I think the more dangerous position is head in the sand dismissal of privacy concerns saying "I don't have anything to hide."

Excerpt:

"It’s not about “nothing to hide”

The weakest excuse we hear from people who have yet to champion their own privacy is that they “have nothing to hide.” The stark, unavoidable truth today is that you have nothing to hide, yet.

On June 24, 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned earlier decisions made in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which had, for decades, ensured national access to abortions. With the Court’s new decision, the issue of abortion—and its legality—was pushed onto the states, which could individually criminalize abortion itself, criminalize providing abortion services, and criminalize the act of supporting anyone seeking abortion.

Immediately, questions of legality and data privacy rushed to the forefront. As we discussed in our podcast Lock and Code at the time:

“Should Google be used to find abortion providers out of state? Can people write on Facebook or Instagram that they will pay for people to travel to their own states, where abortion is protected? Should people continue texting friends about their thoughts on abortion? Should they continue to use a period-tracking app? Should they switch to a different app that is now promising to technologically protect their data from legal requests? Should they clamp down on all their data? What should they do?”

The Supreme Court’s decision also sparked a flurry of activity from users of period-tracking apps who now had to worry about how their previously benign data might be used as evidence against them in an investigation into now-allegedly criminal behavior. The companies that make these apps responded to their users’ concerns, promising to either anonymize their users’ data, or encrypt it so that it would be useless if requested by law enforcement. At least one of those companies’ promises were over-inflated, one investigation found.

This unanswerable turmoil spat forth like a geyser, with little warning, upending everyday people’s lives for behaviors that were not illegal just 24 hours prior.

You deserve better.

So much of your data is collected every day that it’s more accurate to say that so much of you is collected every day. Your late-night WebMD visits about a new symptom. Your personal record on your regular jogging route near your home. Your first baby’s due date."

That is from the article in my first post in the thread.

RV/Derek
http://www.rvroadie.com Email on the bottom of my website page.
Retired AF 1971-1998


When you see a worthy man, endeavor to emulate him. When you see an unworthy man, look inside yourself. - Confucius

 

“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” ... Voltaire

Link to comment
Share on other sites

59 minutes ago, Ray,IN said:

Just since the first of this year I've seen this in action. I bought 2 wire racks from Amazon just after Jan 1. Now every time I open Microsoft Edge home page I see adds for those same wire racks. That is adequate proof for me my information is being sold.

 

Ray I had that happen a lot before I started using Malwarebytes premium and their browser guard, Nord VPN. As well I use CCleaner Free Health check and then custom clean before I shut down my system each evening. Yes I completely power off my main system all night daily.

I don't see those ads all over about an item I just bought or researched at all any more. Nor do I get SPAM after removing it to the Spam folder and blocking the domain it comes from.

But Ray I honestly can't say which security app is doing the trick or a combination of them all.

I also disable Microsoft's One drive and save nothing to the cloud. I still have a lot of TBs of hard drives (about 20 in HDDs) and am experimenting with the new generation of tiny 1TB USB C SSDs like the PNY Elite Pro I have. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/pny-pro-elite-v2-1tb-external-usb-3-2-gen-2x1-type-c-portable-ssd-black/6499883.p?skuId=6499883  I also have a 2TB SATA 2.5" old SSD form factor 2.5" drive.

My point is I still keep my own storage and will continue to do so. I have nothing to hide but I don't want to make it any easier. As well our Credit reporting agencies are all frozen because we don't and won't be needing any loans, credit, or new accounts.

But I get no spam nor ads about the last thing I bought.

RV/Derek
http://www.rvroadie.com Email on the bottom of my website page.
Retired AF 1971-1998


When you see a worthy man, endeavor to emulate him. When you see an unworthy man, look inside yourself. - Confucius

 

“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” ... Voltaire

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I keep it simple. I have Windows Defender and AdBlock and don't get any ads or misc. junk in my email.  I don't click on files I don't recognize and my computer has never been compromised.   I would imagine we all have stuff 'out there' that we don't know about. I don't worry about it.

Wait until Artificial Intelligence really takes hold. "AI is already being used in facial recognition systems that can result in an intrusive public and private surveillance state where both the government and private corporations can know exactly where you are and what you are doing."   

from The Week magazine.

 

Edited by 2gypsies

Full-timed for 16 Years
Traveled 8 yr in a 2004 Newmar Dutch Star 40' Motorhome
and 8 yr in a 33' Travel Supreme 5th Wheel

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2gypsies,

That's all anyone needs. AI is problematic because it will be in the hands of Putin and Ping as well as Kim in N Korea.

RV/Derek
http://www.rvroadie.com Email on the bottom of my website page.
Retired AF 1971-1998


When you see a worthy man, endeavor to emulate him. When you see an unworthy man, look inside yourself. - Confucius

 

“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” ... Voltaire

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...