Does it bother you to lose privacy, have your information shared?

fuzzybuddy

fuzzybuddy

SF VIP
Location
The Sticks, Northeast PA.
Yup, if you, in anyway, take part of the 21st Century, everything about you is sold, traded, collated, and swapped. Since I don't use cash any more, somebody in some office, thousands of miles away, is figuring out my toilet paper usage rate. That stuff used to bother me. You know, the loss of privacy.

But today, even the Amish use computers for their businesses. There's no way to stop the 21st Century from sneaking in to your life. I've gotten over that fact.

But how about you? Does it bother you about the loss of "privacy"? Keeping in mind you are reading this on a computer, which is tracking your every move.
 

Not at all. The only things I am wary of are trolls who might be a little unhinged and might start following me in cyberspace. I make sure they can't find me in the real universe by not disclosing personal information that might either identify me and members of my family or that might facilitate identity theft.
 
Very much. I discussed this with a guy who repairs my computers. We talked about how windows 10 spies on everyone like crazy. It does unsettle me. I like privacy; some people just feel better having privacy. I'll do everything I can to thwart those who'd sell my privacy. I do still use cash sometimes too. :eek:nthego:
 

It doesn't bother me at all really. I do know how to draw a privacy curtain around me if needs be and so now and again but I figure most of the info out there about me is meant to target me with stuff I might be interested in so that is fair OK with me. It is worth noting too that a lot of the data that gets collected is 'depersonalised' and used statistically rather than to 'spy' on individuals. It is easy to get paranoid!

For some reason I have always had a thing about loyalty cards though. I assume you have them in the States? You get 'points' whenever you buy stuff, usually at a named supermarket' and you get discounts with the points when you save them up. I know that supermarkets use that data for their own marketing purposes and for some reason that annoys me. A bit irrational, but I don't bother with those cards as a result.
 
Doesn't bother me much. It's something you just have to accept if you are going to participate in the 21st century. I do use a good antivirus, etc., and am careful about my identity and don't give out personal information.

Big Brother is probably pretty bored if he is watching me, anyway.
 
Wintermint said:
It doesn't bother me at all really. I do know how to draw a privacy curtain around me if needs be and so now and again but I figure most of the info out there about me is meant to target me with stuff I might be interested in so that is fair OK with me. It is worth noting too that a lot of the data that gets collected is 'depersonalised' and used statistically rather than to 'spy' on individuals. It is easy to get paranoid!

For some reason I have always had a thing about loyalty cards though. I assume you have them in the States? You get 'points' whenever you buy stuff, usually at a named supermarket' and you get discounts with the points when you save them up. I know that supermarkets use that data for their own marketing purposes and for some reason that annoys me. A bit irrational, but I don't bother with those cards as a result.
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All those 'points' for this or that really confuse me so I just toss them away mostly. I do show my store ID card and get plenty off my purchases at the grocery store. I have not yet figured out what I am supposed to do with my gas discount credit ID card I sometimes get or if I am a such and so special member of the store in their gas station. So I just pump gas into my car and pay with credit card then drive off.

I guess I could just ask the attendant sitting in the small protective area about a hundred or more feet away. A bit too lazy for that I guess.
 
I have pretty much gotten over it. I have a loyalty card for the two gas stations that I use. I save a nickel per gallon and don't have to walk in to pay. We also have a couple of Grocery loyalty cards which save us some money. Wegmans notified us that we had purchased a can of beans that had been recalled.
I get my harbor freight catalog every two weeks and life is good.
 
I don't like it but can't do much about it. Just yesterday my daughter was looking at my Facebook page and said it was linked to something and she wasn't sure what it was. I don't really have anything personal up there but I'm not happy about my posts being spread around without me knowing about it.
 
I flew with a female pilot back around 2008 and she would tell me about a stalker she was having a problem with. I asked her if she notified the police and she hadn't. She said that she was afraid that they would not take her seriously. I strongly advised her to do it anyway, but she didn't. Almost a month later, she found out that this stalker was able to hack into her Facebook account and he wrote all kinds of nasty stuff about her, all the while he was also pretending to being her. She finally went to the cops and they took a report, but never followed up on it because they told her that since she didn't know his name or where he was from, they couldn't do much about it.

This kept up for several more months and this stalker was able to get all of her personal information. He wrote all kinds of letters to her employer and also cancelled her credit cards and a bunch of other stuff. I could tell that she was scared silly, so I offered her to stay at my home until this issue either went away or was resolved. She said that she didn't want to include me in this person's hate mongering, but I told her that we would deal with it when we had to. She was assigned to the same airport as I, although we worked different days, times, etc. I told her not to worry because my wife would be there and together, they would be very safe. I also have video installed around the outside of my home, so that would make it even better if this stalker would come after her of be waiting outside.

She still did not want to come stay with us. All totaled, after 8 months of going through this mess with the stalker, the cops finally caught him when he sent her a threatening e-mail. They were able to obtain his IP address, which turned out to be his sister's house and they arrested him there. He was given 10 months of county jail time, but the judge told him that if he would repeat his criminal activity after he got out, the judge would make sure that he didn't see the light of day for several years.

She never found out how he was able to obtain all of her personal information. I thought that it was kind of scary that he could do this.
 
I don't use windows any more. I've switched to Linux which is faster and less cluttered. Living in a small village, the internet is a great help with shopping, especially for more obscure items. I'm not really worried if someone knows that I've just ordered some replacement heads for my floor mop. However, I don't use facebook, twitter or any similar sites.
 
It used to but not anymore. I realize that's the way of the world. I do what I can to minimize the invasion of privacy, which these days isn't much. I am looking into getting a VPN ( virtual private network) for my computer and devices.
 
Yes there is war on personal privacy. That one has to accept but that does not mean you give up the battles-oh it doesn't matter etc or fall for the narrative of those that want your information. Never give up privacy on a silver platter because it is frequently not necessary or mandated. The narrative/perception is the war on privacy is lost so don't fight. Instead of rubber stamping or ignoring privacy violations fight them. We should get to the point where we rubber stamp privacy protections and ways to reduce privacy compromises. Privacy gains should be the norm, not loss.

Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania recently introduced a bill to end warrantless collection of emails.

https://www.privateinternetaccess.c...d-warrantless-collection-american-emails-nsa/

Just one of many ways and political policy in play.
 
About the ONLY way a person might be able to insure their Total Privacy is if they moved to the interior of Alaska, and abandoned all of life's conveniences. Everything we do in today's society is tracked or monitored by someone. Only by limiting our activities to venues that have a decent amount of protection, can we be fairly certain that our data will not be used against us. Those who spend countless hours on things like Facebook and Twitter, broadcasting their personal lives all over the Internet, have no one but themselves to blame When, not If, it catches up with them.
 
I'm careful about the information I put out there... Guess I'm old fashioned, but I refuse to bank online.. I retain only one credit card for online purchases which I seldom make as I prefer to go to a store and look and touch.... I still balance my check book using the old paper statements, which I have insisted the bank send me. As far as Facebook goes.. or my private phone conversations, if anyone wants to look at cute animal pictures, or know when I have my next hair appointment... they should go for it.
 
Lolly said:
I'm careful about the information I put out there... Guess I'm old fashioned, but I refuse to bank online.. I retain only one credit card for online purchases which I seldom make as I prefer to go to a store and look and touch.... I still balance my check book using the old paper statements, which I have insisted the bank send me. As far as Facebook goes.. or my private phone conversations, if anyone wants to look at cute animal pictures, or know when I have my next hair appointment... they should go for it.
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Paper statements, still get them. I've always found mail is more dependable than the internet and computer.
 
I Don't Care If My Life Is A Open Book & Available to One And All. It's Been A Good Life So FAR. JUST DON'T MESS WITH MY FIANANCES OR IT'S PAIN AND SUFFERING UNTO YOU.
 
I don't trust the internet so I never enter private information about myself, but I am still sure nothing is secret. I only joined Facebook to keep an eye on my grandchildren, to try to make sure they don't put detailed info on there.
 
Capt Lightning said:
I don't use windows any more. I've switched to Linux which is faster and less cluttered. Living in a small village, the internet is a great help with shopping, especially for more obscure items. I'm not really worried if someone knows that I've just ordered some replacement heads for my floor mop. However, I don't use facebook, twitter or any similar sites.
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+1 for Linux, faster, more secure, user configurable. Windows 10 harvests information from the user, who knows what Microsoft is really doing with it.

Windows operating systems have a "back door" in case the government wants to take a look-see. "No Problem" you say? Well, guess who else can get a look-see too?

If you recently bought a computer with a Windows operating system, there's a good chance you've also gotten a "free" trial version of Kaspersky anti-virus software too.

Ah, Kaspersky...as we all know, the Russians have been much more aggressive lately, in their cyber-war efforts.

Thought provoking article:

[h=2]Kaspersky Denies Report It Might Help Russian Government Spy on US Citizens[/h]
Government officials and members of the US intelligence community fear the company may have close ties to the Russian government, and their security products may be used to spy on US citizens or sabotage critical infrastructure.The ABC News report also reveals that in February, the Department of Homeland Security issued a secret report on Kaspersky's relationship with the Russian government, which later sparked an FBI investigation into the matter.
Some of the accusations and fears are based on the fact that Eugene Kaspersky, founder and CEO of Kaspersky Lab, was trained by the KGB and worked as a Soviet intelligence officer in the Red Army, a period which he previously declined to talk about.
This is not the first time Kasperky Lab has bene accused of secret ties to the Russian government. Eugene Kaspersky has been answering these questions for the past two decades. More recently, in a New York Times article.
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Source
 
Thanks for that interesting article about Kaspersky. I have been using their anti-virus software for a few years and have been very happy. I'll have to think some on this.

I share similar feelings about online privacy as several others, I don't like all the snooping, but there is not much that can be done to avoid it entirely, so I try to be as safe as possible online. I didn't upgrade to Win 10 and have stuck with Win 7, for several reasons. Someday I plan to switch to Linux, or at least set up a dual-boot system, but have yet to take the jump.
 
WhatInThe said:
Paper statements, still get them. I've always found mail is more dependable than the internet and computer.
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Well you're lucky WhatInThe: How reliable is my mail? Well, my neighbor in the next building once got my pension envelope. He's honest and even if he wasn't, it was the direct deposit stub. I once got mail for a man who's name didn't remotely resemble mine, nor his address. In fact, he lived in a different town. From what I saw through the window, I think it was a check. I took it to the P.O. and spoke to the delivery supervisor about such a huge mistake. More recently I mailed back a heart monitor that should have reached it's destination in at least a week. 35 days later I got a bill for $2,000+ from the company saying I didn't mail the monitor back. I had pictures of how I packaged it as well as the outside of the package and I'd kept my P.O. receipt. When I called, I found out the company had just received the package the day before. I don't trust the postal system anymore.
 
I don't care if they track what I buy or what I say in forums such as this. I draw the line at financial info sufficient for identity theft, because that is a giant pain in the posterior to resolve.
 
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