this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2024
1030 points (98.8% liked)
Privacy
32465 readers
478 users here now
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I think some people believe that this is a single event; like they get your email and that’s it. They don’t realize or care that it is a constant ongoing collection of any and all possible information that is held by a company whose motive is profit. These companies are associating ip addresses with devices and activities all the time. Turns out the older your data the less it is worth. Stop when you can- even if it’s a slow process. Privacy is a human right
I’m tired, boss.
It’s a very alluring argument, to give up, to let them have it. But, not alluring enough.
Right. It's the difference between I've been to Holland and I've lived in Springfield Missouri and I am at Holland right now and my house in Missouri is currently unoccupied and full of valuables.
Time of info can make a heck of a difference
IP addresses
MAC addresses (physical devices, bluetooth devices in range)
Wifi access points
Cell tower access points
Browser cookies
Browsing history
Search history
Email (and its contents)
GPS paths traveled
Contacts
Apps installed, apps used, frequency of use
Hours inactive
Photos, videos
Just thinking about Google here as I don't use meta products, but my phone is android...
That's why I think is not the best approach to delete your accounts. Keep an old phone with all your accounts and every now and then watch a random video, make a random search, follow a random profile, and so on with all your accounts. Over time your true profile will become obsolete and buried under fake data.
Only true for bad informasjon gathering operations. They have device id and ip address, so they know it is an old phone. They will know that your new phone is your new phone and will prioritise that one. Now they just also know that you are trying to cheat the system, so you are now put in the "watch with more care", so you will be the most advanced agents on you.
Or to market paid privacy focussed products towards you lol.
We are talking about privacy, not security, like when being individually targeted by the state or someone else, that's another topic. Privacy-wise the main source of information about you comes from apps that collect all the information available (which is huge), they sell it to data brokers which in turn sell it other companies that tipically try to sell you something or want to know your habits (like your employers). If you don't use their apps they can't collect information about you and sell it, and that happens when you migrate to free software. Only location will still be collected because mobile service providers log it and sell it, but there are ways to mitigate that too.
Came here to say exactly this only not as well