Rant privacy

[pmanton]

I guess there is no more privacy left. I get a text from my insurance agent with a birthday greeting. I didn't give him my birthdate. (home insurance)

I get an invitation to join an organization for octogenarians. How in H did they know 80 is coming up?

The VA calls me in for a hearing test. A week later I get an ad for hearing aids in the mail.

Bah Humbug

In a few more years they'll be putting chips in you young whippersnappers so they can track you 24/7

 

[steveno]

it's just like the car insurance ads that say you will save a lot of money by switching to them. you don't have to enter very much information and they know who you are , where you live and the vehicle you are driving

 

[tlawler]

Big Brother isn't just watching any longer. Now he's interactive. Selling your info between companies is big business these days.

 

[Bugkiller99]

You don't need to worry too much about Big Brother.

However, if you want something to worry about.... worry about GOOGLE.

 

[GKC]

Like when you are on Facebook, and you see ads that are amazingly similar to things you've looked at on eBay...makes me mad. I close those ads, and then a popup asks what I didn't like about the ad, and I say it's because you are invading my privacy.

I guess we should all use the incognito mode to do anything online...but it shouldn't have to be that way. The internet can be an amazing tool to find information and to communicate...but it comes at a price. There's no free ride anymore...

 

[ExRanger714]

The chips are already in us but if you wrap your head in a wet towel and keep your face oriented south by southwest it attenuates the signal.

Happy 80!

 

[Bugkiller99]

I used to think that thing on my leg was a birthmark. Now I think it's a bar code.

 

[427mach1]

"In mother Russia, television is watching YOU!"

 

[Old cop]

I know where you're coming from, I got all the same stuff and I'm just a kid @ 71!

 

[arjay]

Targeted marketing,news and politics is the way it is now.Got to keep that in mind ;-)

 

[ExRanger714]

The internet can be an amazing tool to find information and to communicate.

The internet is just a passing fad like color tv and power brakes were and it too will soon be obsolete.

And that Facebook: is it hard or softbound? Are there pictures? Of how many pages is it? Can you get used copies on Ebay or Gunbroker if you don't want to spring for a new one? What edition is the most recent?

 

[Andy Lowry]

I'm an IT guy. Here are some tips:
--Use your browser's "incognito" mode. This prevents your browsing history from being shared with every site you visit. Here's a handy guide for IE, Edge, Firefox, and Chrome.
--If your browser can install extensions, add UBlock Origin. This will block ads, which are a source of tracking and occasional malware. You can whitelist sites you trust, like this one, so that their ad revenue isn't cut off.
-- Consider a VPN subscription. This makes all your traffic appear to be originating somewhere other than where you are. I use Nord, but there are a lot of them out there. Here's a spiffy chart of what's available and what the characteristics of each are.
-- To see what information about you is being handed out by your browser, try this test scan. After the test runs, click "Show full results for fingerprinting." Prepare to be surprised.
-- If you have a Facebook account, close it.
-- If you use Google or Bing for search, consider DuckDuckGo or Startpage. Neither keep data on your web search history.

 

[chaparrito]

Another vote for DuckDuckGo. I never use Google, other than for a work mail account and I make sure I'm signed out when done with mail. I also use Opera, which, short of a paid for VPN, has the best privacy of any browser. I has built-in what it calls a "VPN"...it's really not, more like a proxy, but it does a fair job of disguising IP address and blocking what your ISP can see.

 

[Watchdog]

You don't need to worry too much about Big Brother.

However, if you want something to worry about.... worry about GOOGLE.

It's too late to worry about Google.

 

[Kiwi cop]

Maybe some of those survivalists have the right idea. Go somewhere where the internet doesn't reach and live off the grid.

Otherwise Google, Facebook and Android will follow you wherever you choose to go.

Unless it is required for an app to work I turn off or deny any requests to allow apps to find my location.

I should not use Google but it is the default setting for my browser (Safari) and I can't be bothered to find another when I want to know something right now.

And I have two "throw away" e-mail accounts for making internet purchases.

And they still find me.

 

[Watchdog]

I guess there is no more privacy left. I get a text from my insurance agent with a birthday greeting. I didn't give him my birthdate. (home insurance)

If you have auto insurance with the same guy, you probably at some time had to show I.D. Like driver's license...which has your birth date on it? If he ran a credit report on you, your birth date will be a part of that. Any number of ways he could've found out.

I get an invitation to join an organization for octogenarians. How in H did they know 80 is coming up?

Your insurance guy ratted you out.

The VA calls me in for a hearing test. A week later I get an ad for hearing aids in the mail.

No surprise there. It's business.

When I was working and would log in on my computer at the start of the day, the first thing popped onscreen was a warning that contained the phrase, "This is a U.S. government computer. You have no reasonable expectation of privacy while logged in on this network."

The same thing applies to consumer-level Internet access, no matter how well protected you think you are.

 

[oldbrownhat]

I'm an IT guy. Here are some tips...

Thanks for this. I recently ran across this article, which is also helpful.

I never use Google directly; I use Startpage or DuckDuckGo. I don't do Facebook, but I ran the Google download described in the article and it came up with very little. However, I only use Gmail and none of the other services. I visit YouTube quite a bit but even then it had almost no collected info.

I also often use a VPN (Private Internet Access- pretty good)- and always use it on my iPhone if I feel the need to connect to the online world. I use Firefox with most of the "protective" extensions- HTTPS Everywhere, AdBlock, Ghostery, NoScript. (I read recently that Ghostery does log some stuff, though ??) I also often use TOR Browser .

It's a bit of a pain; occasionally something on a web page won't work but I usually just forgo it if I can't be bothered figuring out which of the 27 scripts that NoScript reports are to be allowed.

As to the OPs initial complaint about an unwanted birthday message, I think that would have promted a very serious "reading of the riot act" to the company involved.

ps: I've done that Panopticlick test you linked to. VERY revealing.

 

[HOUSTON RICK]

I guess there is no more privacy left. I get a text from my insurance agent with a birthday greeting. I didn't give him my birthdate. (home insurance)

I get an invitation to join an organization for octogenarians. How in H did they know 80 is coming up?

The VA calls me in for a hearing test. A week later I get an ad for hearing aids in the mail.

Bah Humbug

In a few more years they'll be putting chips in you young whippersnappers so they can track you 24/7

People are already getting voluntarily chipped to work in certain companies.

 

[oldbrownhat]

People are already getting voluntarily chipped to work in certain companies.

"Voluntarily" being the alarming part. George Orwell must be laughing sardonically in his grave.

 

[Rastoff]

I guess there is no more privacy left. I get a text from my insurance agent with a birthday greeting. I didn't give him my birthdate. (home insurance)

Yes, it's more difficult to protect personal info these days. But did you really think there's any aspect of your physical being an insurance company doesn't know? I mean, they won't get access to your medical files unless you give them permission, but finding your age is child's play.