Extricating Yourself From Google's Tentacles

[Rhapsody-NS27]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

There is a huge market for your identity.

mentioning how companies are selling info to others reminds me of what I've seen myself. I'm in the military and bought a house (2nd one now) with a VA loan. I'm amazed at the amount of junk mail I receive through the post office for VA refinancing, VA programs, VA (whatever) crap all the time. Then there's times I'll receive one of those free checks for $6k to "cash this check and bound by the terms of the loan" that suck you further into debt.

Not sure how, but there are two people I work with who have had their identity stolen in the past week or two. One of the guys got into trouble and can't leave the base and yet their banks reported their accounts being emptied from half way across the country in the DC area.

Whether a company or identity thief, information can be sold and spread quickly.

[IdoraKeeper]

All the snooping and selling of data is beginning to level out. There are limits to any business model. When there are too many ads folks stay away. Unless we regain net neutrality in the USA it will soon be too expensive for most people or small companies to use the net the way we have been anyway. If your not a crook you can just use the services as long as they are available and stop using them when they have compromised utility.
The real problems originate in dishonest data collection..... All those apps that came preloaded on your phone? All collecting and "updating" your data even when you never, ever, open them? That's a big issue and should be stopped. The biggest problem starts with the phone company and their tactics. Google is useful, phone apps that cannot be removed......not so much.
My.02

[zeehag]

lol..when i started my yoo toob account i was pissed off and i used the worst name i could think of and an appropriate for it password....which i immediately forgot..lol
and sooo. many years later i look for stufff online in you tube and lo and behold, it has signed me into a different computer..i had used up 3 between making account in my hewlett packard puter in 2005, and searching in 2012..lol..and using that name i created then.... it still welcomes me under that name....and i cannot change it.....

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Delancey

If I was Big Brother I would be paying extra special attention to all of the people who have suddenly changed their online habits post data-collection-revelations. ... Hmm, maybe if I was Big Brother I might 'leak' some information just to see what happens. Mmmwhawwahahaha!

I know you're having a laugh, and I chuckle as well. But the real problem is that there is no Big Brother. Big Brother is us; or rather it is the systems that we actively support and participate in all the time (like being here on CF). The Martrix is a useful metaphor, but it's far more insidious than that. These days, it's the very air we breath.

Geeze I sound like a paranoid git ... but it's all true. Hmmm, where is that tinfoil hat of mine .

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by zeehag

lol..when i started my yoo toob account i was pissed off and i used the worst name i could think of and an appropriate for it password

You mean other than Zeehag?...

[poiu]

Google's information gathering obsession is a big part of it. There are messages on Usenet I posted in 1995 that are still there showing my name and address. There forever. Screwed.

It is getting worse. Now Apple have a colossal database of global credit cards and buying and browsing patterns with your physical location at any time. Amazon and EBay know bucket loads as does your ISP. All this is accessible by the authorities.

In the UK info is available about vehicle movements from the NPR network. Need a criminal stopping, get your friendly cop to access the system with a warrant and in literally minutes that person will be arrested. Seen it happen. Chilling.

An issue I recently learnt about is "browser fingerprinting" couple this with any login including on CF and your life can be tracked between cooperating websites. Check out: https://panopticlick.eff.org/. Very, very hard to be anonymous. Tor project and vpn's are good defences as are pseudonyms. Perversely using these strategies make you more identifiable and make you look suspicious. Between a rock and a hard place...

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

The problem is that it is nearly impossibly to exist in our modern first-world countries without being part of this privacy market. Just like it is virtually impossible to limit your eco-footprint while living a first-world existence, so too with the trade in your privacy. It's the price we pay -- whether we want to or not.

...

In other words, it's virtually impossible for most of us to get out. The system(s) do not allow that level of freedom.

You can tell from all these comments that cruising is the province of the 'mature.' :-) The real problem is that kids don't care about privacy; its a price they are more than willing to pay for the sake of convenience. I'm sure the following generations will regret it and try to change their ways but, just like 2+ decades of stuffing ourselves with preservative laden food and believing McDonalds was actually serving us something healthy, the backlash will be too little, too late.

Me? I've bought in. Never post anything you won't own up to and what's the big deal. I can get a bank/car loan in one half hour session, rather than a week of waiting. I can pay my bills while waiting in the grocery line rather than having to pay the bank for a cheque and the post office for a stamp. Hell, I really enjoy watching old movies when I feel like it rather than wait for the TV stations to decide to show a golden oldie on the Midnight Movie...

Will someone somewhere use it to my detriment? Hell yes. But then I've spent ridiculous amounts of money on an engagement ring that I was manipulated into doing by a 7-decade-old DeBeers ad campaign... Goddamn advertising companies! Same ****/different day; just keep you eyes open and watch your ass...

Then again, I wear a foil hat. Don't you?

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Delancey

If I was Big Brother I would be paying extra special attention to all of the people who have suddenly changed their online habits post data-collection-revelations. Wouldn't you? They would be the interesting ones to watch.

Hmm, maybe if I was Big Brother I might 'leak' some information just to see what happens. Mmmwhawwahahaha!

The guilty until innocent idea you mean, minority report cant be far behind

Dave

[Macblaze]

Oh and if you can slog through it, this article on Amazon's perfidy knocks my socks off. I don't buy from them and never will. (Unless I have to. Or it's more convenient....sigh)

George Packer: Is Amazon Bad for Books? : The New Yorker

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Macblaze

You can tell from all these comments that cruising is the province of the 'mature.' :-) The real problem is that kids don't care about privacy; its a price they are more than willing to pay for the sake of convenience. I'm sure the following generations will regret it and try to change their ways but, just like 2+ decades of stuffing ourselves with preservative laden food and believing McDonalds was actually serving us something healthy, the backlash will be too little, too late.



Me? I've bought in. Never post anything you won't own up to and what's the big deal. I can get a bank/car loan in one half hour session, rather than a week of waiting. I can pay my bills while waiting in the grocery line rather than having to pay the bank for a cheque and the post office for a stamp. Hell, I really enjoy watching old movies when I feel like it rather than wait for the TV stations to decide to show a golden oldie on the Midnight Movie...



Will someone somewhere use it to my detriment? Hell yes. But then I've spent ridiculous amounts of money on an engagement ring that I was manipulated into doing by a 7-decade-old DeBeers ad campaign... Goddamn advertising companies! Same ****/different day; just keep you eyes open and watch your ass...



Then again, I wear a foil hat. Don't you?

I don't think it's an age thing, well once they get to the age of reason, many young adults I talk to are acutely aware of the info trail they're leaving behind. Talking to Eugene Kaspersky recently at Web Summit and he maintains it's all too late.

The ability to off the grid is virtually impossible and rapidly getting more difficult.

Dave

[Lake-Effect]

I've been in the web/internet business for 16 years now, on the programming side, and often working on large-scale consumer-facing initiatives.

Yes I have concerns about what's being collected by private companies, and Google is for sure leading the pack... but i don't particularly fear Google. They're innovators and trailblazers, and they are actively developing the infrastructure and processes that the futurists predicted.

And Google won't throw you in jail, or cancel your passport, or put you on a no-fly list, or board your boat a few times a month.

With regards to privacy, it's the government you have to fear:
- no-fly lists that are near impossible to get off of
- several different agencies with little better to do than board pleasure vessels
- extra-legal gulags for imprisoning and torturing people, though they signed treaties saying they would not do that very thing
- getting scanned/fondled every time you fly
- unknown levels of warrantless surveillance, data collection and analysis. Minority Report, already. (Snowden deserves a medal)
- treaties negotiated in secret
- governments not so secretly in the control of corporate interests
- NSA, anyone?

And remember that, in addition to their own spying, the governments can grab and use all the data collected by commercial companies like Google etc.

Colour me naive, but I think that only something the size of Google is in any way able to resist government demands for data access; smaller companies would have little choice but to roll over.

Amazon, Google, etc - they can collect enough data to annoy me. Only governments can hurt or imprison me.

[Cheechako]

Yeah, it pisses me off. I have had to undo Google Chrome a couple of times. Still using old Google. But as said, it's the way of the world. I get ads on this forum for things I looked at on line recently...hmm... helluva coincidence. Even worse is your Iphone... not only tracks where you are (address locations etc) but what you look for too. I guess you either have to accept it all or stay unconnected. I often use wrong names and never use my real birthday etc.
it amazes me that so many got up in arms over the NSA collecting phone numbers (not coversations) but everyone loves their far more intrusive Iphone.... haha. My flip phone is working fine!

[Delancey]

"We're all in this together" - Archibald 'Harry" Tuttle

Brazil (3/10) Movie CLIP - Harry Tuttle, Heating Engineer (1985) HD - YouTube

Terry Gilliam's Movie Brazil - Plumbers' Nasty End - YouTube

Courtesy of Youtube.

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Yeah, it pisses me off. I have had to undo Google Chrome a couple of times. Still using old Google. But as said, it's the way of the world. I get ads on this forum for things I looked at on line recently...hmm... helluva coincidence. Even worse is your Iphone... not only tracks where you are (address locations etc) but what you look for too. I guess you either have to accept it all or stay unconnected. I often use wrong names and never use my real birthday etc.
it amazes me that so many got up in arms over the NSA collecting phone numbers (not coversations) but everyone loves their far more intrusive Iphone.... haha. My flip phone is working fine!

If you've signed in with Google/Chrome you can go to Ads Settings and turn off the 'Interest based ads'. At least you won't be bombarded with marina ads...

[Cheechako]

It just seems some smart legal eagle out there could come up with a way for each of us to copyright our personal info as intellectual property. Then they would have to pay us to resend the info anywhere. we would be owed $ for any use of it. I mean let's face it, Lady Gaga's name is copyrighted.... that would put a stop to it!
I'd love to see the jury trial; Google against John Doe. Google stole JD's property. They have hugely deep pockets. The Jury of your peers hates being invaded.... I think Google would loose.