Technology and comfort taking over our lives. Privacy, a thing of the past?

[20kevin20]

I woke up this morning trying to think of how much complete strangers really get to know about us through technology. The devices we use on a daily basis are so convenient and technologically advanced it's almost as if we're truly willing to give up everything we know about ourselves - and even stuff we don't even know precisely.

Here's how much information we risk giving up on a daily basis:
 - Fitness bands: health rate, daily steps count and body activity, your sleep and more..
 - Robot lawn mower: your garden's size, shape, structure
 - Robot vacuum: scans your house with a camera; creates a 2D/3D model of your home floor; knows any new change in your home decoration
 - Baby monitor: audio and video data of your own baby growing up and speaking
 - Wireless surveillance cams: now that wireless, cloud-enabled cameras are more convenient, a lot of people put their own home security at risk by leaving audio and video information from your house's interior/exterior on the web
 - VR headsets: Windows Mixed Reality headsets 3D-scan your room in order to let you play without having to install external sensors for the headset/controllers
 - Alexa: she knows your To-Do list, what kind of music you like, the way you talk, listens continuously to your conversations with your family and friends.. and more
 - Zoom: your in-class behavior, way of thinking and facial expressions in different situations are recorded and exposed for potential bad actors to make use of them.

And then comes the worst one: your phone:
 - With or without SIM cards or any kind of modification, your phone can be tracked at any time. Google knows where you are constantly, probably knows where you live, where your school/work is, which houses and stores you frequently visit, the stuff you're interested in, who you've added to your contacts, which kind of videos you like and more.
 - WhatsApp knows the patterns you're using when talking, who you mostly chat with, for how long and about what. Instagram and Facebook enters your private life even further, most people filling in private details about themselves
 - Facial recognition or fingerprint unlock: your physical fingerprint copy and facial structure sits inside your phone.
 - Android Auto and CarPlay: well done! Google now knows what kind of car you own as well.


Placing all the above on a list leads to a horrible result. In the end, with the advancememt of tech, we have reached the unfortunate point where we lose privacy in favor of convenience by transferring all our personal life into the digital world.

The problem here is however not necessarily that we're advancing with the technology. Don't get me wrong - fingerprint unlocking, fitness bands and Android Auto cars are amazing. But we're not using all this technology the decentralized and private way. We are actively sharing information with all of those apps we need in order to properly use the tech we purchase ourselves. We sacrifice privacy in order to be able to use the products we pay for.

In other words, at this point, a few corporations own highly-detailed, priceless information about every single day of yours. This now becomes an issue, a big concern. It's that the more technology advances, the less privacy we have and the higher the risk is of being a victim of identity theft or unpleasant hacks.

So, as the title says, there's one question that is beginning to concern me.. when will privacy actually be something we consider important in our lives? If tech advances this fast and we continue only supporting privacy-intruding software and products, will privacy not become a thing of the past?

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[target]

We're advancing faster and give away our KYC to anyone too in exchange for $25.

There is not much concern to it yet because it's all virtual yet. Nothing is actualyl going on after we give away our data to google by simply having an email and turning on our google maps and access our location. Nothing yet is happening. There will be a time when things going to change.  Time will come for example if IRS grabs the data of the exchanges that we have registered like kraken.com or coinbase.

[20kevin20]

We're advancing faster and give away our KYC to anyone too in exchange for $25.

There is not much concern to it yet because it's all virtual yet. Nothing is actualyl going on after we give away our data to google by simply having an email and turning on our google maps and access our location. Nothing yet is happening. There will be a time when things going to change.  Time will come for example if IRS grabs the data of the exchanges that we have registered like kraken.com or coinbase.

Actually, there is a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes that we do not have any idea about.

Just think of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Our information is used by them in order to improve their AI, have an even more complex database and portfolio of all their customers.

But the main issue isn't that they may or may not use the information they collect from us against us. The point zero of this issue begins with the fact that they are collecting it all and using it in the first place, while giving us the false feeling of freedom and comfort.

[ololajulo]

The irony of privacy is the security of it. Every medium that exposes our details and location could serve as protection as well as expose us. I think we can also reduce our recognition on social media, not exposing who we are and what we possess. If nobody knows how rich you are in cryptocurrency one might likely not see anyone looking into our privacy for private keys and more. The last twitter hack reveals how we are targeted with our fame.

[akram143]

But it seems people don't care about their data has been tracked and sold to some other company for any purpose.We need to live with smartphones with no privacy or hae to make a life in a cave because even if you don't have the smartphones still there are some eyes which can track you that is called as security cameras.

[Gyfts]

Ever since 9/11, there is no going back. Snowden did a podcast with Joe Rogan (I'm sure you know who Snowden is but in case anyone else doesn't, he's an NSA whistle blower that uncovered illegal wiretapping on private U.S. citizens) where he said people will give up their rights in the name of safety.

We already know telecomm companies collect data (in fact Verizon gave phone records to government agencies fairly recently -- again, no warrants), all the search engines, ect. but as long as people "feel" safe, they'll willingly hand over all their data to the government. These companies don't even have to bother with data mining. How many people put all their information since birth on a public social media account? Their name, where they work, their relationships, their interests, all out in public on a searchable public database. I think most Americans are too stupid to recognize the importance of privacy hence why they post so much personal information online freely accessible.

[squatz1]

Ever since 9/11, there is no going back. Snowden did a podcast with Joe Rogan (I'm sure you know who Snowden is but in case anyone else doesn't, he's an NSA whistle blower that uncovered illegal wiretapping on private U.S. citizens) where he said people will give up their rights in the name of safety.

We already know telecomm companies collect data (in fact Verizon gave phone records to government agencies fairly recently -- again, no warrants), all the search engines, ect. but as long as people "feel" safe, they'll willingly hand over all their data to the government. These companies don't even have to bother with data mining. How many people put all their information since birth on a public social media account? Their name, where they work, their relationships, their interests, all out in public on a searchable public database. I think most Americans are too stupid to recognize the importance of privacy hence why they post so much personal information online freely accessible.

Yeah, it's VERY hard to convince Americans that privacy is worth it for them and that the government shouldn't be tracking their online activity / other acitivty. Every person that I've personally talked to (and yall may have better success) has said something along the lines of, well it doesn't really matter to me cause I have nothing to hide that the NSA would even care about.

Well that's REALLY not the point. You may not have something to hide right now, but what about in 20 years if you ever decide to do something that the new govenrment doesn't like? Well now they can go grab some dirt about you that they have sitting in a file and use it against you. Now BAM your life is ruined over some shit you did when you were a 'regular' person.

As Jefferson once said "I prefer a dangerous freedom to a peaceful slavery"

Even going with that for a moment, MASS TRACKING DOESN'T WORK AND THE NSA has had to admit that time and time again. It's bullshit. They just scare people into letting government do whatever they want. Once they have the power to do stuff, they never give it up. They'll always hold the grip on what you've given them.

[Salauddin1994]

Privacy is extremely important to everyone altogether cases of cryptocurrency social media these are easier to trace it's only a matter of sense that once you do something that needs full attention like driving don't use our services as our services may interfere together with your attention. this is often why you would like to guard your privacy.

[Mpamaegbu]

The irony of privacy is the security of it. Every medium that exposes our details and location could serve as protection as well as expose us.

I am a bit lost here with the bolded sentence in your comment. How is our exposed details also serving as our protection? If you don't mind, can you throw more light on that.

Back to the OP, the google location map makes it even scary in exposing us without our consent. You check into a hotel and your location is marked, sometimes on social media especially Facebook. I am always conscious of switching my location off on my phone because of this. You don't want to get whacked for something you don't know.  A lot of crypto holders have been traced to their homes through this. Another is social media sites using data analysis to push adverts to you online with what you might need because of sites you frequent. Facebook does this a lot. Just check up a fitness site, and the next thing Facebook begins to push adverts related to it to you. So scary. We are gradually coming to am end of privacy. Not even the crypto industry which was initially set up to guarantee privacy is keeping it. KYC is now the order of the day with most projects and exchanges.

[LoyceV]

The devices we use on a daily basis are so convenient and technologically advanced it's almost as if we're truly willimg to give up everything we know about ourselves

For the most part, you can (still) control this. Stay away from the "Internet of Things" and you're pretty much okay.

- Fitness bands: health rate, daily steps count and body activity, your sleep and more..

I've used those before, but only to measure my heart rate. Don't buy one that connects to the internet.

- Robot lawn mower: your garden's size, shape, structure

That shouldn't be a problem. As long as it doesn't have an internet connection, anyone who gets access to your lawn mower can literally see your garden too.

- Robot vacuum: scans your house with a camera; creates a 2D/3D model of your home floor; knows any new change in your home decoration

Again: as long as has no way to share this information, it shouldn't be a problem.

- Baby monitor: audio and video data of your own baby growing up and speaking

I prefer cables over wireless, but that's a lot more work than wireless. So the next best thing is an old-fashioned baby monitor without video. Or just leave the door a bit open.

- Wireless surveillance cams: now that wireless, cloud-enabled cameras are more convenient, a lot of people put their own home security at risk by leaving audio and video information from your house's interior/exterior on the web

That's a privacy problem indeed, but mainly because of something other people (and governments) do. There's also not much you can do against it, although face masks, sunglasses and a hat can help.

- VR headsets: Windows Mixed Reality headsets 3D-scan your room in order to let you play without having to install external sensors for the headset/controllers

Another thing I don't use.

- Alexa: she knows your To-Do list, what kind of music you like, the way you talk, listens continuously to your conversations with your family and friends.. and more

This becomes a big problem. I don't have Alexa, but any phone, mediaplayer or even TV nowadays is a listening device.

- Zoom: your in-class behavior, way of thinking and facial expressions in different situations are recorded and exposed for potential bad actors to make use of them.

Nothing a piece of tape can't fix. Or use an external monitor, a laptop can't see me if it's closed.

And then comes the worst one: your phone:
 - With or without SIM cards or any kind of modification, your phone can be tracked at any time. Google knows where you are constantly, probably knows where you live, where your school/work is, which houses and stores you frequently visit, the stuff you're interested in, who you've added to your contacts, which kind of videos you like and more.
 - WhatsApp knows the patterns you're using when talking, who you mostly chat with, for how long and about what. Instagram and Facebook enters your private life even further, most people filling in private details about themselves
 - Facial recognition or fingerprint unlock: your physical fingerprint copy and facial structure sits inside your phone.
 - Android Auto and CarPlay: well done! Google now knows what kind of car you own as well.

You can adjust your privacy settings, turn off location services, and even better: turn off your data connection. Don't use finger print or facial recognition.
Check Google Takeout to see how much Google knows about you, it's quite scary.
One solution is feeding Google incorrect information: don't tell them where you work, you don't need Google Maps to find the location anyway. Tell them you work at another address you frequently visit. Don't use an account with your real name on your phone, create a fake email address for it.
Your name isn't Kevin, is it?

You check into a hotel and your location is marked, sometimes on social media especially Facebook. I am always conscious of switching my location off on my phone because of this. You don't want to get whacked for something you don't know.  A lot of crypto holders have been traced to their homes through this. Another is social media sites using data analysis to push adverts to you online with what you might need because of sites you frequent. Facebook does this a lot.

That's easy to solve: stop using Facebook. It's even better if you block all their tracking domain names.

[Kong Hey Pakboy]

We already don't have any privacy anymore because we mostly input our real and exact information when registering or making an account on social media and other online platforms. It is why we shouldn't put our exact details such as full name, full address, and additional private information. Also, avoid downloading unnecessary applications on your mobile phones and other gadgets because they can steal your data in your device.

[DaveF]

There have been many other cases through the years.

Credit card purchase tracking is a big one.
Loyalty cards at stores for tracking.
Ever since cable TV boxes got a bit smarter viewer tracking. Any satellite TV box that is internet connected. TiVos in general.

And soon you can buy your own drone to fly around your place to watch you:
https://www.techradar.com/news/amazon-rings-new-dronecamera-hybrid-will-fly-around-and-record-your-home

-Dave

[20kevin20]

@ololajulo
I think we can have protection without having to be exposed at the same time. Wireless is convenient but could be so harmful.


@Gyfts
This pandemic is more than perfect as an example of giving up rights in the name of safety. It gets worse though - if a decade ago storing stuff on your backup hard disk was a thing, today most people store their stuff in some stranger's servers having a strong feeling of security solely from the fact that the company storing their data is large. We aren't stupid not to understand the need of privacy, but comfort has been too overwhelmingly nice to care.


@squatz1
Everyone has something to hide. Whether legal or not, they do. That is why you only tell a few people some things - you'd feel uncomfortable or your life may even change if other people'd know as well. This is another stupid link between the need for privacy and illicit stuff.


@Mpamaegbu
I've had very creepy moments with Facebook before, such as purchasing stuff from a clothing store and, after arriving back home, receiving the cashier as a friend suggestion. The thing is, turning off your location is only a few pixels switching on your screen. You never know what truly goes on behind the scenes. Facebook, Instagram and other similar apps are some of the largest privacy intruders. The least one can change about that is delete their apps and use FB or Insta through some more privacy-oriented open-source apps (you can find them on F-Droid). The best thing one can do, as @LoyceV suggested, is just.. remove your accounts.


@DaveF
Oh yeah, online purchases are definitely something I try to avoid at all costs.. hence why I consider the idea of a cashless society very scary. Amazon's products are also definitely something I will always avoid.


@LoyceV
Robot vaccums and lawn mowers are nowadays connected to the internet as well, AFAIK. Some friends own these and showed me how, miles away from home, they can power on their vacuums and see live how it cleans their home through its camera. Creepy.

True - wired is more annoying than wireless for sure - but I've made this sacrifice myself and turned my entire home into wired-only devices as much as I could. Besides my phones, which are locked into Faraday cages anytime I don't use them as well, and my WiFi router.. I don't think there's anything I do not have wired at this point.

For the phones, I have modded them like a privacy freak that I have become: removed all camera modules, took out the microphones as well from one of them, flashed Lineage and Copperhead OS with no Google stuff on them and I only use open source software. To avoid the location tracing whenever I feel like I should, I carry a Faraday phone bag with me at all times as well.

Now about the accounts, I probably have the most annoying thing ever: one unique e-mail and password for every account I own. Gets annoying as hell when you have to enter login codes sent through e-mail.

[LoyceV]

Robot vaccums and lawn mowers are nowadays connected to the internet as well, AFAIK. Some friends own these and showed me how, miles away from home, they can power on their vacuums and see live how it cleans their home through its camera. Creepy.

But why? The whole point of having a robot for something, is so you don't have to spend time on it!
Do they also install a camera inside their dishwasher?

For the phones, I have modded them like a privacy freak that I have become: removed all camera modules, took out the microphones as well from one of them, flashed Lineage and Copperhead OS with no Google stuff on them and I only use open source software. To avoid the location tracing whenever I feel like I should, I carry a Faraday phone bag with me at all times as well.

Why not just buy a 10 dollar dumb phone instead? Without camera and networking, there's not much point in having a smart phone.

[target]

Robot vaccums and lawn mowers are nowadays connected to the internet as well, AFAIK. Some friends own these and showed me how, miles away from home, they can power on their vacuums and see live how it cleans their home through its camera. Creepy.

But why? The whole point of having a robot for something, is so you don't have to spend time on it!
Do they also install a camera inside their dishwasher?

For the phones, I have modded them like a privacy freak that I have become: removed all camera modules, took out the microphones as well from one of them, flashed Lineage and Copperhead OS with no Google stuff on them and I only use open source software. To avoid the location tracing whenever I feel like I should, I carry a Faraday phone bag with me at all times as well.

Why not just buy a 10 dollar dumb phone instead? Without camera and networking, there's not much point in having a smart phone.

Old Nokia phones are still available on some stores. I'd like to do that so I wont have to do all the troubles disabling just about everything that collects data which I have no idea if its really going to work.  That fact that they are decieving us to believe they are not going to collect data from us.

Often times though its just for marketing which the ads flashing on our monitors are exactly what we were just thinking of buying. When I just said to my father on the phone that I wanted to buy a yatch just to joke around. The ads just flash about luxurious yatchs.  Well its pointless collecting data from us if they will not use them for its purpose.

[20kevin20]

Why not just buy a 10 dollar dumb phone instead? Without camera and networking, there's not much point in having a smart phone.

I'm basically trying to lower down the tracking as much as possible while still making use of some functions such as chatting and web browsing. I have a few dumb phones & burner SIM cards sitting around but I still have to chat sometimes through either Signal or XMPP - and that requires owning a smartphone. Until a system-wide Tor phone or a more privacy-oriented one (such as Purism Librem 5) comes out, I will try the best from my side to still make use of the tech while having more privacy.

Dumb phones are also really bad with the network signal - and we're probably only a matter of years before 2G and 3G networks shut down as well.

Now going back to the vaccum robots, I was really curious to look these up on Amazon and found this creepy product. Just read this highlight right underneath the images:

LEARNS YOUR LIFE. LISTENS TO YOUR VOICE - Learns your cleaning habits to offer up personalized schedules, while Google Assistant & Alexa allow you to start cleaning with just the sound of your voice.

And it has almost 17k reviews. Reviews, not orders.

Old Nokia phones are still available on some stores. I'd like to do that so I wont have to do all the troubles disabling just about everything that collects data which I have no idea if its really going to work.  That fact that they are decieving us to believe they are not going to collect data from us.

Well, those "old" Nokia phones that are actually new stock also have internet access nowadays and possibly even GPS. I honestly do not trust the new models. The best thing you can do is purchase a truly dumb phone like @LoyceV suggested - the main issue is, however, the networking. Not having good signal almost anywhere you go is a pain in the ass.

Often times though its just for marketing which the ads flashing on our monitors are exactly what we were just thinking of buying. When I just said to my father on the phone that I wanted to buy a yatch just to joke around. The ads just flash about luxurious yatchs.  Well its pointless collecting data from us if they will not use them for its purpose.

I've had this happening quite often with some friends of mine. I actually tried it once intentionally: mentioning a random phone model name in the middle of the discussion; guess for what phones have they received ads only hours later.

[LoyceV]

LEARNS YOUR LIFE. LISTENS TO YOUR VOICE - Learns your cleaning habits to offer up personalized schedules, while Google Assistant & Alexa allow you to start cleaning with just the sound of your voice.

Great, a listening device that follows you around

[Febo]

Data are the new oil. And companies are using that. Sooner or latter mentality about it will change and people will use products and services where they dont give out any data. At this point of time there is lite demand fro that. But that will change. Probably already in this decade. If not this then next. 

[Mometaskers]

Pretty much everything snoops on us now. Most of the time the average folk don't even think about it since they rarely get targeted but if you think about all of this, it can really make you paranoid. And most times, it's hard to opt out. For example, employers will find it suspicious if you don't have an account on any of the SM platforms, most interactions would involve using apps which again, requires certain permissions, etc.

Data are the new oil. And companies are using that. Sooner or latter mentality about it will change and people will use products and services where they dont give out any data. At this point of time there is lite demand fro that. But that will change. Probably already in this decade. If not this then next. 

I can't wait for these tech giants to get the Standard Oil treatment although I'm not getting my hopes high considering how pervasive their "product" is (we can argue though that WE are the product). Pretty much the most change I've made is switch to Brave. Not very optimistic but hey if Google got my data, why can't I add another browser to the list?

[virasog]

Data are the new oil. And companies are using that. Sooner or latter mentality about it will change and people will use products and services where they dont give out any data. At this point of time there is lite demand fro that. But that will change. Probably already in this decade. If not this then next. 

I hope you have heard the term "BIG DATA"
There is no privacy left and all our activity online and offline are traced and recorded in the form of data. This data can be used for good things like targeted marketing or it can be misused at any level.