All the answers you got show why this conversation goes badly. No one can come up with an actual problem that data collection causes, it's all silly comparisons to giving people your credit card number or shitting in front of them.
For me, having my data collected is like having CCTV cameras in stores. Yeah, technically someone is filming everything I do. Yeah it would be bad if a private individual was filming me for nefarious reasons. But no one actually uses that data for anything bad, and it doesn't actually cause any problems.
Well to be fair even if you go full conspiracy theory or whatever an go insane to the point of blocking everything I doubt you are completely safe from anyone knowing who you are or what you do. In my country a few years back it was a big scandal because the internet ISPs were decrypting trafic and we're knowing everything anyone did on the internet as well as selling that date to ad companies. So I don't really care about this shit anymore cause I already know someone somewhere is already selling my data, I use an ad block just to not be bothered by stupid pop-up ads and that's about it.
Agree. Full-doomer isn't for everyone. We can reduce our attack surface, but there's no silver bullets. Just using a good adblocker increases privacy quite a bit, and quite frankly makes browsing the web bearable.
internet ISPs were decrypting traffic
I always thought it was a little sus that the NSA designed a lot of of the ciphers we use today.
But I've been using adblocking DNS and system-wide adblocking for a few years now so significantly fewer of that bullshit has been connecting to my devices since then.
Totally based. Is it a PiHole? We set one up a few years ago. One of the best things we've ever done. Totally worth it when even the inline ads and tracking are blocked on phone apps.
I think the funniest part of this meme is every company bar Amazon, Discord (both not in market yet), and TikTok (Chinese) were confirmed to be a part of NSA's PRISM
Stupid question: What exactly are the dangers being implied here? I have accounts with all of these services although I don't use all of them. I know that they are using and selling my personal information, is there more? I have ways of doing things in private when I need and I'm aware that using these services has no expectations of absolute privacy.
Privacy = freedom. If you don't have privacy, or to the extent you don't have privacy, you are in proportion not free.
It seems to me this is the trade off we are all figuring out how to make. For example, I've considered not having a cell phone at all, but then I find it almost impossible to get a job, or operate in the economy. So I use a custom privacy ROM. I have no illusions that this is perfect, but at least a step in the right direction.
I think the most practical answer is to gain knowledge of the situation, and limit our attack surface. I don't think there's any silver bullets, unless you want to live like the Amish (which, doesn't sound like a bad idea, either. If that's what you want and you can do it, go for it.)
There is a 3rd argument which I think is a bit more valid in "I value the service I receive in exchange for my personal data"
Using the internet without an adblocker, noscript, and whatever else is really nasty. But even if you aren't on these platforms, marketers are still building profiles on you. Honestly we need data privacy legislation and some real talk about marketing and the costs of using the internet as a society.
Yes, it means layperson, but with derogatory cense. It is like using the n-word to describe black people (though not as extreme). If you mean average user, just say average user, unless you really mean to use derogatory term, that is.
