Privacy has disappeared and nobody noticed

[Architect]

Years ago I remember we all worried about eroding privacy. Keeping your bank, address, phone number and then email address private was important. If a public figure was caught with their pants down it was a major scandal resulting in their disappearing. George Orwell wrote 1984 and we all worried about it, as by 1984 we could see the technology on the horizon that would invade our private lives.

However I've noticed that sometime in the last five that we seem to have passed the point of no return, and nobody noticed. Privacy is non existent. Public figures from Presidents (Presidents), to actors and socialites, to British Royalty are shown naked or in very intimate circumstances regularly. Corporations make a big deal about their privacy policy, while still collecting enormous amounts of data on us. National Security agencies are constructing enormous data centers to filter every bit about us that they can.

I'm a big user of Google services, and the fact is they know an awful lot about me. Such as, where I am every point of the day (Google Latitude/Maps), what I search for, what I mail, what videos I watch, and often what products I buy. Of course the now pedestrian information such as address, social security number and phone number are known too. Now Google is, probably rightly, encouraging people not to say things anonymously on the internet. GooglePlus has your information public (after much trepidation I am using it, but I stick to technological issues there), and on YouTube they encourage real user names now. I've come to think this is healthy, however I still appreciate the relatively anonymous nature of discussion boards such as this.

I'm wondering if it matters, or if it really is insidious and dangerous but we just don't realize it yet. My thoughts so far ...

• In some sense there is no loss of privacy, if EVERYBODY has lost their privacy
• In another sense we really haven't lost our privacy. The fact is that nobody cares about us individually, these data sets are just trolled over by computer algorithms, in an attempt to find terrorists or determine your shopping interests.

One Big Village? Or evil privacy invasion?

 

[Dr. Freeman]

• In some sense there is no loss of privacy, if EVERYBODY has lost their privacy
• In another sense we really haven't lost our privacy. The fact is that nobody cares about us individually, these data sets are just trolled over by computer algorithms, in an attempt to find terrorists or determine your shopping interests.

One Big Village? Or evil privacy invasion?

To the first point; you can only say there is no loss in privacy if you define privacy as an average (or median or mode yada yada).

As for the second, I would contend that we have lost our privacy. Whether or not anyone someone cares about our personal info is ultimately irrelevant, the fact that it exists in places beyond our control in a readily accessible format means we have lost our privacy.

Spoiler

Class is interfering with post length today.

 

[Don't mind me]

Privacy has disappeared and everybody knows you noticed.

 

[A22]

The fact that some companies use cookies to track the websites you visit (which is avoidable) and automatically advertise the product you are most likely going to buy doesn't mean you lost your privacy.

Telephoto lenses are around since the XV century and voyeurism was always there.

It is possible to track your city from your IP address, but only your ISP has the info of where you live. Telephone numbers and emails are private, but companies often get their hands on lists of active lines and emails, which has been happening since the early 90's and isn't that much of a concern since they only have your number/email and not your name nor personal info.

I don't think there's much to worry about, unless you're a criminal.

 

[DreamMancer]

I'm a big user of Google services, and the fact is they know an awful lot about me. Such as, where I am every point of the day (Google Latitude/Maps), what I search for, what I mail, what videos I watch, and often what products I buy. Of course the now pedestrian information such as address, social security number and phone number are known too. Now Google is, probably rightly, encouraging people not to say things anonymously on the internet. GooglePlus has your information public (after much trepidation I am using it, but I stick to technological issues there), and on YouTube they encourage real user names now. I've come to think this is healthy, however I still appreciate the relatively anonymous nature of discussion boards such as this.

I agree, I think the last decade has seen a gradual but thorough erosion of privacy. Personally, I don't use social networking websites and keep my use of Google services to a minimum precisely because I'm not comfortable putting that much information out there. Of course, at this point, just about any but the most judicial use of the internet is likely to put some information out there, but nevertheless I'm fairly sure my digital footprint is smaller than most.

I find a couple of points most troubling about this loss of privacy:

For the most part, it's the users and not the companies that are to blame. Most people it seems are willing to trade their privacy and personal information for access to some shiny new network or search engine. While I do think Google, Facebook, etc, are being "evil" for invading the privacy of their users to such an extent, in all fairness they are quite upfront about their data collection policies.

People have simply accepted the erosion of privacy as a necessary or inevitable loss, when really, it seems to me that much of it comes down to poor (or perhaps even malicious) design. There's no reason why so much personal information needs to be collected every time you log on. But because the progression has been so gradual, it's as if this has simply created a "new normal". People are shocked when I tell them I don't use Facebook or other social media; they just assume that everyone's on it, and this is how it should be. It's as if they can't remember a time before there was a dominant, centralized network.

Along with our privacy, it seems that our memory has also been somewhat eroded, causing us to see the anti-privacy systems of today as inevitable developments. I think it's this sort of cultural amnesia I find the most disturbing. The real danger here lies in how quickly a "new normal" establishes itself, and pushes both memories of a different time and possibilities for a different way of doing things out of the collective consciousness.

 

[ℜεмїηїs¢εη¢ε]

Get a VPN/chain proxies and don't use social networking sites. If you don't want to pay for those, you can try browsing through this:

http://anonymouse.org/

Appreciate the privacy that you have now, in a couple of decades you probably really will have "zero" privacy. You still have options at the moment.

 

[snafupants]

Something really creepy I heard, oh, six months ago was that Target might send mommy coupons predicated around baby stuff (e.g., formula and cribs) before mommy knows she's pregnant...based on her buying habits. Now that's fucked up.

 

[Sensi Star]

Yep, it's just the beginning really.

What strikes me the most is when I tell people I don't use Facebook, almost always I get a weird look. Our culture has subconsciously made the transition:

privacy is now "uncool".

 

[TriflinThomas]

I've noticed, but there's nothing I can do about it. Plus, I don't do anything extremely illegal (smoking weed is about as illegal as I go); I know that's not a good way to look at it, but that's how I look at it because it makes me feel better

 

[420MuNkEy]

Some simple things you can do to regain some privacy online:

Use DuckDuckGo instead of Google (https://duckduckgo.com/) for searches. If you don't like it or miss image search, check out StartPage (https://startpage.com/).

Look through and understand the privacy settings available to you by default with your browser and employ the use of extensions like Adblock Plus, DoNotTrackPlus, HTTPS-Everywhere, and NoScript.

Log out of services when being logged in isn't needed.

Don't use the same email/avatar/username everywhere.



Proxies and VPNs are only as good as how bad their record keeping is. Read up on VPN and proxy technologies and your providers logging/privacy policy before trusting you're anonymous.

One thing that is essentially anonymous is the Tor network, but with this any data you're sending can be potentially captured by a malicious end node, so don't transmit any information that can identify you personally.

 

[Intellect]

• In some sense there is no loss of privacy, if EVERYBODY has lost their privacy
• In another sense we really haven't lost our privacy. The fact is that nobody cares about us individually, these data sets are just trolled over by computer algorithms, in an attempt to find terrorists or determine your shopping interests.

One Big Village? Or evil privacy invasion?

These are both interesting points. Especially the first, which I'd never considered. But let's look at it through a different lens:

If one person in a group is given a gun, there is a clear danger for the rest of the group. If everyone in a group is given a gun, is the danger still there?

Obviously, the danger still exists and is even multiplied, even though everyone is (arguably) more equipped to handle it. I think the disappearance of privacy is the same way: if one single person among many loses their privacy, it's going to be much more appalling than all of us losing it, but that doesn't mean it's insignificant.

At the same time, I mostly agree with your second point. Our personal information is mainly just data that's being pushed through to software or companies trying to analyze and better cater to their customers.

The disappearance of privacy is a necessary evil. On one hand, it will help push forward global consciousness and understanding, while on the other hand it's going to destroy the individual.

Ultimately, I'm a huge supporter of anonymity. I believe that persistent identity is a terrible and unhealthy thing. Think of it like this: when you're constantly being watched by people, you're going to act differently than if you were alone or anonymous. This leads to a lot of people allowing this fake persona to be broadcast through social media. With every status update or tweet, there's always that thought of what others will think of it and that can put a huge filter on you. In my opinion, that's not very healthy.

That's why I prefer to post on forums like this rather than FB or Twitter. I can be myself.

I'm a very private person. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm in the majority.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

Some simple things you can do to regain some privacy online:


Log out of services when being logged in isn't needed.

For those who use Chrome: there's a Background Apps section in the advanced settings that says "Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed".

Proxies and VPNs are only as good as how bad their record keeping is. Read up on VPN and proxy technologies and your providers logging/privacy policy before trusting you're anonymous.

Since all you can really go off on is customer testimonials, you should just assume that you're not anonymous, only that your IP is private to sites.

 

[Architect]

You can electronically shield yourself from intrusion, even while using the internet, for example with the Tor network. However I'd still be suspicious of that.

I read a book sometime back on how to maintain real privacy from an expert. It is quite difficult and involved. You can't own any property, automobiles, or credit cards in your name. There are ways to buy these through some kind of proxy, I forget the details but it's not easy. And of course now it would be updated to include internet use; i.e. no Facebook page. Oh, and no family either, especially kids.

I seriously considered doing it to some degree, but decided it was too much work for too little benefit. Now I take the attitude that I'm a public figure, even though I'm not famous. We're all public figures with the internet. So I've got my picture and some personal details up on Google+ for example. I just make sure that what I say publicly is what I want to say publicly.