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Ask HN: Is data privacy just all talk or does it affect your decisions?

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Re: Ask HN: Is data privacy just all talk or does it affect your decisions?

#11

Post by tkiolp4 »

More than privacy, I want safety. So, I don’t mind that much that Apple or Google got my home address details or bank cards: I know it’s very unlikely that those details will land in the wrong hands (i.e., illegal stuff). I know the data will be used for selling me stuff. I can live with that.

On the other hand, I don’t like to give my home address and or passport details to a random website (like airlines or shops) because I fear they will be sold (or stolen) and I may be in trouble.

Re: Ask HN: Is data privacy just all talk or does it affect your decisions?

#12

Post by kleiba »

4878241143 wrote: post #5

Of course it affects decisions both personal and in business? What makes you think it doesn't?

Because I notice that in a lot of everyday activities, people seem to favor convenience of privacy in many circumstances. Here are a few examples:

- let Google index your private emails - share your shopping habits with reward point programs - allow big phone providers to track your location - post your life details on social media

I think it's important to point out that I don't think it's a black and white matter. You can easily care about data privacy in one sector but not at all in another part of your life. But I think it's a point worth discussing that when you ask people about data privacy in the abstract, most people will probably stress that it's very important. Yet in everyday life, we have stuff like the examples above, where people don't seem to put their money where their mouth is.

Are there any specific examples that you have in mind when you say "of course it affects decisions both personal and in business"?

I would expect businesses to be much more privacy aware than Joe Private.

Re: Ask HN: Is data privacy just all talk or does it affect your decisions?

#13

Post by kleiba »

dotcoma wrote: post #7

I quit Google Search (for DDG), Chrome (for Iridium on OSX and Safari on iOS), Android (for iPhone), Dropbox (for Internxt). I am still using Gmail but only for dumb emails. For the important ones, I moved to Tuta. I also quit Facebook, but firstly because it’s a shithole, it’s the place where you ‘reconnect’ with ‘friends’ from Junior High… Good Lord! I don’t have accounts on Instagram, Snap and, God forbid, TikTok.…

More power to you!

How is that working for you, though?

Re: Ask HN: Is data privacy just all talk or does it affect your decisions?

#15

Post by kleiba »

survirtual wrote: post #9

I left gmail for self-hosted email. I host a matrix server. I left reddit for Lemmy. I left Android for iPhone. These and many other decisions have been about increasing data privacy. In a sense, I stopped working for a corporation and pursued my own life for similar reasons. If others are telling me what to do, I am being limited, because I have found my own ideas to be better. Instead of being bitter about that, it…

Cool!

I keep hearing that self-hosted email gets discriminated against these days, in terms of delivery rejection. Is that your experience, too?

Re: Ask HN: Is data privacy just all talk or does it affect your decisions?

#16

Post by admissionsguy »

I refuse to use any site that is not compatible with the “I don’t care about cookies” extension. If I see the popup or the site breaks, I’m out.

Professionally, we decided to defer some app updates on several occasions when pushing an update required extra work to check some checkboxes in the extremely useless data & privacy mandatory sections in both app stores.

Re: Ask HN: Is data privacy just all talk or does it affect your decisions?

#17

Post by bravetraveler »

kleiba wrote: post #4
bravetraveler wrote: post #2

I'm twenty years behind my peers with adopting quite a few things, so I don't think I'm all talk. Not really sure how to prove it, though

No need to prove it. Is this specificially because of doubts about the privacy implications?

Apologies, poor joke around 'proving a negative' in a sense :P

My delay with a lot of these things could be related to privacy implications, but really, it's mostly autonomy.

A lot of what's sold/offered has become depdendency forming. Either fairly obviously as a subscription, or more nefariously, a constant drip of feel-good chemicals.

Behind all of this, no need is really serviced, so I consider a lot of it twisted rent-seeking 'opportunity cost'.

I realize this is nearing Marxist talk or something, but there hasn't been some life-changing invention that's caught my interest since the desktop computer. I've bought/sold several laptops without using them.

My phone is on life support. If not for the occasional trip, I wouldn't even be eyeing a flip phone/burner. I'd go off-grid like it's 1995 but occasionally 'dial in' on a land line.

My thesis, really, is this: it's everything else that's making me this way. Reaction to overwhelming loudness!

There's a lot of PR about this stuff, but I think it's rooted in reality. Privacy/autonomy are related and I'm not smart enough to split the difference :D

Re: Ask HN: Is data privacy just all talk or does it affect your decisions?

#18

Post by dotcoma »

kleiba wrote: post #13
dotcoma wrote: post #7

I quit Google Search (for DDG), Chrome (for Iridium on OSX and Safari on iOS), Android (for iPhone), Dropbox (for Internxt). I am still using Gmail but only for dumb emails. For the important ones, I moved to Tuta. I also quit Facebook, but firstly because it’s a shithole, it’s the place where you ‘reconnect’ with ‘friends’ from Junior High… Good Lord! I don’t have accounts on Instagram, Snap and, God forbid, TikTok.…

More power to you! How is that working for you, though?

It’s working very well, thanks.

I don’t know if I will ever drop Gmail because having a second email address is useful, and Tuta, while wonderful, is perhaps still lacking a thing or two, but for the rest, I would never go back!

Re: Ask HN: Is data privacy just all talk or does it affect your decisions?

#19

Post by FuturisticGoo »

survirtual wrote: post #9

I left gmail for self-hosted email. I host a matrix server. I left reddit for Lemmy. I left Android for iPhone. These and many other decisions have been about increasing data privacy. In a sense, I stopped working for a corporation and pursued my own life for similar reasons. If others are telling me what to do, I am being limited, because I have found my own ideas to be better. Instead of being bitter about that, it…

One of your choice felt odd to me, why choose iPhone over privacy focused forks of Android like Graphene?

Re: Ask HN: Is data privacy just all talk or does it affect your decisions?

#20

Post by pjerem »

tkiolp4 wrote: post #11

More than privacy, I want safety. So, I don’t mind that much that Apple or Google got my home address details or bank cards: I know it’s very unlikely that those details will land in the wrong hands (i.e., illegal stuff). I know the data will be used for selling me stuff. I can live with that. On the other hand, I don’t like to give my home address and or passport details to a random website (like airlines or shops)…

You know, everyday there is a non-null probability of a massive data leak from Google (or any of the big data hoarder). Everyday we roll the dice of this eventuality and law of large numbers tells us that it will happen.
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