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FTC: Vast Surveillance of Users by Social Media and Video Streaming Companies

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Re: FTC: Vast Surveillance of Users by Social Media and Video Streaming Companies

#341

Post by tacocataco »

pwillia7 wrote: post #287
bilekas wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To me, what's missing from that set of recommendations is some method to increase the liability of companies who mishandle user data. As nice as this is on paper, it will never happen, lobbyist exists. Not to be tinfoil hat but why would any lawmaker slap the hand that feeds them. Until there is an independent governing body which is permitted to regulate over the tech industry as a whole it wont happen. Consider t…

Through civil disobedience is the only way stuff like this happens in America. You're right about the incentives to those in power, but how do you think we got emancipation2, women's suffrage, organized labor rights, prohibition and the end to prohibition?

The prohibitionisn't over. The war on drugs is still going strong, even with marijuana legalization in many states.

Re: FTC: Vast Surveillance of Users by Social Media and Video Streaming Companies

#342

Post by tacocataco »

Aerroon wrote: post #237
ToucanLoucan wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://i.imgur.com/mXU28ta.jpeg Specifically, 1970.

Well, something to consider is that part of why everything is so much expensive these days is that a lot of the solutions to those problems add costs. That cost needs to be absorbed by the price. One of the reasons it's so expensive to build a house is safety regulations. They exist for a reason, but they nevertheless add a substantial cost to building a house. If you had mandated such a cost to people living in 1870…

We should stop begging the for profit house building industry to make affordable housing. Just use the army core of engineers and build the mega cities from Judge dredd.

Re: FTC: Vast Surveillance of Users by Social Media and Video Streaming Companies

#343

Post by tacocataco »

davisr wrote: post #340
digging wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But do you think they're taking a measured inventory of the possible consequences, both personal and societal, and saying, "No, I don't value that" ? Extremely few decisions that people make are deeply calculated with cold logic. Most decisions are primarily unconscious, automatic, and emotional. Example: A persons hears it's good to have a webcam cover, so they get one. Nobody mentions doing it for their phone, so t…

I don't even have a cell phone! I have a Libreboot-ed X200 running a 100%-libre distribution of GNU/Linux. My MAC address is randomized every hour. I pulled the OnStar fuse from my car 10 years ago. I run my own email server, and use E2E encryption when my recipient knows how. I use Tor and VPNs. My home phone number is public and posted to my website, and I can't control who has it anyway.

If people had a better work/life balance, perhaps more would have the mental bandwidth to jump through an Olympic gold winning amount of hoops like you did.

The rest would probably use the extra free time to raise their kids/be with family.

Re: FTC: Vast Surveillance of Users by Social Media and Video Streaming Companies

#344

Post by tacocataco »

nicholasjarnold wrote: post #37
devonbleak wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It makes me irrationally angry that I suddenly started getting spam emails from Experian. Like motherfucker I never consented for you to have my data, then you leak it all, now you're sending me unsolicited junk email? It's just such bullshit that I'm literally forced to have a relationship with these companies to freeze my credit or else I'm at the mercy of whoever they decide to release my information to without my…

Yep. It sucks. Zero consequences of any import for those companies as far as I'm aware too. Tiny fines end up being "cost of doing business". Then they get to externalize their failures onto us by using terms like "Identity Theft", which indicates something was stolen from ME and is now MY problem. In actuality some not-well-maintained systems owned by were hacked or exposed or someone perpetrated fraud on a financia…

Innovis? That's new to me. How long till they spin up yet another credit check corporation that I have no choice but to involve in my life?

I was also informed you can freeze opening checking accounts here.

https://www.chexsystems.com/security-freeze/place-freeze

Re: FTC: Vast Surveillance of Users by Social Media and Video Streaming Companies

#345

Post by Aerroon »

malfist wrote: post #307
Aerroon wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, something to consider is that part of why everything is so much expensive these days is that a lot of the solutions to those problems add costs. That cost needs to be absorbed by the price. One of the reasons it's so expensive to build a house is safety regulations. They exist for a reason, but they nevertheless add a substantial cost to building a house. If you had mandated such a cost to people living in 1870…

Building codes are written in blood.

Yes, and?

It still adds an enormous amount of cost. Despite that buildings (and even bridges) still collapse. What is often not asked is how many people lack housing because those building codes made it unaffordable for them.

Re: FTC: Vast Surveillance of Users by Social Media and Video Streaming Companies

#346

Post by m463 »

srndsnd wrote: post #31

To me, what's missing from that set of recommendations is some method to increase the liability of companies who mishandle user data. It is insane to me that I can be notified via physical mail of months old data breaches, some of which contained my Social Security number, and that my only recourse is to set credit freezes from multiple credit bureaus.

that, and removing the commercial trackers from this ftc.gov webpage...

googletagmanager.com googleapis.com fontawesome.com addtoany.com

sigh

Re: FTC: Vast Surveillance of Users by Social Media and Video Streaming Companies

#347

Post by davisr »

tacocataco wrote: post #343
davisr wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't even have a cell phone! I have a Libreboot-ed X200 running a 100%-libre distribution of GNU/Linux. My MAC address is randomized every hour. I pulled the OnStar fuse from my car 10 years ago. I run my own email server, and use E2E encryption when my recipient knows how. I use Tor and VPNs. My home phone number is public and posted to my website, and I can't control who has it anyway.

If people had a better work/life balance, perhaps more would have the mental bandwidth to jump through an Olympic gold winning amount of hoops like you did. The rest would probably use the extra free time to raise their kids/be with family.

It might seem like the Olympics when it's all put together like that, but it's really just one thing at a time, and none of them required any kind of real effort. They were just choices. When it was time to buy a new laptop, I picked the one that had my interests. When it was time to upgrade my OS, I chose the one that respected me. When my cell phone contract was due to be renewed, I said, "no thank you," and bought a VoIP base station instead. I understood how my car, and reportage of my driving habits, were connected to the outside world and I severed that connection by pulling a simple fuse.

If people only did one change per year, even that would be enough to change the winds pushing our mass surveillance.

Re: FTC: Vast Surveillance of Users by Social Media and Video Streaming Companies

#348

Post by PNewling »

tombrossman wrote: post #310
runjake wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YMMV, but it took me 15 minutes start to finish to freeze my credit with the 3 bureaus using the following instructions. https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/how-to-freeze-cre...

YMMV indeed. Since moving overseas 15 years ago, I tried numerous times and it simply is not possible. All the forms require a U.S. mailing address to register. Same for online access to your Social Security account. There are an estimated 10 million Americans living overseas. Taken together, we are the equivalent of the 11th largest state. All of us completely blind to what is happening with our credit record and So…

> There are an estimated 10 million Americans living overseas

Curious how you found this number, have a source?

This made me pretty curious, but I couldn't find any official numbers. The closest 'official' numbers that I could find are from the Federal Voting Assistance Program [0] and that lists 4.4 million people, but only 2.8 million of those being adults.

[0] https://www.fvap.gov/info/interactive-data-center/overseas

Re: FTC: Vast Surveillance of Users by Social Media and Video Streaming Companies

#349

Post by tombrossman »

PNewling wrote: post #348
tombrossman wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YMMV indeed. Since moving overseas 15 years ago, I tried numerous times and it simply is not possible. All the forms require a U.S. mailing address to register. Same for online access to your Social Security account. There are an estimated 10 million Americans living overseas. Taken together, we are the equivalent of the 11th largest state. All of us completely blind to what is happening with our credit record and So…

> There are an estimated 10 million Americans living overseas Curious how you found this number, have a source? This made me pretty curious, but I couldn't find any official numbers. The closest 'official' numbers that I could find are from the Federal Voting Assistance Program [0] and that lists 4.4 million people, but only 2.8 million of those being adults. [0] https://www.fvap.gov/info/interactive-data-center/over…

Strange that someone down-voted you, as this is a fair question.

> Curious how you found this number, have a source?

I don't have the source handy but have seen the estimated 10 million figure cited repeatedly. But maybe it is about a million too high, as the US Department of State estimates nine million in this 2020 publication: https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/travel/CA-By-the-Number...

This Wikipedia page has a lot more info for those interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emigration_from_the_United_Sta...

Using FVAP stats to me seems problematic, because just like the general population, many US citizens do not bother registering to vote (though they do acknowledge this on the page you linked to and try to control for it).

State likely have a more accurate estimate from knowing how many passport renewals originate from overseas addresses. I am sure some Americans renew or replace their passports while merely travelling overseas, but I cannot imagine this is a routine practice.

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