Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

This article about Google's project to store and analyze millions of Americans' health care data confirms my suspicions about the Fitbit acquisition.

Many people who don't care about mass data collection because "I've got nothing to hide" change their tune when it's health care data. #privacy

https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-s-secret-project-nightingale-gathers-personal-health-data-on-millions-of-americans-11573496790

On one hand, tech companies violate our #privacy, capture massive amounts of data without consent, and process and categorize it w/ ruthless efficiency to ever-more-precisely target us with ads.

On the other hand, AARP keeps trying to sell my deceased dad life insurance.

This is among the reasons I never post pictures of my son. I understand and accept risks to my own identity, but I don't own his online identity--I'm merely a steward of it until he's an adult. I hope at that point I can hand it off to him untarnished and unexploited. #privacy
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/10/11/technology/flickr-facial-recognition.html

An amazing fact about this calculator: not only does it work without batteries, it works without access to my address book, location, and photo album! They were advanced in the olden days. #privacy #technology

Ask yourself why all these companies are fighting each other to be your default DNS provider. Why do their "privacy" solutions always give them your data instead? It's valuable data and it's easy to control it yourself. #privacy https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/own-your-dns-data

Disappointed that Firefox is giving Cloudflare user DNS resolution data by default via DoH. I trust my ISP but if I didn't, I'd use a trusted VPN to protect *all* my traffic. DoH is just a DNS-only VPN. What's worse, if you do use a VPN for #privacy FF will still leak your DNS data to Cloudflare by default. https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2019/09/06/whats-next-in-making-dns-over-https-the-default/

This article does a good job on presenting the many different ways that data about your credit card purchases are shared without your knowledge or permission: #privacy https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/08/26/spy-your-wallet-credit-cards-have-privacy-problem/

"Users who decline to share footage through the app may have police showing up at their door asking them to share in person if online requests don't work out. Law enforcement can also go to Amazon directly with a valid legal demand and bypass the user's consent to access the footage entirely." #privacy https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/08/dont-call-our-surveillance-products-surveillance-ring-tells-police/

The quid pro quo between Ring (gets police 911 data) and the police (gets access to Ring customer devices) is more troubling then either arrangement by itself. #privacy https://gizmodo.com/cops-are-giving-amazons-ring-your-real-time-911-data-1836883867

The whistleblower said: “There have been countless instances of recordings featuring private discussions between doctors and patients, business deals, seemingly criminal dealings, sexual encounters and so on. These recordings are accompanied by user data showing location, contact details, and app data.” #privacy https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jul/26/apple-contractors-regularly-hear-confidential-details-on-siri-recordings

I wrote a piece on the @purism blog on why consent is critical for #privacy, the tech industry's failure to get consent, and as a result how "Privacy has become the tattoo removal of the information age". https://puri.sm/posts/consent-matters-when-tech-shares-your-secrets-without-your-permission/

Follow up: in the brief time that my email was in Square's system, they opted me into ads from a local merchant I used the card at a month before Square got my email. So I get to opt out of those now too... #privacy

Mozilla announced "Enhanced Tracking Protection" to protect people from tracking (https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2019/06/04/firefox-now-available-with-enhanced-tracking-protection-by-default/), but if you check out the https://disconnect.me/trackerprotection list of trackers, all Google trackers are still allowed through. #privacy

I paid a contractor w/ a credit card over the phone. I wanted a receipt, gave him an email. He uses Square, they linked that CC and email, now every purchase w/ that CC at a Square kiosk generates an email receipt. I have no account, how do I opt out/unlink? #privacy

Factory sensor calibration settings can be used by apps/websites to fingerprint iOS and (some) Android devices. This reinforces why adding "Lockdown Mode" to the Librem 5 was a good idea. #privacy https://www.zdnet.com/article/android-and-ios-devices-impacted-by-new-sensor-calibration-attack/

I was interviewed by Fast Company about @purism hardware kill switches in this piece on the current trend to put them in home automation devices to address everyone's unease with always-on cameras and mics in their bedroom. #privacy
https://www.fastcompany.com/90349731/the-hardware-trend-google-amazon-and-apple-are-throwing-their-weight-behind

OK, so that's creepy: "The online tool allows everyday supporters to contribute to the campaign’s voter database by logging names and background information of anyone from a family member to a stranger met at a bus stop." #privacy
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/bernie-sanders-2020-campaign-unveils-app-increase-its-voter-database-n999206