Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

The best time to protect your #privacy was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. https://puri.sm/posts/the-second-best-time-to-protect-your-privacy/

This level of tracking of shoppers, even if it's to streamline checkout, is creepy. #privacy https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/28/technology/whole-foods-amazon-automation.html?smid=tw-share

I finally fired Google. In this post I write about how I got locked in, how I got out, and what took me so long. #privacy https://puri.sm/posts/i-finally-fired-google/

There was such a #privacy backlash against the IRS biometrics requirement that the IRS is changing policy. Imagine what would happen if enough people felt the same way about the companies that do far worse.

Security companies sometimes use "we're in Switzerland" to imply that makes them more secure or private. But better protection from government compulsion doesn't do much good if the company itself decides to collect and sell your location data. #privacy https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-06/this-swiss-tech-exec-is-said-to-have-operated-a-secret-surveillance-operation

It's so profitable to sell customer data that Vizio now makes 2x as much from that than selling TVs. Until the govt outlaws this data collection, your only recourse to protect your ⁨#privacy⁩ is to buy things from the few companies left that respect it. https://gizmodo.com/welp-vizio-now-makes-twice-as-much-from-advertising-as-1848034943

"A new technology can inconspicuously scan the same surface [a blank wall] for shadows and reflections imperceptible to the human eye, then analyze them to determine details, including how many people are in the room—and what they are doing." #privacy https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-blank-wall-can-show-how-many-people-are-in-a-room-and-what-theyre-doing/

Samsung can remotely brick TVs it believes are stolen once they reconnect to the Internet, which is required to enable smart TV features. ⁨#privacy https://gizmodo.com/samsung-smart-tvs-can-be-remotely-bricked-if-stolen-1847557228

My biggest worry about Apple crossing the Rubicon with client-side searches is all the other vendors that inevitably copy Apple innovations, but poorly. Even if Apple can keep their promises, others won't. Imagine a home (and car) full of devices searching for crimes. ⁨#privacy⁩

Criminals and students always face the bleeding edge of surveillance tech, because neither group has enough agency to resist it. ⁨#privacy⁩ ⁨https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tech-prison-idUSKBN2FA0OO

iPhone users don't live in a walled garden, they live in a digital nursing home. They are well taken care of, but Apple controls the property, activities and visitors. Apple plans to search residents regularly for contraband. #privacy https://www.apple.com/child-safety/

Amazon will pay you $10 to join their palm pilot. You really have to hand it to them... #privacy
https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/02/amazon-credit-palm-biometrics/

"Anonymized" location data, isn't. Catholic priest resigns after legally-obtained Grindr app data from a broker correlated location data with his and relatives' homes, his place of work, and gay bars. #privacy https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/07/catholic-priest-quits-after-anonymized-data-revealed-alleged-use-of-grindr/

"Tom Burt...revealed that Microsoft is presented with 7-10 secrecy orders per day from federal law enforcement. These comprise a quarter to a third of all legal demands Microsoft receives, he said." #privacy https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/02/us_government_cloud/

Why is it so hard for people to have #privacy? Because a TV company can make almost as much profit selling customer data as it can selling the TVs. https://www.engadget.com/vizio-q1-earnings-inscape-013937337.html

This is the key point and the reason FOSS means better #privacy: "The joy of open source means that users can, if they wish, verify Audacity's claims for themselves before deciding that the time has come for a fork." https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/07/audacity_telemetry/

Apparently the future of clothing is "smart fabric": shirts that act like computer displays, microphones stitched into single strands of fabric, clothing full of sensors and semiconductors. All I can think of is how this will be abused. #privacy https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/05/03/smart-fabric-future-of-clothing/

"Ulysses claims it can currently access more than 15 billion vehicle locations around the world every month, and it estimates that, by 2025, 100 percent of new cars will be connected and transmitting gigabytes of collectible data per hour." #privacy https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/03/one-company-wants-to-sell-the-feds-location-data-from-every-car-on-earth/

Old and Busted: "If you aren't paying for something, you are the product."

New Hotness: "You are the product."

Check out my post about companies across industries who double dip by collecting and selling data on their paying customers. ⁨#privacy

https://social.librem.one/@purism/105877195253681981

Pretty messed up that a mom had to have this conversation w/ their 7-yr-old: "Every time you ride your bike down this block, there are probably 50 cameras that watch you going past. If you make a bad choice, those cameras will catch you." #privacy https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/03/02/ring-camera-fears/