Privacy Reboot

There are levels of appetite for risk when it comes to entrusting people or companies with your data and everyone has a different appetite for it. I could never imagine voluntarily giving over my DNA to those ancestry type companies that trace your lineage and hoping they look after the info and never get breached. That's a no from me. #Privacy #PrivacyMatters #PricacyReboot

Privacy and social media really aren't compatible in my humble opinion. There can be no reasonable expectations of privacy when online in any form.

Well the social media ban is imminent for under 16s in Australia. I'm all for moderation of kids using social media. Not so much for the facial recognition and biometrics database being managed and held by private companies that have regularly shown to be pretty poor at handling your privacy. I don't have the answers but I can see it going wrong on a couple of fronts.

There's a real discomfort that I feel when I think of how we are being comoditized by companies that on the face of it aren't in the data game. For example you buy a car and your car logs and tracks your driving metrics not because they are good safety conscious corporations but so they can look at your data and see where you have been geographically. They sell your data and deal with it in opaque ways. It may be harmless and it may be benign but most of us will never know. To me it's bullshit of the highest order that you have to get an app (and in some cases pay for it) to drive your car with a subscription for an app so you can set and forget. It'd be somewhat tolerable if you knew the company wasn't on selling your data it but there's no guarantees. Privacy Matters

Don't just focus on your privacy and online security. Where you can help your family and friends. An elderly associate had their FB account taken over today and their mobile phone number was sim swapped leaving thrm unable to restore their account and vulnerable to all manner of criminality. Trying to work through that stuff with a non tech savvy person can be challenging but the risk of not locking down their accounts properly with MFA and a simple sim lock with their telco is costing them now.

There's no denying that pre installed and mainstream apps are convenient. Privacy is a pain in the backside. It can be cumbersome and inconvenient. It depends on you the individual to make a decision on your threat model. You'll find the middle ground. Just start by tidying up your online presence, even just a little bit.

It's pretty crazy that you can spend $1000+ dollars on a phone and even then the product, Android, Meta and other apps you use can be surveiling you for marketing purposes. Opt out where you can. Consider linux and maybe a dumb phone or grapheneOS. Protect your data where you can. #SurveillanceCapitalism

When did you first realize that social media and the big brand tech companies were out to monetize you as their product? For me it was probably only really the last 3 - 5 years. I never really thought of the motivations of a company to let you use a product for free. I didn't realize I was the product and my data was their incentive. #surveillancecapitalism #privacy

Privacy is a constantly evolving journey. Start by looking through your inbox and unsubscribing from that marketing list you don't read anymore. Delete (not deactivate) the old accounts. It's not a bad start. Reduce the risk of you being breached. Every little bit helps.

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#Privacy #ProtonMail