Our latest blog post is aimed at people who ‘get it’ about online privacy, but who struggle to convince friends and family to take it seriously. We hope it helps!
“They’ve already got my data”
From our site: https://www.rebeltechalliance.org/gotmydata.html
The main retort to this is
“No they don’t - they need to continually replenish their profile on you for it to be useful. If you cut off the supply now, then their power fades.” That’s why their data harvesting is so aggressive. It needs to be, otherwise their promise to advertisers of being able to predict what you’ll want, and when you’ll want it, cannot be fulfilled.
You just need to step off the playing field and their game comes grinding to a halt!
I already “get it” and I don’t find this argument too convincing.
If you’re 25 years old and cut them off, they still have :
- your data from the last 24 years
- the data of everyone in your demographic
- the data of your family, friends, and coworkers
(Yes, I get that it’s different if everyone cuts off data harvesting at the same time, but this is about convincing one person.)
Even if its one person, you would have to start somewhere. Maybe they have your data from the last 24 years, as per your example. If you cut off now, five years later, they still have only 24 years of your data. They won’t have the last five year’s data, which would be crucial for them.
That doesn’t address the other two bullet points.
It’s like tracking an animal moving in tall grass. You don’t need to be able to see the animal directly to tell where it is.
If I can’t disappear completely, there’s enough data points around me that a useful silhouette can be reconstructed from all the surrounding data.
What’s the point?
That is an entirely valid point - and exactly why I wrote that blog post. To help people to explain to those around them that they also need to do something about their privacy. Otherwise they’re giving you away by association.
Come to think of it, I probably should have mentioned that in the post 🤦🏼♂️
The point is that by fighting back they cannot get any more accurate than that, which helps, even if it’s incomplete and imperfect.
There’s also the spite angle, because fuck them, i am not gonna give them shit if i can help it!
Do people often tell you they like surveillance because personalised ads are useful? That’s a madness
i have been unironically told by someone who refused to install an adblocker: ‘what if i might get an ad for something i want?’
eurgh, maybe this is just the crowds I swim in then… I’ve only ever heard derision for ads.
I have family that believes this and LIKE having ads, so yeah… 😓
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Ads are needed to create incommings needed by an service, but legit are only contextual ads, but not personalized ones results of surveilance and profiling, worst if also used with tracking and metadata logging. This is the main reason why the use of adblocker and other filter measures are mandatory, sorry for those which use only contextual banners to create some incommings.
Been using uBlock for what feels like 15 years now. I find it weird and off putting when using other people’s PCs without it. So many ads and so much garbage everywhere. Same when I watch network TV.
Totally! When you see someone else’s phone or laptop and you’re like “ew!”
