Gyroscopic Investing

How concerned are you about privacy?
What things can a person do right now to protect their privacy?

Do you feel that "I don't worry about privacy, because I have nothing to hide?" Is that the same as, "I don't care about freedom of speech, because I have nothing to say?"

It seems like the smartphone is the number one culprit right now. Followed by Facebook and Google. I think that dumb phones are no longer going to be allowed onto the carriers in the very near future. So if you want a cell phone, it will be smart.

What about banking and credit cards? One big bank provided "geofenced" purchase data to the feds to help locate people who were in the area of a demonstration. Of course, just wait until there is Fedcoin.

What about DNA, do you want to know that you are 42% from central & eastern Europe? That you have a 5th cousin in Peoria? Do you care if your DNA is being sold to governments?

What's a person to do? Is resistance futile? Help me out here with some livable solutions.

Big picture, I think your concern is correct, that resistance is futile. Even if you're not carrying any kind of mobile phone... Cameras, license plate readers, credit card trails...

Having said that, I did small little things like using start page or duck duck go rather than Google search. Deleted photos off Facebook. Started Protonmail.

Perhaps one of the biggest things we can do to maintain some semblance of privacy is to use cash payment at retailers. I only use cash in restaurants / bars. By keeping cash alive, at least a small amount of privacy can be maintained.

murphy_p_t wrote: ↑Fri Mar 26, 2021 12:23 pm Perhaps one of the biggest things we can do to maintain some semblance of privacy is to use cash payment at retailers. I only use cash in restaurants / bars. By keeping cash alive, at least a small amount of privacy can be maintained.

+1. It also keeps the banks from taking a cut of the transaction and puts more money in the pocket of the local business (or yourself)

Drumminj.... The reasons you listed are the primary reasons I pay in cash at the independent restaurants... Keeping Cash alive / privacy concerns are bonuses. Oh, also, I don't like handing my card to someone to swipe out of my sight. and then having to sign something, and then reconcile a receipt later.

Tom, thanks for the exhaustive list. That's too much for me to do, but I am going to think about how I could apply the 80/20 principle to it.

murphy_p_t wrote: ↑Fri Mar 26, 2021 12:23 pm Perhaps one of the biggest things we can do to maintain some semblance of privacy is to use cash payment at retailers. I only use cash in restaurants / bars. By keeping cash alive, at least a small amount of privacy can be maintained.

That and not carry a phone with you.

A bit of a side street, I wonder how many apps in the iphone ecosystem will essentially force you to be tracked for the app to work after they implement their new blocking of advertisement tracking feature? I'm going to guess a lot.

I Shrugged wrote: ↑Sat Mar 27, 2021 9:07 am Tom, thanks for the exhaustive list. That's too much for me to do, but I am going to think about how I could apply the 80/20 principle to it.

This is a really important point. The only way to do it right is to make it your new all consuming hobby. You might have to drop a few of your old hobbies to get it done. By the time you are privacy-competent, you might as well be a privacy consultant.

In addition to all Tomfoolery said, these things are constantly changing, so you have to stay up to date on what works and what doesn't. Amazon and other sites get wise to privacy measures, and block accounts or don't let you register in the first place, not to mention that law enforcement is likely to wonder what you are hiding on that anonymous phone or encrypted hard drive.

This podcast by former cyber LEO Michael Bazzell will tell you more than you want to know about privacy.

https://inteltechniques.com/podcast.html

I listened to this for months and there was always something that had stopped working or an app that got compromised or something.

He might do a whole podcast on VPNs, and then end the show by saying that many of them are run by government intelligence agencies.

Such a desperate battle it all is. We have these machines designed to record everything and share with each other and we buy them and then try to make it so they don't have any useful information to share. Total war of attrition if nothing else.

The main takeaway for me was it made me see the costs of being plugged in, and has taught me to adopt a policy of as few devices and memberships as possible.

What a concept, live your life in person as much as possible and use cash.

That may not even work forever. If all cash goes digital, Bazzell has as much concluded that privacy will be dead.

His book, available at linked site, might be worth a look for those who want to make privacy their new priority, and don't mind lying about everything, the full disclosure, he admitted that though it is only a year old, he has written about a hundred new pages of updates for strategies that no longer work.

sweetbthescrivener wrote: ↑Tue Mar 30, 2021 11:35 am If all cash goes digital, Bazzell has as much concluded that privacy will be dead.

I doubt it's so cut and dried. Privacy is a cat-and-mouse game, just like computer security is.

In computer security, adversaries and criminals develop increasingly sophisticated methods of digital attack, and people respond by developing improved security measures to counteract them.

Similarly, in the realm of privacy, some people develop increasingly sophisticated methods of exploiting a lack of privacy, and other people respond by developing improved privacy measures to counteract them.

We may currently be in a world of very little digital privacy, but that is opening up big opportunities for privacy entrepreneurs. Some of them will eventually figure out relatively simple, user-friendly ways to regain some of the digital privacy we've currently lost.

Necessity is the mother of invention. Give it some time.

Two good posts just now.

On #1, yeah way too hard/much work for me. It is an endless cycle I think.

On #2, that would be awesome. Unfortunately, see #1 above. I'm not hopeful.