Reading those of you learning about the Costco app has me kind of creeped out and thinking … am I fighting a losing battle?
I don’t put locations on and don’t use apps except Instagram, which I only use to lurk. Do they already know everything about me and I am fighting a losing battle? I don’t use Apple Pay. I don’t feel like I’m a luddite and anti-technology, but I am pro keeping some semblance of personal info personal. Am I alone out there and I need to just accept that everything is connected and I’m kidding myself?
This is all relative. To me, using the apps IS simplifying life.
I don’t have anything to hide. If someone wants to see what I buy at Costco, have at it. I don’t willy nilly sign up for all apps/websites, etc. - I think about how worthwhile each one might be for me. And maybe occasionally delete unused apps or ones that aren’t user friendly.
I’m sure there is a mix - some who jump in, some who stay out of the water.
Pretty much a losing battle. I’m off facebook, never got on instagram (yeah they know you), never did twitter but here I am on CC–and they know where you are too. Don’t sign up for Tiktok at all costs.
You’re tied into insurance, health apps, your library card, every subscription service you have. Every credit card you own.
Where you live (plus everyone who lived there including kids), political affiliation, voter’s registration, drivers license info, phone numbers, criminal record, how much your house is worth, what land you own, outstanding debts, family background is all an internet search away.
Yeah. Health? Used GoodRx to save money on a script? Not under HIPAA–sold your data.
Record your local run? Use Google maps? Use location services? Yeah.
Ancestry services? Just gave away your DNA. And tied you to all known relatives.
Applied for job? Did they take your fingerprints? Get your SS number?
Applied for CC? And what hacker is selling all that info presently?
All that said…I only use apps to make my life simpler. If I can live without I do. I don’t sign up for anything just cause it may save a couple bucks in the moment. But I figure I’m on the grid from long ago.
My junk mail pile has been down so whatever I do seems to be working. But I notice when I post some comments here, Instagram pops up related ads. However I will not shop clicking anything from them either.
I’ve always been very careful about my data. When the CVS key tag came out in the 90’s, I used a fake telephone number. That number has been used by our family for decades. I also am very careful about how I share info online. When I order, I don’t use my first name, stops some from wanting to contact us. Never ever would use any biometric data ( thumbprint, face etc for an app).
Don’t have FB any longer for other reasons. I’m a lurker on instagram and never post. Nor do my kids. Tiktok same thing.
Have a yahoo junk mail that I’ve used since 2001. Use it for all my mail orders. Isn’t tied to my current address but I think they could find it.
DNA/Ancestry no way.
Political info, unenroll after voting.
Yes, they can probably find my house info ( value and mortgage). Likely find other financial data based on Amex and others selling my data over the years.
Physical location: Might be tough we have had a VPN for years. I only use GPS when I need it. I used it in Iceland and I’ve used it in other parts of Europe and all across the US. So they’d have trouble seeing exactly where I am unless I’ve used it recently.
I also use DuckDuckGo and have forever. I also remove cookies from my computer on a regular basis and have gone into Google to check things ( and make sure I didn’t sign up for anything to track me). I don’t use google at all once I saw in my own company the tracking info it had. I also won’t use google docs for the same reason or gmail.
Amount of privacy you may have also depends on the search engine, browser, and whether you use public wifi.
I had not considered a virtual private network before reading
I can’t stress enough how important it is to avoid public wi-fi, unless you have something in place to make it private (Verizon has an app I use now). Before I realized this, I used the public wi-fi at the hospital when I was son was there for weeks. Someone got into my email account and tried to deleted every email! Fortunately, they went into my trash can and I was able to retrieve them. BUT they used my email address to sign me up for literally thousands of sites. I was deluged with junk mail for months. It was a horrible experience when I was already emotionally exhausted.
Well…last week, I was talking with my neighbors about a breakfast place in another town. I did NOT have my phone with me. Oddly, I started getting Facebook ads for that restaurant…and had never gotten them before!
Your device or apps that you use on it has network-exploitable security vulnerabilities. If your device has not had a security update for a while, the risk of that increases. Using a VPN does not necessarily prevent such exploitation.
You access email or other things through unencrypted transports and without an encrypted VPN. Most email should be defaulting to encrypted transports (e.g. HTTPS, not HTTP, for web mail), but an email app can be misconfigured to use the unencrypted transport.
However, email (or other) accounts can also be cracked in other ways, such as having a weak password guessed or falling for a phishing email (“URGENT! Login through this link now or your account will be deactivated!”).
Accept it. If you even own a smart phone and do nothing with it, you’ve lost. These are tracking and listening devices and they “work” no matter the settings.
I recently took a tour booked through AAA. They sent me a link to fill out a survey about the tour. The website they used required my email address and the creation of a profile.
I can’t remember the name of the show, but they sent out teams of people who tried to evade ex-FBI agents for a couple of weeks. It was shocking how easily they were traced. Hardly anyone made it the whole distance to win the prize money. The idea that we have any privacy is a myth.
I’m sure they can track me, I just want to minimize it. I get tons of emails for surveys, I need to get paid for that, so I delete them. I don’t like it when my dentist and doctor send me surveys either. They constantly harassing you, enough is enough.
I have accepted that privacy is a myth and so i dont care about tracking apps or other things. I do care about passwords and other identity theft type actions but that is it.
But not necessarily from the usual places that people worry about (Facebook, etc.). What goes unnoticed is that mobile phone functionality requires connecting to the cell towers, so the mobile phone carrier can know approximately where the mobile phone is based on which cell towers it is using. The phone does not have to be a smart phone.
However, there are varying levels of ease of which someone can be tracked. Evading detectives or spies specifically targeting you is more difficult than evading some types of mass data collection, for example.
That frightens me. My kids have lots of friends from mainland China. I’ve heard a few stories about the tracking apps and how they are avoided by international students. But not while in China.
I really do hope that people continue to push for privacy when it comes to technology. I don’t see it happening. But I don’t want to see any apps that can limit things based on being able to track people.
I’d also like to see better safeguards for password protection. We have set up everything as two factor authentication when possible. It’s a pain but well worth it.
