tech

Don't trust the tech giants? You likely rely on them anyway

8 Comments
By ANICK JESDANUN and RYAN NAKASHIMA

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Facebook, Google, and Amazon - I use all three. I know Google shares info with FB since some recent searches on Google Maps showed up as recommended sites on FB for me to like.

But to be honest, I don't care. They can share all the information they want with each other. So what? Ultimately, I'm the one who makes the final decision as to what I buy or do online.

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Its not just Tech Giants... the "Consumer" Trust factor extends across Industries - look at the data fabrication scandals that went on (still going on?) within the German Car Industry I for one wouldn't want a VW, BMW / Porsche now, and would rather spend a bit more on something more bespoke, than run of the mill, reputation built upon fake data, cars. Likewise look at the data falsification that went on/going on in the Japanese Steel Industry, etc.

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I only use FB for research, nothing with my real name. They are too creepy. The data that smartphone apps provide to their using apps is really much worse than most people understand and effectively, all apps have access to all the available sensor data.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5834371/The-18-things-not-realise-Facebook-knows-YOU.html has 18 things that facebook knows about you.

I use instagram and 20 other social apps in the same way as FB, that is for research only and only from a device specifically for research purposes.

With Google, who you shouldn't trust either, they have all the data keep it in your profile. The best you can do is to tell google not to use that data to target you and not to use google applications. There are alternatives. I use a gmail account only to deal with the govt. NEVER for personal information.

Do people realize that upper management at all these companies don't use any of their social applications? Why not? Because the fully understand how much tracking and data capture is going on.

The big cloudy companies just want to make their stuff easy to use so you won't bother to use a bunch of independent tools. The more centralized the data can be, the more dangerous it is to society. Yes, it is more convenient to have all your data behind 1 login, but it is better for security and your privacy to have 20 smaller piles of data behind 20 independent providers ... or to have all your data under your control.

Never use a FB, Tweeter or google account to log into any other service.

And all your contacts and connections are a great way to know more about you as a person, customer, consumer, and for political reasons.

I'm not all that worried about Amazon. I have a financial relationship with them and they want to retain my business. I do worry about all the free-to-me services used by everyone. If you don't pay for a service, than you and your data are the product.

By commenting here, we give up a bunch of data to JT too. I always use a VPN when commenting here, so my actual location isn't leaked, for example.

Just for fun, try this experiment.

open the facebook app on your phone. 1-2 times a day for the next 2-3 days, say you want to visit "London" and see if your ads don't change on your phone, tablet, and computer to show more London related ads. Instagram, google will work too. Try it.
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to have an accounts to all of those social sites is free and not compulsory. users must be the one responsible for his/her private datas she/he shared. Dont expect these large social sites company to be very private and careful of your private datas even if they promise. I use FB, Google, Yahoo etc for convenience sake in exchange for a bit of my personal data that I chose to be okay even when they publicize it.

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I trust the Chinese Government more with my Private data than I do the likes of Facebook, etc. I've nothing to hide, except from being inundated with things I don't want, or to be Socially profiled as something that I am not.

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I'm guessing that 94% of the world has "nothing to hide", but that isn't the point. The 6% with something they prefer others not know, either to avoid discrimination or govt backlash or just because they don't want their business to be public - it doesn't matter - they deserve the support and efforts from everyone else to help hide them in plain sight.

What does all this mean? It means all of us should make our privacy a priority. We should always use encryption as much as practical. That goes for messaging, email, web, video, audio, phone, and all other traffic. If 6% encrypt all there data and nobody else does, then only 6% of the data needs to be saved and decrypted. OTOH, if 100% of us encrypt all our data, the problem is exponentially harder, so the privacy of those 6% is much stronger.

We need to fight govts who insist on weak encryption or blocking tools for strong encryption. We need to fight organizations which push this agenda. 1984 wasn't just a book, it was a warning. It is becoming true with laws in China, Russia, UK, France, Canada and pressure from the FBI in the USA. Did you know that France, Canada and the UK have laws to compel people to decrypt any device at will? The FBI busted a CEO because he made secure communications possible for a group of people.

Social networks as just another method for govts to spy on their people.

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I'm switching off my internet adapter more these days, just working off the hard drive. I've also given up using the Cloud, using a thumb drive instead for backup. Safer and more stable.

I'd switch to Linux, if it weren't for my clients who are always sending and sharing MS Office docs

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