I know data privacy is important and I know that big corporations like Meta became powerful enough to even manipulate elections using our data.
But, when I talk to people in general, most seem to not worry because they “have nothing to hide”, and most are only worried about their passwords, banking apps and not much else.
So, why should people worry about data privacy even if they have “nothing to hide”?
Just ask them a bunch of indiscreet questions. Do you watch porn? What category of porn turns you on the most? Do you think it’s appropriate to have sex in a room on the ground floor without curtains? What? You own curtains? What is your salary? What’s the amount of money in your savings account? Why do you have so many loud disagreements with your partner? Don’t you like visiting your in-laws? What’s inside the drawer at the bottom, next to your bed? Have you had any embarassing and cringy moments in the last few years you’d like to share?
Of course this is only the beginning. It’s not like the corporations collect data and then don’t do anything with it. You’d also have to be okay with them deducing information about you. Try to use that information to manipulate you into giving them attention, buying the stuff they want you to buy. That system is in place to nudge you into thinking what the algorithm wants you to think. App developers are actively trying to make the apps more addicting so you spend more time with them… People just get exploited with the help of all of that data.
If people really are that tame and have no secret fantasies, no sensitive data, no shame, no personal shortcomings they’d like to forget… And they don’t care about the annual security breaches of big platforms people use willingly, but that information then gets used by people who use it to send you spam or impersonate you and trick your grandma to send her retirement to some scammer… And they like to be shoved around by big corporations like cattle, used to fuel the capitalist system… …I myself tend to leave them alone. There is nothing that can be done at this point. Those people are lost, and they don’t want freedom for themselves.
And also “do you always obey the speed limit in your car, and who is your insurance company?” or something among those lines…
This is a great question to use because how many of these people have given their smartphone location permissions? Google knows when they speed already.
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I don’t think this works, because any sexual stuff they don’t think google / Mega Corp cares about. Which is true google doesn’t give a shit if you have sex without curtains, they only care if you are shopping for curtains.
And the rest of the questions only matter if you are running for office or something which again 99.9% aren’t, so they don’t give a shit.
I’m all for privacy, but the argument I have nothing to hide except bank account passwords etc is hard to argue with, when it comes to the average person, because the truth is that they don’t matter and most likely no-one cares about their specific data.
Most data is only valuable in mass, unless you’re being criminally investigated or something.
Perhaps you never heard of the psychological targeting done for political purposes through the misuse of mass data. (Cambridge Analytics)
Edit: to be clear, people in the comments have already provided many examples of situations where corporations/governing bodies have misused specific people’s personal data (zoom employees watching webcams without knowledge), however I also don’t think it makes sense to brush off the impact of mass data available as a result of much of the population freely giving away their personal data.
I think we’re talking about an abstract concept here. The example with the sex questions is more of a metaphor/image to make you remember there is stuff out there, we’d like to keep private. It’s not necessarily your main concern regarding google. Those are different things but way less graphic and more difficult to explain, so i went with this example instead.
You’re close to the category of people i described last. You don’t care for freedom. You don’t care your attention is guided by other people. Information that is shown to you is gated by algorithms. And their power to manipulate you comes from the knowledge they have about you.
Au contraire. Companies pay big money for data. The more specific, the more valuable. The biggest companies of today, like amazon, google, twitter, meta… Their business model is to collect data about you, sell advertisements, maybe even sell the data they’ve collected about you. And all of that is worth billions and billions of dollars. Why do you think they let you use TikTok or YouTube or something for free and the comany still makes millions? You’re right. That’s the cumulative sum. Your own data maybe is only worth 15$ to some company. Maybe more to some hacker if your credit card info gets leaked, too. But it doesn’t make it any better if you’re not the only one who gets exploited, but you’re part of an exploited majority… The TikTok algorithm, the ads etc are specifically tailored to your personality. To influence specifically your attention.
And what do you even tell the few people who actually suffer consequences? Like, i read stories about women being stalked with the help of social media. Sometimes even police officers using their computers to stalk ex partners. Their data gets collected in mass. And stored for legitimate reasons… Do you tell them: Bad luck you’re being stalked by some scummy person? We the 99.9% of people don’t have this specific problem?
I care a lot about freedom and my personal privacy. The data collected by apps doesn’t invade my privacy, and cannot reliably be used to harm me in any way, so I don’t care.
Do you care that you’re on video at the bank? Same thing.
Sorry, i’m really at a loss here. I don’t understand. App data is used to make you transparent. To learn something about you to sell advertisements and show them to exactly those people who are the most likely to be influenced by it. This is how targeted advertisement works.
You’re right. You’re not ‘harmed’ in the original meaning of the word. You’re just being manipulated. And so are millions of other people on the internet.
It isn’t used to make anything of me at all. You don’t seem to understand how this data is collected, aggregated and sold.
Literally no one has a profile on me specifically. Relevant bits of data are captured and filtered and packaged and sold without any human interaction.
There is no database entry for you as a person.
I’m not being manipulated because I am neither 12 nor a Republican.
How do you think TikTok recommends videos you like? How do you think YouTube shows you videos about astronomy or diy-stuff or whatever you like and omit the videos about kajaking? How do you think amazon recommends you similar items or shows you what you bought in the last 6 months?
They all have a specific profile for you as a person. It doesn’t really matter if they don’t file it with your real name as a key. It may be called a number or just contain your email address. Nonetheless it get’s loaded and used when you open your browser, when you log in to those services. Rest assured they know you and your behaviours well enough. They don’t need to store your name along with that. And don’t tell me you have 20 google accounts, clear your cookies and have all the browser extensions installed to evade all of that.
TikTok recommends me stand-up comedy and thicc goth girls because that’s what I’ve swiped on. Every now and then MTG card reviews pop up because I think that dude is funny.
I’m not a child, so I’m capable of curating shit I watch
I’m a huge fan of TikTok and YouTube’s algos because they show me shit I am interested in. Same with my targeted ads, except for the shitty mobile game ones.
Regardless, this is not a specific profile for me as a person. It’s a profile for that service, on this phone, taking some info from common internet connection points.
So they must have a database entry specifically for you and be able to recognize you. Otherwise they couldn’t recommend you anything after you closed the app.
“the data collected by apps… Cannot reliably be used to harm me”
So you’re saying that someone can’t use your location, recordings of your audible surroundings, recordings of your devices camera view, and whom you may be interacting with cannot be used to harm you?
Correct.
but the argument I have nothing to hide except bank account passwords etc is hard to argue withIt’s simple to argue against: any and all data points are either potential threat vectors, or will in aggregate paint a better picture of the individual they pertain to, for the data’s possessor to use as they wish. A default-deny policy for data creation/access makes as much sense for individuals as it does workplaces.
I get it, I’m telling you why it doesn’t resonate with 99% of people. Once you have to explain threat vectors people shut it down and call you a paranoid person.
Again, I don’t agree with it I’m just telling you why I have nothing to hide is so pervasive.
In that case, please post your real name, tax id (SSN in the States) and annual household income.
N.B. None of this information is private.
Yea obviously not that… Like I said bank account stuff everyone gets… Google isn’t harvesting bank account numbers.
Privacy and not getting hacked is not the same thing.
My point is that most people just keep their banking safe and don’t care about the rest, hence “I got nothing to hide” attitude
Pull out your phone, state “You’re ok with this, right?! After all you have nothing to hide” and very overtly put it in voice recording mode.
Then start asking the questions.