Privacy, Anonymity, and Compartmentalization

[Ari]

The provost explained to students that he didn't need IRB approval for his sensors because they weren't "monitoring people." A student countered, what was being monitored, "if not people?" The provost replied that he was monitoring "heat sources."

[Ensign Steve]

[viscousmemories]

I don't usually read threads that are >60 tweets long, but this one (shared here in essay form to spare you) was worth it:

Pluralistic: 20 Oct 2022 It was all downhill after the Cuecat – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

Also how have I never once in my life heard of or seen a Cuecat?

[lisarea]

I'm pretty sure I still have one somewhere. I can send if to you if I find it.

[-FX-]

Originally Posted by Ari

In high school I started posting to a sword forum. One of their requirements was using a real name, and that small step really made a difference in the quality of the posts. I've taken that to other forums. Somehow asking people to stamp their official name on things really cuts down the amount of shit they talk.
FF should never move to this policy, it would go silent here.

Maybe. But a very long lasting still active forum has always required your actual name and it is still going. It's also private in a sense, and you have to pay. Real names did not stop drama, in fact they made it uber drama filled,

Originally Posted by Ari

The provost explained to students that he didn't need IRB approval for his sensors because they weren't "monitoring people." A student countered, what was being monitored, "if not people?" The provost replied that he was monitoring "heat sources."

Damn it, now I have to go back and read what the hell that its about.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by viscousmemories

I don't usually read threads that are >60 tweets long, but this one (shared here in essay form to spare you) was worth it:

Pluralistic: 20 Oct 2022 It was all downhill after the Cuecat – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

Also how have I never once in my life heard of or seen a Cuecat?

Venture capitalists were capitalists – if they wanted us give to them according to their need and take from them according to their ability, they should be venture communists.

How have I never once in my life heard of venture communists?
oh, right...

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

This is especially true for the users the company values the least – poor people, people in the global south, women, sex workers, etc.

That's what makes the phrase "So easy your mom can use it" particularly awful "Moms" are the kinds of people whose priorities and difficulties are absent from the room when tech designers gather to plan their next product. The needs of "moms" are mostly met by mastering, configuring and adapting technology, because tech doesn't work out of the box for them:

..

[-FX-]

"But in a world of Felony Contempt of Business Model, that discussion changes to "Given that we can literally imprison anyone who helps our users get more out of this product, how can we punish users who are disloyal enough to simply quit our service or switch away from our product?"

That is, "how can we raise the switching costs of our products so that users who are angry at us keep using our products?" When Facebook was planning its photos product, they deliberately designed it to tempt users into making it the sole repository of their family photos, in order to hold those photos ransom to keep Facebook users from quitting for G+:"

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/20/b...business-model

[lisarea]

Originally Posted by lisarea

I'm pretty sure those probably do have a HIPAA waiver, which is why I don't use them at the pharmacy.

What happened is that I got a fucking GoodRX card in the mail, with my name and an individual identifier on it, and NO DISCLOSURE at all. Just some small print with the URL for their privacy policy. GoodRX is not a covered entity, and their privacy policy does waive your HIPAA rights to any medical information they capture. And you "agree" to this by using the card. The card that you got, unsolicited, in the mail, with your name on it and no disclosure of this at all.

I'm about 95% sure that pharmacy provided my contact info at least to them for marketing, based on the pattern in my very small sample group of who got these cards and who didn't. The only people so far who've gotten those cards were people who use that pharmacy and don't use those cards already.

I use to catalog the many times I have told people so.

FTC fines GoodRx for sharing consumer health data with advertisers - The Verge

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Oh look, more content for thrad.

It’s Official: Cars Are the Worst Product Category We Have Ever Reviewed for Privacy

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by Kamilah Hauptmann

Oh look, more content for thrad.

It’s Official: Cars Are the Worst Product Category We Have Ever Reviewed for Privacy

Don’t worry!! There is something you can do!

Sign the petition!

Like that's going to get anywhere

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Cool, cool

23andMe User Data Stolen in Targeted Attack on Ashkenazi Jews | WIRED

[JoeP]

No one could possibly have foreseen

[JoeP]

More 23andMe, more privacy concerns

23andMe files for bankruptcy protection

In its statement on Sunday, 23AndMe's board chair Mark Jensen said the company is "committed to continuing to safeguard customer data and being transparent about the management of user data going forward".

He said it would be "an important consideration in any potential transaction".

But this may not ease concerns of some users about what happens to the DNA they shared with the company.

[LarsMac]

Originally Posted by JoeP

More 23andMe, more privacy concerns

23andMe files for bankruptcy protection

There's a good point.

We did our DNA with Nat Geo Genealogy program some years back.
Do ya know who now owns Nat Geo?

[It's Me!]

Originally Posted by LarsMac

There's a good point.

We did our DNA with Nat Geo Genealogy program some years back.
Do ya know who now owns Nat Geo?

One of the many reasons, despite having family members thinking this would be cool to do, I dug in and decided to be the Debbie Downer when it came to DNA testing. As I used to say "Can you imagine one of these companies being bought up by an insurance company, and then they use your data to "pre-existing condition: denial of service" your entire blood line until it runs extinct?"

Yeah, not worth the risk, and now people are going to find out the hard way unfortunately.

If you took part, delete your data ASAP. Tell them to trash your stored saliva swab ASAP. Have them pull your data back from any third parties it was shared with ASAP.