Slouching Towards Oblivion

Showing posts with label privacy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label privacy. Show all posts

Sunday, April 24, 2022

This Connected World

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes

(Who watches the watchers?)

In about 2002 or 2003, Don Rumsfeld and Tom Ridge were pimping Total Information Awareness as part of their anti-terrorism theatrics - and we jumped up and down on their heads for it, as any decent patriotic American should have done.

So the fuckers went private with it and did it anyway.

Fuckers.

WaPo: (pay wall)

Ask Help Desk: Cell carriers can use your web history for ads

Here is how you can opt out of their advertising programs that run on your personal data


When you signed up for your mobile plan, your carrier may have signed you up for an extra program that uses data including your Internet history to target you with ads.

I visited my own Verizon account settings and found that yep, I was enrolled in what the company calls “Custom Experience.” Not only do I have no memory of saying yes, I had no idea wireless carriers were in the business of peeking in on my activities and using that information to market to me. And my blissful ignorance works in favor of the company.

At Help Desk, we read privacy policies so you can save time. This week, Ron, a curious reader from Houston, inspired us to dive deeper into mobile carriers. I read the privacy policies from the three major wireless carriers, and my eyeballs are only bleeding a little. AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile have some less than great privacy practices hiding in plain sight.

Depending on the carrier, it can draw on your browsing history, location data, call logs and even app use to learn things about you and nudge you to spend more money on products from themselves or third-party companies. The good news is that you can opt out whenever you want, and we are going to show you how.

Are there other privacy policies you want us to check?
Send them our way at yourhelpdesk@washpost.com.

What data do they want?

AT&T has a “Relevant Advertising” program in which customers are automatically opted in, and the company draws on information including your browsing history and videos you have watched to help show you targeted ads. If you sign up for “Enhanced Relevant Advertising,” your device location and call history are also fair game.

Verizon has a program that works similarly. Customers appear to be automatically opted into its “Custom Experience,” which means the company can use your browsing history and data from your apps to help target ads. The company says it “makes efforts” not to target you based on any adult sites you visit, health conditions and sexual orientation. Thanks, Verizon. If you said yes to “Custom Experience Plus” at any point, the company can also use your location data and call logs.

In comparison, T-Mobile seems relatively tame when it comes to this information. It says it does not use any browsing, precise location or call history data for its ad program, but it can use your “mobile app usage” and data on video viewing, according to its website.

What if I never opt out?

According to the companies, staying enrolled in these programs will improve your experience by showing you more relevant ads. If targeted ads spark joy and you are fine with your cell carrier using your information to make money, you can stop reading now and pour yourself a lemonade.

But these programs may let not just cell carriers but also their third-party partners benefit from your personal data. T-Mobile states clearly in its privacy policy that it can share inferences based on your data with third parties. AT&T also leaves room in its policy to share your information, but a spokesman told me the company is not doing it, though theoretically it can start any time.

Verizon says that if you choose to stay in “Custom Experience,” the company uses data including your Internet history to put you into interest categories like “sports lover.” A spokeswoman said the program does not involve any third-party targeted advertising, but she declined to tell me whether Verizon shares inferences with outside companies.

As always, it can be hard to know for sure where your information ends up. T-Mobile appears to be the only carrier of the three with a public list of its third-party partners.

Can I change my mind?

You can opt out of these ad programs any time. AT&T customers can opt out by signing into att.com, navigating to the “Consent Dashboard” and scrolling to the section called “Control How We Use Your Data.” Opt out of “Relevant Advertising” and check that you are not signed up for “Enhanced Relevant Advertising.”

Verizon customers can opt out of the “Custom Experience” program by going to their privacy settings in the My Verizon app. While you are there, you should also check that you have not said yes to “Custom Experience Plus.”

T-Mobile says customers can opt out by opening the app, going to “Advertising and Analytics” then “Use My Data To Make Ads More Relevant To Me.” Turn the toggle off so that it turns gray. On the website, go to “My Account” then “Profile.” Click “Privacy and Notifications” then “Advertising and Analytics,” then “Use My Data To Make Ads More Relevant To Me.” Turn the toggle off.

Two of my Washington Post colleagues tried to opt out on T-Mobile accounts, and both got an error message saying it “looks like we got our wires crossed.” When they tried via the website, it froze or showed an error message. A T-Mobile spokeswoman said the company had not heard of any problems but was working to address the issue. Keep in mind that opting out does not necessarily stop carriers from collecting your data or marketing their own products to you.

Should I be worried?

I would recommend opting out of all these ad programs. It is tough to determine exactly what personal information these companies are sharing with whom, and it is shady for the companies to opt you in by default.

It will be tempting for any company with as much data access as a cell carrier to make some money off your information. What matters is that customers are given clear descriptions of how our data is monetized and that companies stop opting us in by default.

hat tip = WT

Thursday, March 30, 2017

It Gets Worse


The Daddy State approacheth.

“A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any other invention with the possible exceptions of handguns and Tequila.” 
--Mitch Ratcliffe


Soon every mistake you’ve ever made online will not only be available to your internet service provider (ISP) — it will be available to any corporation or foreign government who wants to see those mistakes.

Thanks to last week’s US Senate decision (update March 28: and today’s House decision), ISPs can sell your entire web browsing history to literally anyone without your permission. The only rules that prevented this are all being repealed, and won’t be reinstated any time soon (it would take an act of congress).

ISPs can also sell any information they want from your online activity and mobile app usage — financial information, medical information, your children’s information, your social security number — even the contents of your emails.

They can even sell your geolocation information. That’s right, ISPs can take your exact physical location from minute to minute and sell it to a third party.

You might be wondering: who benefits from repealing these protections? Other than those four monopoly ISPs that control America’s “last mile” of internet cables and cell towers?

No one. No one else benefits in any way. Our privacy — and our nation’s security — have been diminished, just so a few mega-corporations can make a little extra cash.


I'll take exception to that last bit - about how nobody benefits in any way.  My basic skepticism (ie: my cynical - tho' perfectly justifiable - paranoia) is waving flags like it's laundry day at Redneck Central Headquarters.

This looks a whole lot like standard Political Duplicity - privacy snoops disguised as profiteers to give the illusion of separation from Officialdom, so nobody in government is accountable to voters for the inevitable fuckery.

And the bonus is that the ISP cartel can peddle our information to Da Gubmint (aka: the Lunker Customer everybody's always gunnin' for, so you know it'll happen), which will confer upon us the supreme privilege of paying them to fuck us over - again.

Cronies get richer
Congress Critters get re-elected
We get fucked

'Twas ever thus with the Radical Right, and ever thus 'twill be.

Anyway, privacy is pretty much the whole banana in a free state, and there seems to an even fuckier fuckery afoot.

Roe v Wade is based on the concept of a Consitutional Right To Privacy. If this ISP thing stands up to challenge in the courts, kiss that one good-bye. And then it's really open season on everybody's rights across the board.

Now, I realize I'm pretty close to the Slippery Slope Fallacy, but these things happen step-by-step, so I'm just trying to follow it out to the logical extreme. And it's not like we haven't seen some of this shit already. The bullshit SCOTUS ruling on Voting Rights comes to mind.

So how's that Gorsuch appointment looking now?

Friday, March 10, 2017

Run It Like A Business

A smart guy told us back in the 90s that the 21st century would be about privacy.

I hate the notion of "prophesy fulfilled" and so I'll just ignore it because it's inconvenient, but damn, son - kinda looks like that's what's happening.

Sharon Begley at STAT
A little-noticed bill moving through Congress would allow companies to require employees to undergo genetic testing or risk paying a penalty of thousands of dollars, and would let employers see that genetic and other health information.
Giving employers such power is now prohibited by legislation including the 2008 genetic privacy and nondiscrimination law known as GINA. The new bill gets around that landmark law by stating explicitly that GINA and other protections do not apply when genetic tests are part of a “workplace wellness” program.
The bill, HR 1313, was approved by a House committee on Wednesday, with all 22 Republicans supporting it and all 17 Democrats opposed. It has been overshadowed by the debate over the House GOP proposal to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, but the genetic testing bill is expected to be folded into a second ACA-related measure containing a grab-bag of provisions that do not affect federal spending, as the main bill does.
- and -
Rigorous studies by researchers not tied to the $8 billion wellness industry have shown that the programs improve employee health little if at all. An industry group recently concluded that they save so little on medical costs that, on average, the programs lose money. But employers continue to embrace them, partly as a way to shift more health care costs to workers, including by penalizing them financially.
So what's it actually about? It has great potential to be about shenanigans and fuckery.

But in the context of the 4th amendment, it's about none of your goddamned business.

Amendment 4:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Unwitting

Remember "Total Information Awareness"?

It's been kinda interesting to hear how outraged people said they were when they found out NSA was scooping up emails and phone calls, and then to see how it's all but become a non-issue lately.  I'm not saying they should've done everything it appears they've done - there's a bunch of it that's flat out illegal, and I stand by my "fuck you, NSA" campaign all the way.  But really, how hard do we make those guys work, considering all the little pieces of info we leave lying around almost every minute of every day?



Privacy only works if you close the door and draw the curtains once in a while.

Friday, June 21, 2013

Dot, Meet Dot

Not to get too magical-mystical here, but when we're talking about the FISA Court and USA PATRIOT Act and the shenanigans at NSA and the FBI, etc - I think I have to go along with Mark Udall; mostly anyway - and Obama too btw.  There has to be a balance, which (imo) we've let get away from us in a pretty big way.


Balance is kinda the key to the whole self-governance thingie.  We have to continue to develop better ways to catch the bad guys after the fact - and better yet, prevent the bad guys from doin' the dirt in the first place - without making it more probable that some tin-plated martinet will abuse the power, and turn it to his own ends.  (Thank you, Capt Obvious)

Here's 5 minutes of Udall on NPR, talking about what he and Ron Wyden are proposing:



Almost at the very end, Udall makes a point that kinda blew up in my brain.  He said (paraphrasing), "...privacy is the ultimate form of freedom".

If I make a not-entirely-silly leap, I can say Privacy = Anonymity; and in a still not-so-silly way, Anonymity = Invisibility; and Invisibility is very much the be-all and end-all of the super powers.

On the one hand, if nobody can see you, then nobody can fuck with you.  This is mostly a very good thing for individuals.

But on the other hand, if you can't be seen, then you can't be held to account for anything you do.  This is always a very bad thing for societies.

So, balance.  Aye, there's the rub.

hat tip = Little Green Footballs