The Corporate Surveillance Complex
 

The EFF reports on a promising decision by the FTC.

An excerpt:

Absolutely disgusting! And a very good reason for not having a smartphone.

You're being tracked by the authorities most certainly if you have a smart phone even if one opts out of the surveillance applications. I agree, hazel, it's a good reason not to have a smart phone. My daughter has a life threatening medical condition so I am compelled to always have a way to communicate with her; I need to own a smart phone. Snowden paints a grim picture of how we're being watched.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFns39RXPrU

We are almost being "forced" to use smartphones, which are really hand held computers.
There is a bank for active duty military and veterans (and their immediate families). As it has few branches everything is done either online with your computer or with a smartphone. At one time you use to be able to scan checks, for deposit, upload the images, type in some information, bingo, the deposit was made. A year or two ago they stop that and you now have to use a smartphone. You sign on to your account, enter some information about the check, endorse it, of course, take pictures of the check with the phone, and, again, the deposit is made. Last time I tried it, they said my smartphone was too old and to try a different phone. I mailed it in, but I do have to admit he software is pretty clever.
Even the huge national banks are getting into the game and offer a similar service.
Even the local supermarket has an app, as does all the public transit companies.
I guess one could just refuse to play their "game."
OTOH, being a "senior citizen," deposit by phone is convenient. Going into the bank and standing in line is more exercise than my old legs can handle.
So, I've gone through all the security settings on the phone and turned off "location," mobile data, etc., and use a VPN.
The only other alternative is, as I said, to not use the service at all.

Like you I also use a VPN. Recently, my bank disabled online access by VPN. Maddening. Everyone wants to be able to track me including my bank.

I notice that fewer and fewer banks and other business have web sites any more. Instead they opt for "web apps" which try to ask for all kinds of excesses including but not limited to motion sensors and location. So avoiding a "smart" phone is necessary but not sufficient in reducing the surveillance.

Political discourse is now about surveillance, but about a decade or more late. That boat has sailed. Now the immediate threat is not the potential of what might happen but rather how that captured information can be used to manipulate and even destroy societies when abused at scale.

Thankfully my smartphone usage keeps me moderately safe. There is no cell reception inside my home. I can only access service bia wifi which I can toggle off which I routinely do. I'm currently using an Android phone upon which I've replaced the OpSys with CalyxOS. Graphene is even more secure but as long as I don't employ web services on my phone, so far there seems to be no link between phone and internet identities.

As soon as PinePhone64 upgrades hardware a bit more (maybe this year) and Linux phone distros work out a few minor bugs, I'm going to buy one. They have hardware switches for turning off several features used in tracking and the battery is still removable so far.

OTOH it isn't like tracking is 100% nefarious. It's mostly just annoying but with compensated with considerable benefits. It can be a tough choice separating the wheat from the chaff. The most annoying thing is the pressure to demand an SMS capable phone for 2 party authentication even though it also serves as some modicum of safety. There really should be a viable alternative.

You are most certainly being tracked by Big Tech.

I submit, though, that that does not necessarily mean you are being tracked in real time by "the authorities," whatever that term may mean.

It has long baffled me that persons sweat bullets over "government surveillance," but are willing to run nekkid through the corridors of profit-driven corporate collectors of confidences.

Just my two cents.

If it's just for communication, wouldn't a 1990's type dumb phone do? Calls and texts only.

I have a little dumbphone that I keep exclusively for this purpose. But why can't they use a landline for that?

Where I live, the parking meters in town have gone over exclusively to smartphone activation. You can't any longer use a card, let alone cash. So those old people who are not too good on their feet and don't know how to use a smartphone, can't go into town to do their shopping any more. It seems they don't want our sort around there any more; it brings the tone down. It's blatant discrimination and I think it ought to be illegal.

I know my post is the exact opposite of the crux of this thread, but it's amusing to me:
My bank has branches, and an app, etc. I do scan checks to deposit them.

Periodically someone gives me cash.

I'm like, "I NEVER carry or use a lot of cash! Can't I take a picture of this to deposit it?!?" :p

You make an excellent point, hazel! I do in fact only need a cellphone for calling and texting. However, I never liked that style of cellphone when they first came out. I'm a technology junky, I crave the newest whiz-bang thingy. Do I absolutely need it? Possibly not. Having an exceptional camera on my phone is an added bonus.

"Someone in Pango Pango" just also "used VPN" to impersonate you and to steal thousands of dollars from you. But, because they were "using VPN," we couldn't prove it wasn't you, so we approved the transaction ...

Yeah, you get the idea. People in real life are vastly more inventive in trying to find new ways to rip other people off, than they ever were in earning an honest living. And the "fraud prevention department" is on the front line. They're going to use "the incoming IP address" for the same reason that they consider "the incoming phone number (caller-ID)" and "known or approximate geographic locations." And you are the one they're constantly trying to protect.

In spite of these efforts, banks around the world lose enormous amounts of money every single day to "fraud," and they will never get that money back.

My ex's bank card information was stolen. Someone was making an expensive transaction on the other side of the country while she was using the card near home. The transaction was only denied due to lack of funds in the account.

Why aren't we all crying for the poor banks down on their luck and getting ripped off this way?? :D

The banking industry knows that it loses millions of dollars, every day, due to fraud.

I also think that should be illegal, and have difficulty imagining that is actually true. Not everyone has a smartphone and service and a data plan and an OS that supports their app, etc, so not allowing any way to pay for street parking at all? Seems absurd.

edit: after posting that, I had to look it up for myself, and based on your posted location I'm guessing it's this: https://www.harrow.gov.uk/parking-pe...king-charges/2
You can pay by voice telephone, SMS, or on a website, or with cash at any shop with a "paypoint" sign. Not just the android/ios/windows apps.

The "banking industry" makes a fortune and its losses are what amounts to pocket change. Like any corporate concern, such losses are factored in and costs covered by banking charges. There was a time when banks paid you some reasonable interest for your money - those days are long gone unless you are among the wealthy minority - the majority get screwed and end up in debt, paying obscene interest.

You're now officially an apologist for Microsoft, Oracle, VMWare and the fat cat bankers.

“Huh? Officially an apologist?” I think not. :)

Over these years, I’ve personally encountered plenty of the ways in which people contrive to rip each other off, and I have (programmatically) countered many of them. But it never ends. People will always invest far more ingenuity in crime than in trying to make an honest living. And “banking,” while utterly necessary, is probably not a business you today want to find yourself in.

In my growing-up days, the charging of excessive rates of interest was called “usury,” and it was a crime. No longer.

But we also still had the (Depression-inspired) “Glass-Steagall Act,” which clearly separated “banking,” “finance,” and “insurance.” It thereby created a sturdy “three-legged stool” that stood firm for many decades … until subsequent legislation toppled it.

But the “modern” industry has now completely forgotten the mission to provide affordable financing, and to be content with a modest but predictable steady profit. They have ceased to be the financial resource that they were once required to be. And, they daily expose themselves to risks that they didn’t used to face.

Glass-Steagall should be re-instated, as originally written, no changes, and then there should be a criminal investigation into those behind its repeal.

Isn't at least one of the Prime Movers tying this all together that cash is all but untraceable and institutions (especially in the burgeoning surveillance society) prefer it otherwise?

Precisely. We're clearly heading slowly towards the eventual elimination of cash. Once we reach that theoretical point, all transactions will be under corporate/government surveillance. When that time comes, we will no doubt be spun the story of cash being used primarily for criminal activity. The covid 19 farce was the ideal accelerator for this. It allowed cashless payment systems to be enforced in many areas, because dirty money carries germs. Never mind that you could simply wash your hands.

But I doubt it will be so simple. You would likely see an increase in the use of cryptocurrency?

Uhhh, forgive me _blackhole_, but it occurs to me that..

1) Despite early concerns, Covid was later found to not be transmissible on surfaces, especially outside. We washed mailed packages, for example, but only for a short time until proven trivial.

2) Farce? - Given the numbers of deaths and long term disfunction are you really doubting Covid warranted emergency measures? In my view although there was some greed and withholding of information that was actually farcical, it seemed to me to be a fringe percentage, one that seems to exist in every major event. Hospitals and Doctors and Nurses "on the ground",. the bulk of those actually dealing with illness, were open and earnest.

You are forgiven.

More than 80% of US currency in circulation is 100-dollar bill, but people who spend cash mainly tend to use smaller bills. I think US needs to start printing $1000 bill again; there's been a lot of inflation since it was last printed and $100 is worth less than 10x it was back when it was. Especially now that personal checks are going out of favor.

Personally, I expect that bigger things, like “BRICS,” are going to start splashing very cold water “across the bow.”

”Trillions of ‘Dollars’” in ”national debt?” C’mon … “this ain’t nobody’s ‘debt.’” This is just you, magically “borrowing from” yourself, and just expecting the rest of the world to take it.

This is you playin’ Rumpelstiltskin. And your “gold” is smelly straw.

Is this a linux forum thread or a conspiracy flame competition? Apparently a flame thread, so I will try to win it.
Aliens! U.S. has been in contact with extra solar/ extra dimensional diplomats since Roswell incident. It was the aliens who gave us computer chips and herded down this technological trail of tears with the ultimate goal of enslaving us to an immortal AI of their design and controllable by them, because like the Gremlins in the movies or larry nivens three fingered gripping hand characters in literature; we are dangerously immature monsters that with opposable thumbs, and (just barely enough) intelligence to use them will unavoidably do horrible damage with technology. Enslaving us to benevolent dictator for (eternal) life is both the cheapest and least ethically distasteful way to address this issue effectively.
I am sincerely hoping this is the case, otherwise the the technology will inevitably be used to enslave us, but dictators will be human and incredibly evil.

Well, biker_rat, this is the General section, non-specific to Linux but then again all serious skeptics realize JFK Jr. crashed because he believed the Earth is a sphere curving away from his flight path. What is less known is that he was saved from a watery death by interstellar lizard people (the aquatic variety) who plan to transport him via an invisible UFO, sorry...UAP, to wrest back the 2024 Presidential election on Inaugural Day to MEGA (Make Earth Great Again). First order of Legislation - Destroy all fake vaccines and re-institute the waving of rubber chickens through burning pork rind smoke over sick people while chanting "The Wheels on the Bus" ;)