Ahhh yes. I worked in this field for about 18 months as a contractor, for a large software company in Redmond, Wa. And you are 100% right, the “corporations are people” attitude means Americans sacrifice privacy so companies can make $$$ off Ming your data. Our representatives are too old, or too enthralled with donations to understand or care.
States are trying to create their own privacy laws but as with other key legislation, it seems like once it’s too inconvenient to the Powers That Be, SCOTUS will conveniently determine they are unlawful, so Google and Meta and the others can keep selling your information.
Both those companies have been hit with huge fines by the GDPR managing body in Ireland. The result is they are generally more cautious in the EU.
I love going into the privacy settings for each site I visit in Europe and deselecting everything.
Excellent post! I recently was reminded to wish a friend and former colleague a “Happy Birthday” on Facebook. Sadly she left us in 2018, but every year I am provided this reminder. Gives a whole new meaning to “Rest in peace.”
The social media and tech companies in the U.S. have been all too willing to hand the government data that ends up putting people into law enforcement's cross hairs, like women seeking abortions from states where it's been criminalized. And some states, like Texas, started using data to compile lists of suspected trans people for unstated yet obvious reasons. All the more reason we are relieved to be far from that corporate police state, where state-sanctioned gang members can murder a young pregnant woman for suspected shoplifting in a Walmart parking lot and it's considered just another regular day in America now, where property is more valued than people.
Big Brother keeps watching you. Even with all the legal attempts to protect privacy, our smartphone cameras and microphones, all our digital footprints with bank cards and stuff we post everywhere makes us, users, look somewhat contradictory. Some people want to keep their privacy and they share information mindfully. Others do exactly like the Trevi Fountain example, they show what they do, what they eat, all in real time, the places they are at, etc. As a result, especially from the latter, corporations "feel free" to use all this information (since one is not forced to post it, one does it willingly), being "a bit annoyed" just by some folks that are... "picky". In China facial recognition, as a mild example, is now the next level: with "good/bad behaviour" one gets points or sanctions. To fake identities was so easy the last century and before that! Just check books and stories... AI is the next "menace"... Well, I have mixed feelings about all of this. This systematic learn as you go process at always the largest possible scale sometimes frightens me.
A couple of thoughts here. I love being able to deselect cookies here in the EU. And guess what their web sites work just fine. My main concern for data privacy is not for us idiots who post that we are wearing Tuesday's underware on Sunday but for children. Many EU countries have strict privacy laws protecting children. I have friends who have posted every single thing their children have done since birth. One even announcing that they were spending an afternoon with their adorable three year old at the Trevi Fountain in Rome. They posted it, in real time. on their insecure Facebook and Instagram accounts. How scary is that?
Great post! As a former IT person in higher ed in the US, I will say that GDPR posed a lot of problems for our systems - especially in higher ed with so many foreign students and employees, BUT, even my most cynical programmers, while complaining about how much extra work it was to differentiate, recognized how valuable it was and wondered why we didn't do anything like it in the US. Having universal privacy policies would have actually made their lives easier.
We moved in starting on July 29th...but due to lack of AC we didn't really move in until about 9 August. So we have been here a few weeks and are very happy!
The data doesn’t end with your posts and activity on Facebook. I was thinking about deleting my accounts until I realized it won’t matter. Last week during phone conversation with my sister we talked about how I wanted to be a pilot when I was a kid! 24 hours later I was getting pilot license schools ad in my instagram !
My first draft of this post contained a paragraph about “corporations are people”...great minds think a like.
Ahhh yes. I worked in this field for about 18 months as a contractor, for a large software company in Redmond, Wa. And you are 100% right, the “corporations are people” attitude means Americans sacrifice privacy so companies can make $$$ off Ming your data. Our representatives are too old, or too enthralled with donations to understand or care.
States are trying to create their own privacy laws but as with other key legislation, it seems like once it’s too inconvenient to the Powers That Be, SCOTUS will conveniently determine they are unlawful, so Google and Meta and the others can keep selling your information.
Both those companies have been hit with huge fines by the GDPR managing body in Ireland. The result is they are generally more cautious in the EU.
I love going into the privacy settings for each site I visit in Europe and deselecting everything.
Excellent post! I recently was reminded to wish a friend and former colleague a “Happy Birthday” on Facebook. Sadly she left us in 2018, but every year I am provided this reminder. Gives a whole new meaning to “Rest in peace.”
The social media and tech companies in the U.S. have been all too willing to hand the government data that ends up putting people into law enforcement's cross hairs, like women seeking abortions from states where it's been criminalized. And some states, like Texas, started using data to compile lists of suspected trans people for unstated yet obvious reasons. All the more reason we are relieved to be far from that corporate police state, where state-sanctioned gang members can murder a young pregnant woman for suspected shoplifting in a Walmart parking lot and it's considered just another regular day in America now, where property is more valued than people.
I always read that laws in EU are strict. Thanks for providing us with a good example, I was looking for this.
Big Brother keeps watching you. Even with all the legal attempts to protect privacy, our smartphone cameras and microphones, all our digital footprints with bank cards and stuff we post everywhere makes us, users, look somewhat contradictory. Some people want to keep their privacy and they share information mindfully. Others do exactly like the Trevi Fountain example, they show what they do, what they eat, all in real time, the places they are at, etc. As a result, especially from the latter, corporations "feel free" to use all this information (since one is not forced to post it, one does it willingly), being "a bit annoyed" just by some folks that are... "picky". In China facial recognition, as a mild example, is now the next level: with "good/bad behaviour" one gets points or sanctions. To fake identities was so easy the last century and before that! Just check books and stories... AI is the next "menace"... Well, I have mixed feelings about all of this. This systematic learn as you go process at always the largest possible scale sometimes frightens me.
100000% on point.
A couple of thoughts here. I love being able to deselect cookies here in the EU. And guess what their web sites work just fine. My main concern for data privacy is not for us idiots who post that we are wearing Tuesday's underware on Sunday but for children. Many EU countries have strict privacy laws protecting children. I have friends who have posted every single thing their children have done since birth. One even announcing that they were spending an afternoon with their adorable three year old at the Trevi Fountain in Rome. They posted it, in real time. on their insecure Facebook and Instagram accounts. How scary is that?
Great post! As a former IT person in higher ed in the US, I will say that GDPR posed a lot of problems for our systems - especially in higher ed with so many foreign students and employees, BUT, even my most cynical programmers, while complaining about how much extra work it was to differentiate, recognized how valuable it was and wondered why we didn't do anything like it in the US. Having universal privacy policies would have actually made their lives easier.
Is this your first post from the new house?
We moved in starting on July 29th...but due to lack of AC we didn't really move in until about 9 August. So we have been here a few weeks and are very happy!
Congrats!!!
Very good and informative post! Thank you.
The data doesn’t end with your posts and activity on Facebook. I was thinking about deleting my accounts until I realized it won’t matter. Last week during phone conversation with my sister we talked about how I wanted to be a pilot when I was a kid! 24 hours later I was getting pilot license schools ad in my instagram !
Yikes!