You are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

0
2

[–] j_ 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago  (edited ago)

I think it’s less “not knowing” and more “not thinking”.

At some level anyone with a credit card knows the credit card company has all this data on you, your spending habits, your location (based on where your card is swiped), things you buy in secret online that even your spouse doesn’t know about, etc… but who even thinks of it consciously? And more importantly, even when you do think about it, who is concerned about it? Very few people. The average person is thinking: “The credit card company is a large, faceless entity. What would they do with the knowledge that I’m at Taco Bell at 3am and that I just bought 100 dildos on Amazon?”

I find it very hard for anyone to claim complete, innocent ignorance. Even say, my grandmother, who has no concept of servers or tracking or how anything electronic works beyond using electricity, chooses not to think about where her data goes. It’s not magic. If you put your name into a box on your computer you must fundamentally understand that it goes somewhere, to someone or something. Most people just choose not to think about it. That’s different from ignorance.

[–] [deleted] ago 

[Deleted]

0
1

[–] j_ 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

No, I don’t believe everyone (e.g. my grandmother) should necessarily understand privacy, data collection, cookies, IP addresses etc in the same way that I do. But I do believe that everyone (e.g. my grandmother) understands at a low level that their personal information has value and they trade it for something in return, be it a service, a product, a discount, a favour1. They can’t say with conviction “oh, I just gave Google my name, address, phone number, and I use Gmail for all my private correspondence. I’m sure Google does absolutely nothing with this information and provides free email for the world out of the goodness of their hearts.” That’s what I’m getting at when I say it’s not purely ignorance.

I also don’t think that consumers aren’t concerned. It’s quite clear more people are concerned every day. Privacy is a hot topic; video surveillance, data collection, online safety etc are in the news daily and not just in the US.

I think the more depressing truth is that we aren’t concerned enough. People say “stop collecting my data” but the next day they give up all their data for a membership card at the mall. They say “don’t list my phone number” but they have it on their public Facebook profile. They say “stop video surveillance” but they post their face and geolocation data to Instagram every 5 minutes. Even among the knowledgeable and tech-savvy, we are not concerned enough to demand real change, and I include myself in this criticism.


1With the possible exception of individuals who cannot understand social or economic value due to mental disorder.