People wonder why I am a stickler for privacy and have been for a very long time. Shit like this is why. While my opsec is probably far from ideal, I at least try to maintain some level of it.
But shit like this is EXACTLY why privacy is such a critical thing that it is the bedrock of all other rights. Free speech is useless if you are under constant surveillance, especially by people with bad intentions. Unwarranted searches and seizures? Forget it, without privacy and companies wanting 24/7 live information on all sounds, images, and movements in your home? Yeah that shit is pointless. A single heated arguement, muttering something in your sleep, or anything, anything at all, is going to fuck you over.
I am going to give one example of what I mean. I knew a guy a long time ago who once told me that he stopped drinking alcohol for months. Yet when I visited the guy, the guy had beer in fridge and also had a habit of drinking a beer or even two at a bar before driving… at night. He wasn’t drunk and was within the acceptable BAC for driving, but just him making one statement online to me and me seeing another when visiting made me think: What if a random ass company had access to that information? Someone trying to pass themselves off as a teetotaller but actually drinking? Would they sell that information to insurance companies and his premiums would go up? What if the guy did say he drinks a little, but actually drank a lot more than that? And might fit the definition of a high functioning alcoholic? In some places being a diagnosed alcoholic can incur a lot of penalties. Like in Canada if a gun owner was also someone who HAD to have a few beers every day, but otherwise was OK, the addiction might be grounds for their firearms license to be revoked.
Going on that, what if any cop could randomly pull that information on drinking. Let us suppose someone likes to drink, but never drives after drinking, instead when they get home they crank open a few cold ones right away. There are new laws (or have been on the books for a while, I am not sure) that police can knock on your door up to 3 hours after you’ve been driving and give you a test to see if you have any alcohol in your system. So our guy who maybe downed 3 or 4 beers within the two hours of arriving home, that guy is going to show a decent BAC and the cop could charge him with DUI or a citation. An asshole cop could do this to fill a quota or just be an asshole to someone, and if they could get a hold of that information due to a company having full surveillence from multiple companies (credit card purchases, CCTV tracking, car telemetry tracking, etc, etc) all combined and made available to any ‘authority’ then live will be unbearable.
I could go on forever. But shit like this isn’t some DUI or marketing. This is a matter of life and fucking death for many people. Transpeople (and gays soon enough) will be in very real danger from this if they aren’t already. Remember that the average cop and ICE agent is dumb as rocks, but they system they work under isn’t. He is basically a caveman with access to tanks and drone strikes.
I have not heard of the knock on your door 3 hours after thing. It wouldn’t hold up in court because you can just say I had some drinks once I got home.
You need to prove it though. There is a kind of medical test you can take to prove that. I forgot the name of it.
That was for a drunk who’s in hospital and passed out or in surgery hours after, so they can ascertain drunk level at time of accident right?
Once you are home, they don’t know if you add a few sips to your intake over a few hours or downed a bunch of shots at the door. Its why they don’t want you leaving the scene because then you can claim you had drinks to calm your nerves
Very good points.
Unwarranted search and seizure is privacy. The only reason it hasn’t been interpreted broadly enough to protect your privacy is because the government doesn’t want to give you the rights you’re owed
Cool, technofascism at a scale the Nazis could never have dreamed of.
Meanwhile non US companies keep using US tech monopoly suppliers because what could possibly go fucking wrong?
Another W for the fediverse.
Think of all the collaborators they didn’t have to subpoena.
Privacy is a figment of our imagination, do not get me wrong I hide a lot of poop from advertisers so they know very little about me. I am open about stuff but there are things I do not want advertisers or governments to know about me.
I upped my privacy stuff when I started my journey with the boycott the US stuff. I moved my web host to Canada and got a package with unlimited email addresses, I have a little more than 180 different email addresses that are for different sign ins.
NOPE!
