Ask Lemmy

1. "There are monsters." Not just the services themselves, but real sick people who want nothing more than to hurt others; whether for financial gain or purely for pleasure makes no difference to how it affects you.

2. Services owning your data isn't the endgame. It doesn't get locked in an inaccessible vault as much as they want to make it seem that way. Ownership is just the beginning.

2a. Here's a list of websites who have had users' data hacked.

2b. Sometimes companies get bought out, or go under, or just need a little extra cash on the side. And that's when the users' data turns into a financial asset that gets sold to the highest bidder. And usually that bidder is just a data broker who sells it to other companies for advertising or for more brokering... And on it goes down the chain until it's either being sold by people who aren't vetting their customers and are selling it for very cheap; or one of the many links in the chain gets hacked. Either way it all gets back to point 1.

3. Yes, services are highly likely to report users. There's no requirement, legally, unless it pertains to a specific investigation, but tech companies in the US famously love to comply with law enforcement and the NSA and the DOD and DHS and really any other agency that asks. Many other governments love to be as nosey about what their citizens do online

4. It's not just about what's illegal, it's also about what could be made illegal. If that sounds paranoid, try asking women in states that have made abortion a felony why the won't use period tracking apps. Or ask trans people in Texas why they won't share personally identifying information online. Hell, a month ago "Deny, Defend, Depose" was little more than a nonsense phrase, now it's enough to get you thrown in jail for threats to commit terrorism; what posts are you willing to have taken out of context and combed for phrases the next domestic terrorist used in their manifesto?

I guess that's my biggest issue: what you don't know can harm you, so why is the default action to lay back and let the rest of the internet do whatever they want with your personal information? Why is the question "why should I care what they do" and not "why do they want it so badly"?

Because there are malicious actors who can use specific personal information to identify you and potentially dox you. Identity theft and targeted scams are another thing. This is the reason I won't say my age or location or post photos of myself.

Post your SSN/SIN, Full name and address and birthday parents full names and addresses and your bank account numbers and any other personal Information you can think of and come back here in a month to see how privacy matters.

(Dont actually do this )

Read up about data brokers. The information companies mine and sell about everyone for profit is pretty gross. Privacy should be a human right.

I think this belongs on NoStupidQuestions.

Check out JoseMonkey's recent TED talk about internet privacy and how easy it is for someone to find you on the Internet based even on a short video or an image. If it is that easy to find out where someone lives based on a picture and he mentions a lot of other clues people use to connect accounts from different social media, imagine what others can do.

Now multiply the amount of accounts you have on various social media, the amount that you post on there, the amount of friends and friends of friends sharing, tagging or reposting your content and possibly your information and then compare it to the vast amount of people in the world who use the internet. Now consider the amount of scammers, spammers and other bad actors plus anyone who you did not intentionally upset but just makes it a hobby of exploiting these things and using or distributing that info. That doesn't really include sites with public record lookups. They might not steal your identity, but if they have your info they can give/sell it to someone who potentially will.

Online content is a different story. There is always the possibility, but there is no guarantee that they won't report streaming pirated content unless you take measures such as a VPN. Even then, there still lies minimal risk.

Also, being inconspicuous is comfortable, IMO.

You're free to give away your freedom. Let corporations and algorithms decide what kind of content you'll see and shape the filter bubble you live in. You can watch advertisements all day and let them nudge you to do what they like. Collect information about you so they can control you. I don't.

And there is a necessity. How would you do online banking without encryption? Talk about sensitive matters? Help someone in a delicate situation? Ask for help? Maintain services and userdata? Keep track of the members in your sports club and talk to their parents? Discuss politics without inevitably getting doxxed? Be a Youtube creator without getting doxxed and unwelcome visitors?

My human,

Why should those through whom we speak or communicate also the managers and enforcers of said speech?

As we’ve seen with Reddit and others, your content and history are already cataloged. Are you sure the thing you say today won’t be used against you tomorrow?

There are already mechanisms to deal with illegal activity online.

Privacy to live one’s life and express one’s opinions without fear of retaliation, reprisal, or identification is one of, if not the most important things we have as individual citizens. Do not ever, ever, ever give it up without a fight.

If nothing else, because corporations use it incredibly effectively to tailor behavior manipulation to you personally.

it's not about what they are doing, although many do really shady or outright illegal stuff, but what they could do if they wanted.