Today I was contacted by someone at work. She graduated school with me and our 20 year reunion was coming up. Why did she contact me at work? It was the only way they were able to track me down. I was included in promotional material by name. She told me I "was the hardest to track down"and I had to smile.

This is just a small anecdote about privacy practices and their real life impact (and how your employer can undo all of it, I guess)

  • InfiniteGlitch@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    Call me pessimistic, but I do think:

    • Privacy is an illusion.
    • Control is an illusion (a reference to Mr. Robot).

    Certainly, we can do a lot to have more privacy, but it is an illusion to think that we have complete control over it. Especially with social media, jobs, and today’s technology.

      • illah@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’ve come to realize most of the privacy hawk arguments are based on imagined risks, and the average privacy enthusiast is an ideologically driven idealist. What is the end goal beyond pumping one’s ego?

        Especially internet privacy hawks are the worst. It just doesn’t really matter at all. Unless you are all cash, off the grid, no phone or bank account etc, you will leave a huge trail. Instagram figuring out I like basketball is the least of my worries.

  • Th4tGuyII@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    In terms of online presence I think one has to be careful about becoming too private - at what point do you become so untrackable that even people you would like to find you (I.e. old friends) can’t anymore.

    • starman@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      I have a website that shows up when someone searches my name on the internet and an email there. This way people are able to contact me and I don’t have to use any spyware like Facebook.

      But whether that works for you depends on your threat model, I guess.

        • starman@programming.dev
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          1 year ago

          Is it just a bare bones website

          No, it’s more work-oriented/portfolio type of site and it’s hosted on Cloudflare Pages under my domain.

          But in this case, bare bones website would be sufficient