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I sometimes think that no one cares about online privacy, which makes me really sad, then I read this from @pluralistic - good to know!
https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/07/revealed-preferences/#extinguish-v-improve

So maybe people DO care, but just feel like they can't do much about it?

#surveillancecapitalism #dataprivacy #datarape #tracking

Pluralistic: The Google antitrust remedy should extinguish surveillance, not democratize it (07 Aug 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

pluralistic.net
#tracking #surveillancecapitalism #dataprivacy #datarape @Cory Doctorow
This entry was edited (2 days ago)
in reply to Patrick Leavy

axby
axby
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I enjoyed this article, and I didn't know this and found it interesting:

> ... the advertising industry has been repeating since the days when it was waging a massive campaign against the TV remote on the grounds that people would "steal" TV by changing the channel when the ads came on.

I'm not very familiar with life before cable TV, but it seems especially offensive since cable TV is both paid and has a ton of ads. I hope this was at least before paid TV...

in reply to axby

Winchell Chung ⚛🚀
Winchell Chung ⚛🚀
• •

@axby
When I was a little boy, in the 1960s, an issue of MAD magazine showed how to splice an on-off switch on a long wire to the feed to your TV speaker. DIY ad mute button.

The article mentioned how smug you'll feel defeating a TV ad that took millions of dollars to make with a 15 cent switch.

@axby
in reply to Winchell Chung ⚛🚀

raganwald 🍓
raganwald 🍓
• •

@nyrath @axby
Can confirm! I made one of these for my mother’s TV using parts from an electronics surplus store. Mine used a variometer with an “off” setting, so we could (gasp!) adjust the volume or mute the TV.

The scene around phreaking/hacking had an Abbie Hoffman vibe in those days.

@Winchell Chung ⚛🚀 @axby

reshared this

in reply to Winchell Chung ⚛🚀

mtconleyuk
mtconleyuk
• •
@nyrath @axby My dad built his own Heathkit valve-based (vacuum tubes) TV and later hooked up a 'commercial killer' switch. My mother's sister complained during one visit that this was antithetical to the American way, and that we should be listening to the advertisements because they were paying for the shows. The brainwashing runs deep.
@Winchell Chung ⚛🚀 @axby
in reply to Patrick Leavy

Jonathan Lamothe
Jonathan Lamothe
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@Patrick Leavy @Cory Doctorow Wasn't Apple collecting that information themselves behind the scenes regardless of the setting?

Your point still stands though.

@Cory Doctorow @Patrick Leavy
in reply to Patrick Leavy

tova
tova
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from conversations I've had it's definitely a lot of feeling helpless that your privacy will be ignored regardless so might as well go along
in reply to tova

Patrick Leavy
Patrick Leavy
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@mouszi yeah that apathy is really depressing. Where is the outrage?

Dave Eggers' book The Every is looking painfully accurate 😬😒

@tova
in reply to Patrick Leavy

tova
tova
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the outrage came and went when it didn't change much. when you think of how many erosions of privacy there have been that were pushed through and became the new norm it tracks. there's also not many levers for the average person to pull to do anything
in reply to tova

Patrick Leavy
Patrick Leavy
• •

@mouszi you're right, #bigtech just rides it out, lobbies, and we begrudgingly accept a new norm. 😒

They are boiling the frog 🐸. What will it take to make us jump out of the pot?
Another Cambridge Analytica?

#BigTech @tova
in reply to Patrick Leavy

tova
tova
• •
I don't think Cambridge Analytica moved the needle for th average person tbh. seeing a legislator pass something with real impact that's not just another "what about the kids" bill that also errodes privacy would be a good start
in reply to tova

Patrick Leavy
Patrick Leavy
• •

@mouszi but it will need a scandal otherwise the 'security services + big tech' will block it.

Or it takes a few people at regulatory bodies with REAL integrity.

Cory Doctorow wrote a great essay about how the Irish have been shamefully protecting big tech. As an Irishman myself that was hard to read, but it was a wake up call:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/15/finnegans-snooze/#dirty-old-town

Pluralistic: Ireland’s privacy regulator is a gamekeeper-turned-poacher (15 May 2023) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

pluralistic.net
@tova
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