#2 - Speaking with Sincerity

Losing my privacy

  1. Intro
    1. The Corporate Stalker Imagined
      1. You enter the grocery store and a non-descript man falls in step behind you
      2. Following a few feet behind you, he makes a note of every item you place in your cart
      3. At the checkout line, he notes the amount spent
      4. As you leave he gives the form to the store manager
    2. The Real Electronic Corporate Stalker
      1. When I use my shopper's card they log my purchases, bill, and identity
      2. Grocery stores are not the only ones collecting info
      3. ISP can track the web sites you visit
      4. Email is stored and archived at the sending and receiving computers
      5. Credit Card companies have your shopping history
    3. Benefits
      1. Local stores send me coupons
      2. Credit card gives me cash back
    4. Why I care
      1. None of their business
        1. When I talk to a friend I expect no one is eavesdropping, for the simple reason that this is my affair, and no one else's
        2. It is my information, and I desire the power to limit who has access to it.
      2. Information can be used against me
        1. ISP logs used to find Melissa virus creator
        2. DEA subpoenaed shopper's card database in AZ
        3. Currently law enforcement can access this info
        4. No reason why databases can't be used in civil cases
        5. Unconfirmed story
          1. Man slipped on yogurt, suing store
          2. Man claims store lawyers threatened to access database and examine alcohol buying habits for trial
          3. Store denies it
          4. You decide whether lawyers would use info like that
        6. With all the information on each person, it brings closer to reality what Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, AG for F. Roosevelt: "...it is a question of pking the man and then searching the law books, or putting investigators to work, to pin some offense on him."
      3. Coming soon
        1. Corporate use of biometrics – corporate collection of fingerprints, retina scans
        2. Cash Cards – could allow tracking of every purchase
      4. Dark Future
        1. Indoctrinated to accept corporate data collection as social norm
        2. Easy to envision path to national ID where every purchase is logged, every movement is tracked
        3. When you are aware that you being tracked, you guard your actions
        4. This clearly threatens our ability to exercise our individual freedoms
        5. Fantasy? Currently. But let us tread carefully, lest we create it.
    5. Taking action with simple methods
      1. Protect Email via Encryption
      2. Web surfing
        1. Take care in what info you give out in registrations
        2. Use anonymizers or cookie-busters to limit information tracking
        3. Doing sensitive research - do it offline
      3. Shopping
        1. Pay in cash
        2. Don't give phone # for marketing
        3. Shoppers Card
          1. Tops will not issue card without personal info
          2. Minimize info
          3. Falsify info
    6. Conclusion
      1. We need to be aware that companies are gathering massive amounts of personal information.
      2. Motivated you to pay attention to what is gathered
      3. Given you tools to have better control over your information