It only takes a company messing up exactly once, and the damage is catastrophic.
Everyone gets their social security number leaked...identity thieves have a field day.
Everyone gets their medical history leaked...insurance companies suddenly find another edge against the consumers.
Everyone gets their texts leaked...scammers now have blackmail against anyone who ever got spicy with their significant other.
Huge companies have been exploited before, and they will do so again and again. The only long-term winning strategy is to not let them have your data in the first place.
Nearly all SSNs have leaked by this point. The US needs a cryptography based ID system. That way each identification event is distinct, and each company gets a different (irreversible) derived ID for a person.
On that larger point I'd agree that companies should not have PII data they don't need.
This reeks of an answer given by someone who simply hasn't been impacted by an of this yet - I'm sure for those who HAVE been impacted the world didn't simply "go on" it caused real stress, problems, issues for them.
That’s the precious bodily fluids paranoia I’m talking about.
Nobody is coming for anyone. [Again doesn’t apply to spies and dissidents]
Systems can fail and that can mean ruined lives. However, that’s only part of the equation. There were actually anti-automobile societies in the US and Europe who opposed cars for safety reasons.
If there's an edge, people will use it. Car manufacturers share data with insurance companies[1], which can impact drivers' insurance rates or lead to coverage denial.
Do you believe the same thing will never happen in healthcare?
Do you believe that sophisticated criminals won't engage in large-scale fraud attempts? In 2021, about 23.9 million people (9% of U.S. residents age 16 or older) had been victims of identity theft during the prior 12 months.[2]
You haven't been hurt by this sort of thing, which is great for you. But millions of other people aren't so lucky.
May I inquire about your private details, tiahura? Perhaps you're posting from a private beach (oh la la), or is it just a place you'd like to snorkel? Come come, spill! Give us all the linkedin/spokeo/lexisnexis tea. Let us live vivaciously through you.
Life must be good feeling unburdened by the reality of data brokers buying/selling your data! How free you must be!
The snorkeling there is terrible. Never seen a fish or any coral.
Just trying to make the point that the doomsday privacy predictions haven’t materialized, while everyday google and Ms and apple repel millions of hacking attempts - many of which would succeed against individuals trying to secure it themselves.
Not to mention the increased productivity and utility these services provide.
The doomsday already happened, it just wasn't televised. We live in a world where our TVs spy on us, our cars tattle on us to our insurance overlords, and our internet has more ads than a cyberpunk city skyline. All of our data has been breached, it's just a roll of the dice if our identity gets stolen and the all-important 'credit score' gets tanked into oblivion.
But that does not mean I should abandon my desire for privacy, tomorrow is a brand new day.
