As long as we stay as hooked to the internet as we are and put everything we do on it, there will not be any escaping the loss of privacy. Shoot, all we have to do is run down to the grocery and buy an apple, and some third party will end up knowing about it.
I don't care who in meatspace knows that [redacted] just bought an apple. Maybe [redacted] will get a better rate on life insurance. But I do care a lot if y'all, who know me as mirimir, know when I buy apples
Was that you?!! Ooops! So sorry!! I'm going to have to be more careful with poison-pellet umbrellas, I guess. Darn...
But many walk-in retailers are taking spying to a new level. Video cameras record your every move. Your face and car’s license plate are captured and filed in searchable databases. Hidden cameras classify you by age, sex, and ethnicity, and even detect your body language and mood. Even your bank account records are being pried into. The main goal of these surveillance methods, of course, is to get you to shop more and spend more. . . . Gaze trackers are hidden in tiny holes in the shelving and detect which brands you’re looking at and how long for each. There are even mannequins whose eyes are cameras that detect the age, sex, ethnicity, and facial expressions of passers-by. The video can be merged with a store’s other data, such as footage of you at the cash register plus the transaction details of what you bought, for how much, using what credit card. Your face and vehicle license plate can be linked. If that info is not securely stored, it could be hacked. . . . Your mobile phone is an excellent device for tracking your shopping route. So retailers and malls are beginning to monitor all visitors’ cell signals. . . . That phone ID lets stores know when you shop—not just today but also every day your ID signal comes back in range. . . . Cisco, the technology giant, is testing a system at an undisclosed store. It automatically detects your mobile device and connects you to the retailer’s free Wi-Fi network. “Once the customer gets on the network, he has opted in, and the privacy concerns are allayed,” says Sujai Hejela, general manager of Cisco’s wireless networking group. http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2013/03/how-stores-spy-on-you/index.htm Also see this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.html?pagewanted=all
Yes, there are a range of current and future technologies that get you, including mobiles, use of credit cards, ANPR, face reco & cctv, flight records, camera photo exif and GPS info... Another category is the indirect - friends and family who do use social media and who adopt careless security and privacy practices will certainly leak your information - contact info being an obvious target. The face recognition stuff in Picasa and FB tagging is intensely worrying. I have seriously thought - as a protest - of going around in public places wearing a sombrero, mirrored sunglasses and with an eye painted on my face. And there is the obvious controversy over Google Glass, including how to ensure the thing is not used in washrooms(!).
Meh, I think it's easier having privacy on the Internet than meatspace. Tor, VPN, DNSCrypt, Encryption, Shredding, RAMDisks, Virtual Machines, etc.
