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Ask HN: Should I care more about privacy

11 points by Loeffelmann ↗ HN
I read that a lot of people here take privacy online very seriously. I think of privacy as a trade-off between privacy and convenience. Sure I could install an ungoogled android and only download apks from a alternative AppStore or I could just use Google Play and avoid a lot of effort. The price is my privacy. I understand that but if it comes to it convenience always triumphs over privacy. I don't understand why I should care if some mutltibillion dollar company knows where I go and what I buy.

Is there something I am missing? As I understand it the battle for privacy is long lost because most people, like me, just don't care. It's tremendous effort to fight against it. Even if you do manage to stay "off the grid" what's the upsite?

3 comments

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lienhoangduy
I think it depends. Most of the Western ppl are extremely serious about privacy. In the other hand, ppl in Asia are not. We install what we like and often ignore the privacy & term section. In my opinion, you'd care about privacy when you install the app from somewhere else out of Google Play/ Appstore
simonhfrost
I like to think that when I advocate for privacy I'm not only doing it for myself, but also for others that are less privileged or tech savy.

You or me might know to not easily give up personal information, and how it can specifically be used to annoy you (spam), or even be used maliciously (ID fraud).

But others may have less of a choice, having to pay with their data instead of money, or just simply don't have time to get educated. And they have to rely on the protective systems in place.

billdietrich1
Why should you care ? Because maybe your data (with mistakes in it, too) will be used to make decisions about things you want (jobs, insurance), without you even knowing why you got denied. Because often that collected data gets exposed in a breach, and then scammers or thieves can use it for their purposes. Because letting your data get collected exposes the activities of your friends and family too, without their consent. Because if the safe majority of us allow the collecting to continue, the data of the threatened minorities also gets collected, and may be used against them in ways we don't like or expect.

The battle for privacy is not lost. It's not one battle; it's a long-running social policy issue, and it's an arms-race. We get new laws such as GDPR and USA's COPPA and California's CPPA. We get new technical tools, or changes such as Apple killing the advertiser ID in their phones.

Lots of your past data has been collected. But you're creating new private data every day: your location, activities, etc. Try to protect that data better. And you can reach back and try to obfuscate old data that's out there, by overwhelming it with new data. Or make it irrelevant, by changing phone number, email address, physical living location, etc. The fight is not over, or hopeless.

What's the upside ? Well, shouldn't it be your right to control your public image and your data ? If you freely choose to expose all your data, fine. But it should be YOUR choice. The upside is more control over your life. Less exposure to thieves and scammers. Less risk for people who are unpopular minorities.