Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
Don't promote proprietary software
Try to keep things on topic
If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
Be nice :)

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If you don't mind me asking what is so important about privacy? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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What harm does public data have to you? Couldn't one just ignore the ads? You can't see anyone watching you, is public data good for public records? (I'm just curious). I know this sounds weird but is public data good for historical preservation and knowledge increasing the importance of the individual? And does public data lead to better products?

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago

puts on tinfoil hat

You know how women (and some doctors) had problems in the US because the states were getting information on whether they had, were thinking of having, or were having conversations about having an abortion?

You know how there was a possibility (or maybe that really happened, I don't remember) that the state governments could be aquiring information from women's period tracking apps and acquiring their behavioral patterns to find out if they were planning on having an abortion?

Well, I'm not a woman, but I am disabled. After I got fired from my job because I couldn't perform anymore thanks to my disability, (there was no discrimination, I literally could not do my job because of my disability) I applied for disability payment.

I was rejected.

After that, I tried to look for other jobs, but for some strange reason, I couldn't find a job ANYWHERE in the US. They never called back after telling me they would do a background check on me. I applied for about 70+ companies, I got background checks on 20+.

That didn't happen before I applied for the disability payments, and as an immigrant that was below the poverty line I wasn't someone that could put up a fight... Against whom? The companies? The government? I didn't even know if the fact that I applied for the disability payments was the problem.

At the end, I was able to find a job in a call center working from home. But it took me 8 months for that.

takes off tinfoil hat

It's a double edged sword, youcan make better products and a better experience for some things, but some people/companies think of other people, especially minorities, disabled, and probably women, as liabilities, and they don't really want that.

This is why I rather have privacy, the ads are just annoying asf, but the things I said are just 2 examples of why privacy is important.

Hopefully I make sense, and sorry for any grammatical mistakes, English is not my first language.