I have found this article today in the MIT Reader, a newsletter I subscribe to, but it is not necessary to subscribe to read this. So I am posting this comment to learn what others here make of the article and what they themselves do to preserve, as much as possible, their own privacy.
https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-fantasy-of-opting-out/
It begins of a description of how an hypothetical person is, in these times, tracked in many different ways through a normal day by a variety of means including, of course, what she does online, but also many different gadgets that she would use to get access to different things she may need or like to use. And, particularly in large cities, the widespread surveillance of where she is and what she is doing there by security cameras and the possible use of AI-type technology of face recognition, as well as by the use of her signal to locate and record where she uses her cellphone, etc. All of it accepted by her (if she is even aware of it), as by most of us, as necessary, for example for the deterrence of and protection from crime.
Then the article continues with a discussion of whether there are practical ways to escape, at least to a substantial extent, from this endless surveillance, whether meant to help or protect people, or carried out with malevolent intent. And what this means for the preservation of freedom of expression and, therefore, of democracy.
Excerpts:
“For all the dramatic language about prisons and panopticons, the sorts of data collection we describe here are, in democratic countries, still theoretically voluntary. But the costs of refusal are high and getting higher: A life lived in social isolation means living far from centers of business and commerce, without access to many forms of credit, insurance, or other significant financial instruments, not to mention the minor inconveniences and disadvantages — long waits at road toll cash lines, higher prices at grocery stores, inferior seating on airline flights.”
“We can apply obfuscation in our own lives by using practices and technologies that make use of it, including:
The secure browser Tor, which (among other anti-surveillance technologies) muddles our Internet activity with that of other Tor users, concealing our trail in that of many others.
The browser plugins TrackMeNot and AdNauseam, which explore obfuscation techniques by issuing many fake search requests and loading and clicking every ad, respectively.
The browser extension Go Rando, which randomly chooses your emotional “reactions” on Facebook, interfering with their emotional profiling and analysis.
Playful experiments like Adam Harvey’s “HyperFace” project, finding patterns on textiles that fool facial recognition systems – not by hiding your face, but by creating the illusion of many faces.”
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV
Add a baseball cap and thick-rimmed glasses to further limit Big Brother’s ability to tell who’s popping into the screen.
