During the past few years I was avoiding the increasing number of products or services that required biometric verification, specially face recognition (FR). But the things are getting harder are harder in my country:
- The largest e-commerce platform in latin america and the most used in my country requires FR to use it. It was possible to use cash if you buy from its website but since a couple of weeks it's requesting me to identify using it's app.
- The telecoms demands FR from now on if you want a new SIM card in case you lost your phone or it's been stolen.
- The bank is now pressing me to use their app with FR as a 2fa when using homebanking from its website, something that wasn't necessary up to some weeks ago.
- The government is in the same direction as it's moving to digitalizing many burocratic procedures and also requires FR.
and the list is increasing quickly.
I've never used any private social networks and I've degoogled many years ago, the only non free software that I use is Whatsapp because in some countries in latin america is almost imposible not to use it, you need it even to call to the car towing service.
Anybody that is well informed knows the dangers of allowing such an amount of private information now tied to our face be available for hackers now equiped with AI, but frankly it seems a lost cause to fight against something that 99.9% of people dont worry about and give consent to do so to corporations (that sell all your data to whoever wants it) and governments (who use it as a tool of control).
I don't know, may be I'm also worring to much and it's not that serious, after all if tens of millions of people do the same the chances of being targeted by hackers is not different of being robbed in the street (at least in latin america) and with the obiquitous surveillance cameras plus the almost unavoidable need of a phone, the government probably know exactly where you are and how you look, so the information may be already available. Perhaps it's time to give up and adapt to the world we now live in.
I think its best for us to be thinking both
- how to live in this world of eroded privacy. Privacy has always been a mixed bag, right from when your neighbour might peek in your cave and tell your aunt what he saw on the wall; part of life is learning how to live best in society as it is. "Give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change." And,
- how to work to improve things. "And the courage to change the things I can." Spreading privacy ideas on Lemmy is one part, as is choosing to use private and ethical options, but so is bringing society-benefiting ideals to your workplace, doing advocacy, supporting and developing software for privacy, and so on.
Well, that's my vacuous philosophical thought for the week. I hope you enjoyed it, and find some wisdom of practical substance somewhere else ;-)
Keep doing your thing, it will reduce the probability of being owned. Maybe you can't avoid to give your data to the government, but you can change to a bank that doesn't require it. You certainly can buy things without giving up your biometric data. You can absolutely ditch social networks that want to have it. Of course, if you have a store and want to sell in this specific marketplace, then you can't avoid anything of this, except maybe the bank, but you still should try a different bank if there is an option.
It's not pointless to deny your data to, say, Elon Musk or Google, if you already gave it to get your passport.
7 day trial period 9.99. Required for all Texas DHS/DMV online services. Vagscan luxe premium 11.98 - 7day trial with required 1.99 menstrual addon tracker.
This is the future the party of small government want.
with alerts to cart you away if they detect you have trans balls 😔
We need to continue efforts, if we do nothing it's sure that we will go into the wall of Big Brother. Try to give the least infos, it will be hard with the govs but try for the more you can! Keep strong 💪 and have a good (degoogled) day!
Would moving to a european country be within your considerations? Europe have stronger privacy laws and as a latin american (assumed) you have an easier entry through spain which offers some facilitated job market access. But I do concede that depending on how much you value your privacy, this may be an option out of question?
