#Data privacy

[astarless-sky]

And websites aren't the only issue. Data protection in healthcare is at risk and a company has already been hacked into. There are no protections for people affected; no ad blockers, no tracker protection. Just trust in the system, my man! In Feb of 2024, Change Healthcare was hacked into and thousands of Americans' personal data like illnesses they have, credit cards they used, surgeries they've had, bills unpaid or paid, social security #'s, your height, your weight, the color of your hair, etc.

All that was leaked.

And do you know what companies bought that leaked data?

Debt Collection servicers.

Patients and former patients former and present bills were leaked and sold to Debt Collection servicers who are now hounding people who don't know their rights and assume the hospital already sent their bills to collections.

Do you know what Change Healthcare, the storage facility for hundreds of hospitals and their patients' data across the southeast did in return for all this private information that was supposed to be highly protected?

They sent letters to everyone, letting them know of the leak... and that they'll cover data tracking for you for up to 2 years.

2 years.

Data Tracking

For 2 years.

That information they were supposed to protect will be around for YEARS in the wrong hands. And these patients can't even change their SS# without effecting their whole life poorly. They can't get away from the fear of their incredibly important information being out there and sold and purchased - this information was supposed to be protected under healthcare management laws.

So yeah, you also have to be fearful of where HOSPITALS ARE STORING YOUR INFORMATION. And you can't do anything about that!

So yes, I do everything in my power to protect myself with everything else. Because I am one of these patients that had their entire life data leaked then sold and while the company got to Fuck Around, I get to Find Out. I don't want the rest of my shit gone to the wolves. I already lost too much.

i hate seeing people now making fun of those who care about privacy online. i've seen people saying things like "well they already have your data. what are companies going to do with it" and it's like, that's not the point. it's that companies /shouldn't/ be able to have my data and sell it. am i aware they probably already have my data? yes, absolutely. but i'm still going to try and keep them from monetizing it any further, why are we defending companies selling data they shouldn't have to begin with though?

[catkora]

Stop letting companies sell your info. While this is by no means exhaustive, it's a good start and isn't difficult to do.

[zuko-always-lies]

From instructions on how to opt out, look at the official staff post on the topic. It also gives more information on Tumblr's new policies. If you are opting out, remember to opt out each separate blog individually.

Please reblog this post, so it will get more votes!

[ahb-writes]

(from The Mitchells vs. the Machines, 2021)

[maximumzombiecreator]

Infinitely funny whenever the media or government or some corporation tries to fearmonger to me about the Chinese government getting access to my private information.

Y'all have spent the last two decades drilling into me that I should have absolutely no expectation of privacy. No expectation of privacy from my own government, who are by far the entity most likely to use my information to really harm me. No expectation of privacy from advertisers who will do anything with that data, give it to anyone, if they think it will make them a few cents of profit. No expectation that anything I write, even in private documents that are never posted, won't be used to train machine learning models to let capital owners eliminate more workers and further consolidate their wealth and power. All that's just how it is and I have to accept it.

But apparently, unbeknownst to me, there is exactly one entity that does owe me an expectation of privacy, and it's not one that has any formal social or legal tie to me. Fascinating. I guess I have a lot to learn about privacy.

[osterby]

So there's a class action lawsuit against google for spying on users who had the "don't track me" toggle turned on.

If you are in the US, had google's tracking "paused", and used a mobile device with that account at any time since 2016, you count. That going to be nearly every American who has ever poked with the privacy settings.

Google sent my email about about this straight to the spam folder. I'm not going to say they did that on purpose, but no matter if it's malicious supression of information or a poorly tuned auto filter, it's, uh, lets say "funny".

So yeah, go check your spam folders, guys.

[hussyknee]

The US TikTok ban might finally wake people up to the danger of Cloud servers if the company shuts down its servers in the US. Since those servers probably also serve the rest of the North American region, can't now tell how much of the user base's data is in danger of being completely erased.

Please let this bring back the era of backing shit up onto physical media that you can physically own. I miss floppy discs at this fucking point. Being able to hold the device taking care of your data in your hands should never be taken for granted.

Back your shit the fuck up onto a hard drive.

[incognitopolls]

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[would-you-punt-them]

Websites that demand you give them extremely private information to "verify your age"

[opensuse-official]

I think it is very cool how tech companies, schools, employers, and universities make it actively difficult to distance yourself from Google, Microsoft, and Apple.

Yes most Linux distros are very stable, way more secure, privacy friendly, and way more customizable. But every institution is built to make technological independence as difficult as possible.

Yelling on the internet that everyone should switch to Linux and FOSS really ignores how much of the technological world is designed to not let that happen.

[amethystsoda]

Microsoft Word ai scraping and how to turn off

[internetxanarchy]

Christmas Data Strike 2024

Instagram is literally suppressing every video I made on reels about this so I’m turning to tumblr. On the 24th and 25th, we are striking on Meta services (Instagram, Facebook) as well as X/Twitter and Tiktok. Streaming services, google, and any amazon services should be boycotted as well if possible.

DO ✅

Engage with activities that are offline

Spend as little time online as possible

Tell your friends and family that you’re going dark and then put your phone in airplane mode!!

DO NOT ❌

Use any of these socials period. Do not give them your screen time

Use google to search for anything - use an alternative search engine

Buy anything online

Stream television or music - download your shows and watch offline if necessary

Why?

These corporations, especially during christmas, use our data to train their models for next year. They want to know what gifts we got and what we’re doing with them. By depriving these companies of our data, we are saying that we want to maintain the right to our data and privacy! Here’s a tiktok video that explains in more detail.

PLEASE reblog for more reach!!! Tumblr is the only platform I can think of that won’t suppress this strike.

[canadiancryptid]

Hey so just saw this on Twitter and figured there are some people who would like to know @infinitytraincrew is apparently getting deleted tonight so if you wanna archive it do it now

[allthecanadianpolitics]

The Supreme Court of Canada made a key privacy ruling Friday that means police must now first have a warrant or court order to obtain the numbers making up a person or organization's IP address.

The top court was asked to consider whether an IP address alone, without any of the personal information attached to it, was protected by an expectation of privacy under the Charter.

In a five-four split decision, the court said a reasonable expectation of privacy is attached to the numbers making up a person's IP address, and just getting those numbers alone constitutes a search.

Full article

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[bookshop]

reminder not to do what i almost did just now and tell tumblr what your high school mascot is/was just because someone made a fun poll about it, because that's a SECURITY QUESTION ON A BUNCH OF YOUR PASSWORD-PROTECTED PLATFORMS

[whereserpentswalk]