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.

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Reminder: The DMV uses photos for facial recognition (lemmy.ml)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

60 comments fedilink hide all child comments

This is half a decade old news, but I only found this out myself after it accidentally came up in conversation at the DMV. The worker would not have informed me if it hadn't come into conversation. Every DMV photo in the United States is being used for AI facial recognition, and nobody has talked about it for years. This is especially concerning given that citizens are recently being required to update their ID to a "Real ID," which means more people than ever before are giving away the rights to their own face.

The biggest problem with privacy issues is that people talk about it for a while, but more often than not nothing ever happens to fix the problem, it simply gets forgotten. For example, in the next few years Copilot will simply become a part of people's lives, and people will slowly stop talking about the privacy implications. What can we even do to fight the privacy practices of giants?

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Donate to eff, aclu, and other privacy organizations.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I mean it's not nothing but it's close

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It's better than not doing anything.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I'm not sure it is. Feels like a waste of money. People don't care. Politicians don't care. In fact they greatly benefit from the erosion of privacy.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

ACLU has done a lot of good. For instance, their lawyers have fought to not give up Signal users' information in court cases.

https://signal.org/bigbrother/

[–] [email protected] -2 points 5 months ago

ACLU has done a lot of good

I don't doubt it, but at the end of the day it's a drop in the bucket vs. the wide variety of increasingly exploitative platforms that people continue to use.

The government doesn't even need surveillance, they just demand it from corporations with data that users knowingly and willingly volunteer to them, to the extent that you can't even participate in society without subjecting yourself to those same invasive and exploitative platforms.

their lawyers have fought to not give up Signal users' information

What information? How can they give information they don't have?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

They're literally lobbiests and have a track record of forcing the government to make great changes for the people

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

They're literally lobbiests

Huh?

have a track record of forcing the government to make great changes

And yet here we are...constantly sliding downhill, regardless...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The EFF and ACLU employ a number of people, and some of those people exist to lobby the government to not make dumb laws.

Politicians don't understand technology, so they need lobbiests to explain to them how legislation could be bad for people from a technical perspective

When you fund the EFF, you get lobbiests on your behalf going to legislators to fix broken legislation. And lobbyists going to legislators to write good legislation to protect our rights.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I'm very aware of all of this, and none of it contradicts my statement.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I was answering your question: Huh?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Please tell me something I don't already know.