Is privacy a thing?

There are 11 replies in this Thread which has previously been viewed 2,166 times. The latest Post (July 29, 2026 at 9:20 AM) was by Splinter.

1st Official Post
    • Official Post

    Last year, in Europe came into effect the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) .

    Quote

    'a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy for all individuals citizens of the European Union and the European Economic Area. It also addresses the export of personal data outside the EU and EEA areas.'

    You may have noticed that when visiting website from Europe, they have popups where you have to consent to the collection of cookies, and that if you ever provided your details to a EU-based company, they have emailed you in March 2018 to inform you that the new GDPR had come into effect and they were asked to contact their customers to let them know about it and how they collect and store your data. This new regulation came into effect years after being approved, but it generated a little turmoil when it was due to come into effect as it was not clear what it would have implied, in layman terms.

    Some companies wrote emails asking you to confirm if you wanted them to keep your data, others used the opposite approach (they would keep your data unless you expressly asked them to delete them).

    While it made things more complicated for small business owners and freelancers, it was about time that the issue was addressed.

    Argentina is not Europe and seems to be completely unaware of data privacy.

    You go to the supermarket, swipe your fidelity card and your name pops up on the screen 'Welcome, Serafina!', you are sitting in the hospital's waiting room and your name and surname pop up, informing you what room you should head to. Have you ever walked next to a trash bin and found medical papers, perfectly legible, or somebody's X-rays?

    ---

    I had announced on this forum that I didn't have many good intentions for 2019, but get rid of supermarkets' newsletters. Believe it or not, I have been unsubscribing from Jumbo and Disco several times per week since January 2019, to no avail. Every time I get one of their emails, I click on 'Desuscribirse' at the bottom, the browsers open to a webpage where I am asked to confirm it. I click Yes, the operation is successful. 24 hours laters, I get another newsletter like nothing had happened.

    Disco & Jumbo newsletters are like Jeovah's witnesses - they always come in pair. The have the same offers, the same discounts, the same font size, just different colors (red and white for Disco, black and green for Jumbo). I am feeling frustrated for the time spent 'unsubscribing' and I should write or call and waste yet more time.

    I have also noticed that translators posting on Instagram about their work day have no issue in posting the front page of a sentence where the names of the Plaintiff and the Defendant are perfectly legible. They think people will look at their Starbucks mug in the the picture, instead. :/

    I don't like when I go to a training course and there are people taking pictures and posting them on the internet. Why should I let people know I was there? I am okay if there is one group picture at the end, where you can step aside if you don't want to be included. But when you are sitting in your chair and a photographer starts taking picture of the whole audience, it is annoying. Is that a public forum? In my opinion, it is not. I had to register, pass security, go up to the 7th floor, and enter a room. It doesn't look public at all, to me. :cursing:

    This is yet another thing that makes me feel lightyears away from modernity. ?(

    • Official Post

    Now that you mention this, a few days ago I walked into a shop selling incense sticks, meditation stones etc.

    I paid about 300 pesos with my debit card. The lady used the TodoPago or MercadoPago plug-in device, the one you pull into your mobile phone. She swiped my card, processed my payment and then proceeded to write my card number on her notebook, together with my name, the amount, the date.

    This was an informal notebook for her reference. For all I know, she could have memorized and written down my CCV the minute I stepped out her store.

    In this specific case, she seemed poorly versed on the technology side, so I am not concerned about her using those data. However, should somebody steal her notebook, they are in for a treat.

    Of course, there is NO WAY you could make those people understand the risks and why it is not okay to do so. Had I said something, I guess her reaction would have been 'then pay cash and f.o.!'

    You really have opened a complex topic, serafina. Privacy really IS a thing, and our awareness and attitudes have dramatically changed in the past 20-25 years, since we learned that anything making its way onto the internet is there forever.

    Before that, identity theft essentially didn’t exist, so social security numbers, birth date etc were treated very casually, even appearing together on some drivers’ licenses. Imagine!

    I personally waged a 10+ year battle to beg friends to use bcc on email msgs going to disparate parties who don’t know each other. Even now, I occasionally receive a msg with dozens of e-addys exposed. What’s so hard about protecting your own friends from spam and viruses?

    I am still using Chrome because it is the supported browser for several platform I am using for my job/studies. It is extremely demanding in terms of RAM, and I am not entirely sure what he knows about me (probably, way too much I'd be comfortable to share if I knew!).

    Quote from Rice

    I wonder why Jim says he "would never use Chrome? Do any of you use Brave as your default browser?

    I use chrome only for my email and other google sites like Google Docs, except not YouTube. To isolate those tasks. I will not click on a link in email, since I only copy the link and paste it into Firefox. I use Firefox for my everyday browsing. The majority of my browsing is sites that are my daily routine. Trusted sites.

    Anything that is new and unknown, or known to be third-rate, I’ll try some other browser like DuckDuckGo, Vivaldi, or whatever. Cache and cookies cleared daily. I do not use Brave.

    Quote from aficionado

    I use chrome only for my email and other google sites like Google Docs, except not YouTube. To isolate those tasks. I will not click on a link in email, since I only copy the link and paste it into Firefox. I use Firefox for my everyday browsing. The majority of my browsing is sites that are my daily routine. Trusted sites.

    Anything that is new and unknown, or known to be third-rate, I’ll try some other browser like DuckDuckGo, Vivaldi, or whatever. Cache and cookies cleared daily. I do not use Brave.

    aficionado Any particular reason why you don't use Bravo?

    Now that I am abroad, I can’t access some websites from Argentina with Chrome, but I can with Brave. Namely, ICBC online banking and firmar.gob.ar to digitally sign files using my Argentine digital signature.

    The ICBC app doesn’t work from my mobile, either. However, I can use the ICBC OTP generator app.

    At this stage, I am just using whatever browser works for the purpose. However, I do wonder if Brave has too weak security since it allows me to access websites that Chrome doesn’t from abroad.

    Quote from GlasgowJohn

    Any particular reason why you don't use Bravo?

    No particular reason. I have been using Mozilla Firefox as my primary browser since they created it in early 2000s, from the Netscape ashes. I continue to believe in Mozilla’s mission, organization structure, and efforts to support developers including documentation, tools, and the developer version of their browser.

    Later when I moved from hosted email with email desktop programs towards browser based email, I still wanted to keep email isolated, so I picked Chrome. Google and Chrome also have a strong dedication to assist software developers, with even more tools than Mozilla.

    Finally for my random untrusted browsing I have no allegiance. I try different browser to test features I read about, but have never found a reason to switch to become my primary or secondary browser.

    Brave is nothing like Mozilla or Google. It is a company that generates revenue through its own advertising network, monetizing user attention through shifting advertising strategies. It has no real community or breadth of development tools of the others. Even if they have some, I did not know until just now which required a search.