The Insanity of Data Mining and Tracking

I have been around desktop computers a long time. In the past few years a new paradigm affects all computer users.

Data mining, tracking, and surveillance.

Outside of novels and movies, I never thought I would see such a day.

I have read tales of fear about how data mining and tracking is important to fight terrorism. I doubt that. Politicians, bureaucrats, and self-appointed nannies long have found monsters under the bed. They always will.

Humans have engaged in spitting contests for thousands of years. I do not control such people or the outcomes.

My concern with data mining, tracking, and surveillance is the loss of privacy.

The loss of dignity.

An underlying presumption with advertisers, marketers, and web site owners is all visitors should be tracked. People in this data mining business treat all humans as commodities. As products. Treated as something rather than someone.

Human maggots believe they can post anything online simply because they obtained information from “public” records. That anything and everything knowable about a person should be posted online. Then they have the audacity to demand people pay to not display this information.

This conversation is about respect.

I have acted proactively to avoid some of these intrusions.

I have been tinkering with remote access into my home network — but that focus is mostly security 101. A secure way to access my own data files.

For general web surfing I do not use a commercial VPN or Tor. I have been thinking about those options.

I would prefer to fully encrypt email. Getting everybody else to participate is a Sisyphean venture. Non technical users will not deal with the overhead involved to encrypt mail end-to-end. Neither do I.

Encrypting email while sitting on servers is another option. That requires a paid provider. Mostly I am careful not to use email for highly personal or sensitive conversations. When engaged in job contracts I do not use company emails for personal correspondence.

I am somewhat at a loss how to fight this nonsense. More importantly, this is not the kind of world in which I want to participate and live. Despite the many advantages of the modern web, I have considered “going off grid” with respect to the Internet.

Posted: January 11, 2017 Category: Commentary, Usability Tagged: General

Next: The Internet Is Becoming a Cesspool

Previous: Schweddy Balls