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Privacy vs Convenience


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Privacy vs Convenience
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turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2019-08-15, 13:33

So this is a pretty broad topic but it has come up in my home and now I'm in a quandary. I use OpenDNS to filter and protect my home network. I have categories like porn and malware filtered at the DNS level so I don't have to worry as much about my kids (or me) seeing stuff I don't need to see or having to clean up computers that got infected.

I also use a Pi-Hole for DNS filtering in my home. They have an option to use CloudFlare's DNS-Over-HTTPS which would mean privacy and no logging of my DNS requests.

While I love the privacy fact (now that OpenDNS is a Cisco product), I also love the category filtering provided by OpenDNS.

So now my wife and I are discussing the problem we face every day with the apps we use. Do I want privacy or convenience? There really isn't a way to have both. Think of the weather app you are using and what it's feeding to every data mining service out there. There is a reason the app is free to use, you are the product.

This really sucks as a consumer because I want to have my DNS private and filtered. Sure Pi-Hole can do a lot of filtering, but it can't do categories, just specific blacklists. There are way to many domains out there to be constantly trying to play wack-a-mole with in my own DNS server. However, I don't want my home's internet usage being fed to the corporate system and sold to the highest bidder.

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
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kscherer
Which way is up?
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Boyzeee
 
2019-08-15, 13:58

Quote:
Originally Posted by turtle View Post
Think of the weather app you are using and what it's feeding to every data mining service out there. There is a reason the app is free to use, you are the product.
Is it the The Weather Channel app, or Apple's Weather app? Yes, Apple's app uses Weather Channel data, but are they letting the weather channel collect data?
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turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2019-08-15, 14:02

Well, according to the article Apple's Weather App does use Weather.com's data but seems to be good with the consumer's:
Quote:
Use Google’s built-in weather information on Android, and use the built-in Weather app on iOS (which uses data from the Weather Channel anyway.) Google uses your location in a variety of ways as well, but if you’re on Android, well, there’s not much you can do to prevent the company from having it. Apple’s first party apps, meanwhile, have shown themselves to be generally trustworthy with private data thus far (though Apple is complicit in an economic model that has allowed “free” apps that surreptitiously sell your data to flourish on the App Store.)
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torifile
Less than Stellar Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Durham, NC
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2019-08-20, 21:44

The weather stuff may be resolved to your satisfaction going through Apple but the question is a really good one. I've settled on convenience. In many ways, I don't care that much that companies try to sell me hoodies by Lachlan in my facebook feed because my son watches his videos on Youtube. It's poor targeting and I'm not all that susceptible to marketing anyway.

I have all my computers with Adblockers so my kids won't be advertised to even if they have built profiles of us in other ways. The web is a life-changing technology and the economics of it mean that our data funds it. There's really nothing else to be done about it, at least right now.

I know my life would be immeasurably worse without the internet so it's a cost I'm willing to bear.

If it's not red and showing substantial musculature, you're wearing it wrong.
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Ebby
Subdued and Medicated
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Over Yander
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2019-08-21, 19:00

Quote:
Originally Posted by torifile View Post
I'm not all that susceptible to marketing anyway.
Me too, which is another datapoint for these trackers and why my SO now gets my ads around my birthday. I'm being marketed to behind my back.
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turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2019-08-23, 08:59

I get trying to minimize your footprint and not being susceptible and all...but privacy.

There was a day when credit cards were considered the greatest evil because every transaction was recorded and cash was the cryptocurrency of that era. Now we use our credit/debit cards for almost everything.

I also don't really buy in that we can't have the internet and privacy. I mean, there are ways that it can be done but right now most of those are things many aren't willing to do. Heck, I considered running a Tor exit node at my house but don't really want to end up with law enforcement at my house because something someone else did.

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
  quote
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