Privacy died last century, the only way to go is off-grid
- Reference: 1743423310
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/03/31/privacy_dead_opinion/
- Source link:
What do I mean by that? Well, take, for example, that recently, [1]Amazon announced a significant change in its Alexa device privacy policy . Starting March 28, 2025, Amazon will remove the option to process Alexa voice requests locally on specific Echo devices. Instead, all voice recordings will be sent to the cloud for processing, a move intended to support Amazon's new generative AI features in Alexa Plus.
I'd find that very scary, except, well, you see, I already reported that security flaws in Amazon Fire 7 Kids tablets could potentially be exploited [2]to snoop on every last Amazon device in your home . With security like this, were Amazon gadgets ever trustworthy?
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But then, what is?
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For instance, there was the [6]National Public Data (NPD) breach in 2024 . This catastrophic incident exposed the sensitive personal information of nearly 2.9 billion US, Canadian, and British citizens. This included their Social Security Numbers, addresses, and birth dates. The breach led to NPD's bankruptcy.
Then there was the [7]UnitedHealth Group ransomware attack , which compromised the data of more than 100 million individuals. The company paid a substantial ransom to attackers, but is the data "safe"? Who knows. I doubt very much UnitedHealth does.
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On top of this, Chinese spies were involved in the [9]Salt Typhoon attacks , which compromised at least nine US telecommunications networks. These attacks allowed China to access communications from high-ranking US officials, including President Donald Trump and former Vice President Kamala Harris. Oh, and potentially you and me as well.
How bad has Salt Typhoon been? We don't know. The Trump administration disbanded the US Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB), which had been investigating it. Recently, however, the [10]government has decided to reconstitute the CSRB .
Mind you, this is the same government that decided to sic the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on all government agencies in search of fraud without a single forensic accountant to its name. Instead, these Musk groupies seek to copy sensitive data from the Social Security Administration (SSA) and pretty much all other government departments. How will our private data be protected? We don't know. [11]Privacy is not a priority for the current American administration .
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Finally, the genetics research and genealogy company [13]23andMe has just announced it's going bankrupt . What will happen to the DNA records of 15 million people, including yours? Darned if I know. It all depends on the buyer. California's attorney general is advising people with 23andMe accounts to delete their data.
[14]AI running out of juice despite Microsoft's hard squeezing
[15]Musk's move fast and break things mantra won't work in US.gov
[16]Windows 10's demise nears, but Linux is forever
[17]The US government wants developers to stop using C and C++
Mind you, even if you zap your information, some of your data will linger. I'm just glad I don't have any strong genetic traits for any pre-existing conditions that would make health insurance companies think twice before writing a policy for me.
Now, on top of all this data just lying around out there getting easier and easier to obtain, we have AI vacuuming up all our data to make it easier than ever to track our every move.
Sure, there are efforts afoot to better protect our privacy. This includes government regulations, such as the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and America's California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which seeks to ensure that companies handle personal data responsibly. Whatever that means.
And there are many things you can do to protect your privacy. Edward Snowden – remember him? – had some [18]useful suggestions on how to shield yourself back in 2015 , and they're still helpful today.
Frankly, it's too late to put the privacy genie back in the bottle. The best you can do is reduce how public you make your life. For example, with not quite a million CCTV cameras in London, or about one camera for every ten people, you don't want to live there if you object to being surveilled. In the online world, if you don't wish to have online snoopers tracking you, you don't want to spend time on heavily monitored social networks such as Facebook and X.
The bottom line is you can't avoid some exposure these days. For example, your smartphone is constantly tracking you. The best you can do is minimize your exposure by turning off location tracking services. If you're serious about protecting your privacy from your smartphone, you can switch to privacy-first mobile operating systems such as e/OS.
I could give far more examples, but there's no point. Today, unless you go totally off-grid, you'll never have the privacy people took for granted at the end of the 20th century. It's that simple. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/17/amazon_kills_on_device_alexa/
[2] https://practical-tech.com/2023/06/13/how-an-amazon-fire-kids-tablet-was-allegedly-used-to-stalk-a-security-pro/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Z-q8LeBUKLnCSPut5T8-qgAAAZI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z-q8LeBUKLnCSPut5T8-qgAAAZI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z-q8LeBUKLnCSPut5T8-qgAAAZI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/16/national_public_data_theft/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/23/unitedhealth_admits_breach_substantial/
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z-q8LeBUKLnCSPut5T8-qgAAAZI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/06/charter_consolidated_windstream_salt_typhoon/
[10] https://federalnewsnetwork.com/cybersecurity/2025/03/lawmakers-probe-dhs-cyber-typhoon-response-future-of-csrb/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/17/doge_treasury/?td=keepreading
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z-q8LeBUKLnCSPut5T8-qgAAAZI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/24/23andme_bankruptcy_protection/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/14/ai_running_out_of_juice/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/07/opinion_column_musk/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/28/windows_10_demise_linux/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/08/the_us_government_wants_developers/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2015/11/12/snowden_guide_to_practical_privacy/
[19] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: There is no such thing as off-grid nowadays
All of these are "on grid" to some extend and will sell your info left and right as soon as they can figure out how to invoke a 'security incident perpetrated by a hostile nation/state backed hacker group' without getting their asses in a sling.
Re: There is no such thing as off-grid nowadays
No, they won't sell your information as long as the law forbids it and can ask for huge fines. That's why US are strongly pushing agains EU regulations now. Schrem was able to kill US-EU data agreements twice. FB is still blocked form using EU data for AI training.
Privacy can exist - but there's no magical technology than can ensure it - only law, and law enforcement can. Let's see if EU politicians can stand, or will sell citizens' data in exchange for some less tariffs...
And even then...
Even if you actually have no internet and no cell phone, you also have to have no car or any other licensed vehicle, because nowadays cameras are reading plates everywhere and at all times (at least here in Italy). You have to travel by bike and on foot, us only a landline phone, and squat public wifi networks to which you happen to have obtained the password without any means of being tracked. And of course no bank account, no credit cards, only money.
And now, with the diffusion of AI for face recognition, you will also have to walk around in a hood like Kenny from South Park all the time. And soon with gait recognition it will become useless, too, and you'll have to learn a different silly walk (see Monty Python) every day.
And of course if there is an entity we cannot trust with our data is the government. Every government. Corporations want your money, governments want your submission. They are no different, in the end they just want to exploit you.
Oh, and I forgot about your friends. If your (landilne) number is stored or used on friend's phones, then the big data slurping corps will still have data about you from their phones. And as for email, it's the same. Send an email to a gmail user, and google knows about you. So better live without a phone and an email. And don't let anyone take a picture of you unless it's taken with a normal camera and never uploaded to any electronic device.
Re: And even then...
And now, with the diffusion of AI for face recognition, you will also have to walk around in a hood like Kenny from South Park all the time. And soon with gait recognition it will become useless, too, and you'll have to learn a different silly walk (see Monty Python) every day.
After that, there will be brainwave signature detection, and maybe our tinfoil hats will finally become useful for something.
Re: And even then...
There are some folks partly there, I know a few. No passport, no driving license, no smart phone. In some cases they only got a bank account a few years ago so pretty minimal footprint. They are working age for a few more years, not everyone has embraced technology like those reading this. How do they manage? Mostly cash, no credit and use family and friends (e.g. we send payslips by email so they ask a family member).
Well, just addressing the first point, yes, if you use devices in your home such as Alexa, etc, you are an idiot.
And if you willingly use anything Amazon related, you are an even bigger idiot.
I hope you know a lot of internet these days lives in the AWS...
Maybe, but if they access their customers data, without authorization, they could in big trouble in some jurisdictions. And let's see how Oracle cloud breach rains down.
"If you're serious about protecting your privacy from your smartphone"...
Then don't use a smartphone...
The pros have it.
All this article focuses on is corporate snooping of data. Personally, if I was the worrying sort I would be far more concerned that the resources of governments have already sucked up every last byte. Having had specialists, professionals and experts with virtually unlimited resources working on this for decades.
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Not only that, but I fully expect they have it all correlated, profiled and cross-referenced. "Oh", you might say "but there are laws against that!" which would provoke a smile, but nothing more.
Re: The pros have it.
All we can do is piss in the pool.
Re: The pros have it.
"In Jersey anything's legal, as long as you don't get caught."
Re: The pros have it.
"tweeter and the monkey man"
Oh my, it's almost as if the fellas could see into the future.
Re: The pros have it.
Don't worry - Musk and DOGE has already visited NSA. They'll be winnowed down soon enough, like what's happening to SSA and Dept of Ed.
There is no such thing as off-grid nowadays
There are a lot of organisations having your data with no means to escape: government (both local and country-wide), insurance companies, health services to name a few.
All of these are "on grid" to some extend - and can "leak information", or be hacked.