Data isn't just being collected from your phone. It's being used to score you.

Marnuplee

Well-known member

Operating in the shadows of the online marketplace, specialized tech companies you've likely never heard of are tapping vast troves of our personal data to generate secret "surveillance scores" - digital mug shots of millions of Americans - that supposedly predict our future behavior. The firms sell their scoring services to major businesses across the U.S. economy.

People with low scores can suffer harsh consequences.

CoreLogic and TransUnion say that scores they peddle to landlords can predict whether a potential tenant will pay the rent on time, be able to "absorb rent increases," or break a lease. Large employers use HireVue, a firm that generates an "employability" score about candidates by analyzing "tens of thousands of factors," including a person's facial expressions and voice intonations. Other employers use Cornerstone's score, which considers where a job prospect lives and which web browser they use to judge how successful they will be at a job.

this is just some kind of dystopian shit like 1984.
 

Whitestrake Pelinal

Like a dream without a dreamer
this is just some kind of dystopian shit like 1984.

Somewhat like 1984 -- but far more like Brave New World. People choose to carry these things everywhere they go, just like they choose to put alexa and google microphones around their houses, for convenience, pleasure, and status. It's not even hard to do without (I have), and it's possible with some effort to get away from the Google Android/AppleOS duopoly and have a smartphone that's not pozzed (I have). Articles like this have been published for years and the western people (perhaps I should call them worker units...) have largely chosen not to act.
 

Marnuplee

Well-known member
Articles like this have been published for years and the western people (perhaps I should call them worker units...) have largely chosen not to act.

well, this is depressing to hear. maybe social credit score like those in china is inevitable in future ?
 

Whitestrake Pelinal

Like a dream without a dreamer
well, this is depressing to hear. maybe social credit score like those in china is inevitable in future ?
We had them before China did, issued by Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian. While they are not as thorough and compliance oriented as Chinas score, they have been used for a lot more than just home and car loans.

Though I do wonder if that was really a bad thing. Western credit scores are primarily a measure of two questions, "did they pay back what they borrowed?" and "how much could they reasonably be expected to pay back if they borrowed?", and the former is in part a moral question.
 

Scottty

Well-known member
Founder
We had them before China did, issued by Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian. While they are not as thorough and compliance oriented as Chinas score, they have been used for a lot more than just home and car loans.

Though I do wonder if that was really a bad thing. Western credit scores are primarily a measure of two questions, "did they pay back what they borrowed?" and "how much could they reasonably be expected to pay back if they borrowed?", and the former is in part a moral question.

Even if the tech was developed for a good purpose, it can later be turned to a bad one.
 

Cherico

Well-known member
Even if the tech was developed for a good purpose, it can later be turned to a bad one.

The problem is that people motivated by base greed are giving way to people who are moral busy bodies.

Its better to deal with robber barons because their tyranny sleeps, but the moral busy bodies will work tirelessly to make your life a living nightmare and feel great about it the next day.
 

Rocinante

Russian Bot
Founder
Somewhat like 1984 -- but far more like Brave New World. People choose to carry these things everywhere they go, just like they choose to put alexa and google microphones around their houses, for convenience, pleasure, and status. It's not even hard to do without (I have), and it's possible with some effort to get away from the Google Android/AppleOS duopoly and have a smartphone that's not pozzed (I have). Articles like this have been published for years and the western people (perhaps I should call them worker units...) have largely chosen not to act.
Maybe some F451 worked in there. The government didn't need to step in and start mass burning books. The people stopped reading mostly all on their own.

The government didn't need to bug us. We chose to put them in our homes and carry them with us.

But really, at this point, I am just trying to make comparisons to dystopian novels because 1984 and BNW got brought up lol.
 

LordsFire

Internet Wizard
Just another reason I'm glad I don't use a smartphone for cell service. My flip phone with limited credit on it just keeps seeming like a better idea.
 
Somthing tells me if this technology is just now coming to light it's probably been around since the 60s maybe as far back as WWII. I hate to sound blackpilled, but chances are we've been monitored since the day we left our mother's womb.
 

Whitestrake Pelinal

Like a dream without a dreamer
Somthing tells me if this technology is just now coming to light it's probably been around since the 60s maybe as far back as WWII. I hate to sound blackpilled, but chances are we've been monitored since the day we left our mother's womb.
Data collection, storage, and analysis capacities have grown by multiple orders of magnitude in the last couple decades. There have been credits scores for longer than that, and FBI files on people, but they never had the capacities they have now until quite recently. Even using typewriters, mimeographs, and the like, printed paper storage was slow to generate, slow to access, and very bulky in any quantity. Modern digital storage has removed some of the largest obstacles surveillance states faced.

Just another reason I'm glad I don't use a smartphone for cell service. My flip phone with limited credit on it just keeps seeming like a better idea.
Using a flip phone is a good step, it gets you away from the worst of the datalords and their excesses, both the big ones like google, and all the crApps that third parties want you to install. It does have limitations though. Flip phones generally don't have the capacity to utilize VPNs or encrypted communication paths such as Telegram, and no cell phone can prevent location tracking by carriers -- they can't function without communicating to the cell towers.
 

LordsFire

Internet Wizard
Using a flip phone is a good step, it gets you away from the worst of the datalords and their excesses, both the big ones like google, and all the crApps that third parties want you to install. It does have limitations though. Flip phones generally don't have the capacity to utilize VPNs or encrypted communication paths such as Telegram, and no cell phone can prevent location tracking by carriers -- they can't function without communicating to the cell towers.

The fact that I don't use any 'data' off of it helps.
 

Zachowon

The Army Life for me! The POG life for me!
Founder
Data collection, storage, and analysis capacities have grown by multiple orders of magnitude in the last couple decades. There have been credits scores for longer than that, and FBI files on people, but they never had the capacities they have now until quite recently. Even using typewriters, mimeographs, and the like, printed paper storage was slow to generate, slow to access, and very bulky in any quantity. Modern digital storage has removed some of the largest obstacles surveillance states faced.


Using a flip phone is a good step, it gets you away from the worst of the datalords and their excesses, both the big ones like google, and all the crApps that third parties want you to install. It does have limitations though. Flip phones generally don't have the capacity to utilize VPNs or encrypted communication paths such as Telegram, and no cell phone can prevent location tracking by carriers -- they can't function without communicating to the cell towers.
Telegram? Encrypted? lol.
The fact that I don't use any 'data' off of it helps.
That does not matter, you make calls correct? Send texts?
 

Whitestrake Pelinal

Like a dream without a dreamer
Telegram? Encrypted? lol.
Encrypted enough that carriers can't bulk scrape their communications? Absolutely.

That does not matter, you make calls correct? Send texts?
Exposing some data to collection is an improvement on exposing all data to collection. The standard Google/Apple smartphone is a worst case scenario in just about every respect. Even a downgrade to a standard flip phone is an improvement, both for not being part of their ecosystems and for steering the user into doing their internet use on more controllable platforms.
 

Zachowon

The Army Life for me! The POG life for me!
Founder
Encrypted enough that carriers can't bulk scrape their communications? Absolutely.


Exposing some data to collection is an improvement on exposing all data to collection. The standard Google/Apple smartphone is a worst case scenario in just about every respect. Even a downgrade to a standard flip phone is an improvement, both for not being part of their ecosystems and for steering the user into doing their internet use on more controllable platforms.
The best way to protect oneself is via systems and apps available on smartphones, as calling data and text data which are easy to access for any and all phone companies.
 

LordsFire

Internet Wizard
Telegram? Encrypted? lol.

That does not matter, you make calls correct? Send texts?

Yes.

I'm less concerned with the few texts and calls I make being on phone company records, than I am with smartphones listening on everything I do all the time.
 

Whitestrake Pelinal

Like a dream without a dreamer
The best way to protect oneself is via systems and apps available on smartphones, as calling data and text data which are easy to access for any and all phone companies.
Between letting Google scrape my communications and letting AT&T scrape my communications, there's no contest: AT&T is the lesser evil. Google is the flagship left-tech company, an aggressively bigoted leftist organization which celebrates anti-white anti-male values. Google's duopoly partner, Apple, is only slightly less leftist. AT&T is merely corporate.

The information carriers can get from calls is limited, mostly number called and length of call, they run up against wiretapping laws if they try to do what the NSA does with voice-to-text recording. Texts are, obviously, utterly insecure and should be assumed scraped by carriers. Still better than letting Google or Apple have access.

The best option will one day be open source operating systems on 3rd party hardware. UBPorts/PureOS/PostmarketOS/etc on a PinePhone/Librem/FairPhone. Unfortunately, those options will only be mature when they have good support for encrypted communications apps and they're not there yet. There's good progress though, I use UBPorts on a Nexus 5 and have found it to be suitable for my needs.
 

Zachowon

The Army Life for me! The POG life for me!
Founder
Yes.

I'm less concerned with the few texts and calls I make being on phone company records, than I am with smartphones listening on everything I do all the time.
Between letting Google scrape my communications and letting AT&T scrape my communications, there's no contest: AT&T is the lesser evil. Google is the flagship left-tech company, an aggressively bigoted leftist organization which celebrates anti-white anti-male values. Google's duopoly partner, Apple, is only slightly less leftist. AT&T is merely corporate.

The information carriers can get from calls is limited, mostly number called and length of call, they run up against wiretapping laws if they try to do what the NSA does with voice-to-text recording. Texts are, obviously, utterly insecure and should be assumed scraped by carriers. Still better than letting Google or Apple have access.

The best option will one day be open source operating systems on 3rd party hardware. UBPorts/PureOS/PostmarketOS/etc on a PinePhone/Librem/FairPhone. Unfortunately, those options will only be mature when they have good support for encrypted communications apps and they're not there yet. There's good progress though, I use UBPorts on a Nexus 5 and have found it to be suitable for my needs.
The phone companies would give info to the companies in exchange for stuff, since that is often what businesses do.

I know a good deal about how phones and all that work is why I was bringing it up
 

LordsFire

Internet Wizard
The phone companies would give info to the companies in exchange for stuff, since that is often what businesses do.

I know a good deal about how phones and all that work is why I was bringing it up

What is available to people from my Tracphone is a hell of a lot more limited than what people can do and get off of smartphones that sit around with their mics on all the time.

It's not absolute protection, but I have a lot more control over things.
 

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