[YeahNO]

You would think the panic over TikTok spying would illuminate the problem with apps having carte-blanche access to your personal data 24/7. There is nothing that the TikTok app does that any other app cannot also do. It seems nobody wants to make that connection.

There should be real protections for consumers to prevent ANY application from slurping up this data, and I don't mean just a disclosure or system setting to hamstring the application into uselessness. I mean, there should be regulations preventing the collection of this data in the first place, with hefty fines and punitive damages.

[eternityforest]

Most privacy advocates probably do plenty of things I would be perfectly happy to see made illegal, but we don't just ban them because we don't want a complete dictatorship of one segment of the population over everyone else, and because it seems the people realize it would cause problems for some people, and we need to be careful to find suitable replacements before we ban things.

A lot of the tech I imagine you are referring to has been life changing for me, and if it cost normal SASS prices would not be affordable.

Regulations and disclosures are good, but a straight ban would (depending on how it was written) quite likely affect services that inherently require mass data collection, like Tile trackers, and might make other services have to do subscriptions and become unaffordable for many.

If there was a state sponsored Pine64 style company that could do all of what Google does for the same price without spying, it would be great. But at the moment, the FOSS community does not have true equivalents, or the budget or interest to do so, nor the marketing power to do the stuff that only works if everyone else uses it, and the non-spy commercial solutions have many of the same issues and cost too much for low income people.

[A4ET8a8uTh0]

<< A lot of the tech I imagine you are referring to has been life changing for me, and if it cost normal SASS prices would not be affordable.

I think part of the issue is that it is too affordable. The whole free content, free email, free infrastructure got us into current mess to begin with and since advertising was the only place that paid, now it is a part of the landscape. But on that front, pendulum may be swinging the other way.

And privacy itself is one of those terms that can easily led into a very broad discussion unless it is not clearly defined from the outset.

<< we need to be careful to find suitable replacements before we ban things.

Nah, as a society we were very permissive for the past two decades at least. It is time for tech to grow up and join the rest of the mature industries.

<< But at the moment, the FOSS community does not have true equivalents,

Sadly true. I am currently on Pine ( postmarketos ) since my main phone died. I absolutely love the idea and I keep trying to support it when I have a chance, but it is still not ready for prime time ( and I am not good enough to contribute in code ).

<< and the non-spy commercial solutions have many of the same issues and cost too much for low income people.

And this is why spying - ekh, totally voluntary data collection - should just be verbotten. We have seen where this road leads and it is not fun long term.

[nichohel]

What do you mean by "Most privacy advocates probably do plenty of things I would be perfectly happy to see made illegal"? Can you give some examples of what you mean by things you want to see made illegal?

[JohnFen]

Most privacy advocates I know revolve around the concept of "informed consent". The idea isn't to ban technologies because they can be abused, it's to stop the abuse.

The guiding principle for when that line is crossed is whether or not the affected person was completely and accurately informed about what is going to happen, and that they have affirmatively given their consent for it to happen.