I’m not sure if 1/4 to 1/3 of people being gullible is staggering to me

A lot of smart people, scientists even, would be inclined to say “I don’t know if it’s true” with the key word being “know”.

If they’re not familiar with the literature and they’re being exposed to a claim for the very first time, they’d potentially want to consult the research on the matter. (Not “do their own research”, but to look into respectable research done by professionals)

Like all that raw milk stuff? I’ve got no clue what that’s about. And if the claims are like “Raw milk promotes the maintenance of healthy bones and teeth better than homogenized milk” or something, I dunno man. I’ve never heard anything one way or the other. “I don’t know if it’s true”. I might even be leaning towards disbelieving it, but I don’t know.

Can’t you make your Steam friends list private?

how do you know I’m just a child?"

“You just told me, kiddo!”

Unfortunately, I don’t have one.

Is there one god damn phone out there we can buy that’s somewhat ethical and redirects or privacy?

Fairphone? Haven’t been following that, but I’m pretty sure it’s the most ethical phone to consume…at least in theory.

1. You can probably re-use a burner phone again and again
2. What do you need a phone for? Could it be replaced with other items? (Cameras, walkie-talkies, printed maps?)

Now everyone will know they aren’t show-ers

The gist is that marketing uses scare tactics, then consumers fall for the fear and believe that…

• they’re unsafe unless they have the products
• they’re safe if they have the products, and thus don’t need to use critical thinking skills or follow best practices

Are you saying the two sides are…

• Do literally everything possible for privacy, and
• No, some things are not necessary

?

Fun, sure, but not an experiment that would actually be meaningful.

The data from your phone’s microphone doesn’t magically appear in Google’s advertising servers. It would have to go through a lot of steps before it gets there, and one of the first steps is in your home (if you’re on WiFi). One can analyze the traffic/data that leaves their phone.

It’s good to be cautious, but worrying about your phone’s microphone is potentially like worrying about your windows while leaving your front door open.

Yet again, someone mistakes an anecdote for evidence. And evidence is also not the plural form of anecdote.

I’m sure we have people here who are tech-savvy enough to have actually examined the kinds of data that their phone is sharing.

If you have something like Google Home or Amazon Alexa, then yeah, those would be sending voice data back, and yeah, they could probably use it for advertising. But as far as I know, there is no evidence that phones are “always listening” and “always sending information back” when they’re idle.

I agree on the point of security theatre. I think the tracking stuff provides more actual useful information, but I also imagine it’s more for reactionary investigations rather than pre-emptive protections.

I could be wrong, though.

I’d call it both. Hassling people for taking sunscreen or water onboard is probably mostly theatre. All of the tracking and scanning is probably what they actually use to find any naughty people.

Your comment reminded me of the time I tried to connect my new phone number to my accounts, but had trouble with Amazon and AirBnB because the last guy with the number forgot to update his accounts.

Amazon told me it’d have to delete the old account before allowing me to connect my new number.

That’s not even the worst one though.

AirBnB gave me no other option than to log in to the other guy’s account through nothing but the SMS recovery code (which came to my phone since I have his old number now), starting the account recovery process from within his account, and then removing the phone number from his account.

After logging out (and closing the private browsing window and turning off the VPN), I was then able to link the phone number to my account. (And yes, I tried everything else – from within my account, it told me “Sorry, this number is linked to another account”)

Never had a problem with AirBnB or the new phone number since then though!

Trying to stop kids from using drugs on school property is “stupid shit”?

It’s not surveilling children, it’s surveilling the byproducts of vaping.

…so kids can freely vape in school buildings during school hours?

people share phone numbers to people they personally know.

This is about Signal having the phone numbers. I don’t think anybody “personally knows” Signal…

Yup. My bank was even “translating” passwords to PINs behind the scene specifically so your password for the website would be the same as your password on the telephone.