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comment by ecib
ecib  ·  3662 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The Price of Haggling for Your Personal Data

    t is my position that my personal data is proprietary. I own it. It is mine. Period. I've never given permission for anyone to harvest my habits.

Unfortunately, you've probably explicitly agreed otherwise numerous times when you've affirmatively agreed to various Terms of Service agreements for all sorts of online services.

As I see it, the problem is a combination of weak privacy laws and lack of compelling, affordable, and easy to use paid alternatives for a lot of digital communication services. This is exacerbated by social network effects where you can't easily opt out of speaking with your family/friends online since they all happen to be on services that harvest your data. You don't have to join, but you miss out on a lot of digital communication with your own network, which is pretty lame.





user-inactivated  ·  3662 days ago  ·  link  ·  

and that is the beauty of the Constitutional argument - it matters not what specific behavior I may or may not have engaged in because I cannot grant authority to some other party to behave in a manner that is inconsistent with Constitutional principles and precepts.

The mass harvesting of my personal data in the absence of a Warrant as specified by the Constitution is simply illegal.

Of course, in an era where the Supreme Court blatantly and in full view of the public usurps the authority of Congress granted under Article I section 4[1] regarding the manner of holding elections, as they did with their decision Citizens United . . . in such an era obviously it would be fool hardy to hold one's breath waiting for either Congress or the Court to assert that it is unConstitutional for the private sector to harvest the data of private individuals.

But perhaps they may be induced some how to hold theirs . . .

am_Unition  ·  3662 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Unfortunately, you've probably explicitly agreed otherwise numerous times when you've affirmatively agreed to various Terms of Service agreements for all sorts of online services

Not feasible. :(

Edit: Yes, your synopsis is spot on though.

ecib  ·  3662 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Oh I didn't mean to imply that anyone reads or understands on any level what they agreed to. As you pointed out, that would be impossible. We pretty much only have an abusive set of choices when it comes to privacy.