Comment by atestu | Hacker News Reader

Comment by atestu | Hacker News Reader

> Starting before my kids were born, I made sure no private companies collected traceable data about them—at least, nothing that could be aggregated across services or platforms to identify them or to target me as a mom. I bought everything—from pregnancy tests to diapers to clothes—in cash. At home, I built up an entire alternative tech ecosystem: privacy-oriented browsers and blockers, firewalled machines and accounts, and multiple concurrent email addresses. I’ve never even swiped a credit card or a discount card for children’s goods at the till. It’s been nine years and counting, and I have yet to see a single ad for diapers, daycare, or summer camp.

I love my privacy and my kids' but I don't understand this extreme behavior... She is worried that companies know she has kids? Can't they just pull public records to see that? Or read this article published under her full name with attached social media profiles?

Personally I don't want to be tracked by Disney in the real world, but wouldn't mind it inside the park. Or, like another commenter pointed, just don't go. Disney will track you with or without a band (isn't every square inch of the place under CCTV?)

I believe this "extreme behavior" is very valuable to you and I.

It sets the goalpost. Without defining privacy and standing up for it, the goalpost will be moved and pretty soon no privacy will be normalized.

It helps define things for employees of these companies. If people inside the company never have to deal with someone who values their privacy, it will never be tested. This also helps employees that actually value privacy and see what goes on inside.

It sets an example for others who value their privacy and don't know what they can do to protect it.

It prompts discussion. And hopefully laws.

As a related example, Richard Stallman might be controversial in his behavior (he doesn't use proprietary software, or use a phone), but years after he created the GPL it is pretty obvious he was onto something and has helped us.

It’s a thought exercise brought into the real world. Useful to have journalists try these things out and let us know how plausible various strategies are.

“Don’t go” is a valid one but thought-terminating.

The "don’t go" is also very telling because it might not always be possible.

What if those principles are extended to, say, public transports? Public services? Shops? Stadium?

Indeed, privacy being stamped out everywhere.

The author seems a bit too paranoid, if you ask me. I stopped reading the article when they mentioned that “Disneyland.com didn’t work on Tor”

I'm with both of you.

I was an early ProtonMail and ProtonVPN supporter and for years would only chat to family members over Signal. I'm conscious of how my phone can track me and of the benefits of using cash.

But I still can't see how avoiding Disney tracking is for her kids' "safety". The Mouse doesn't loom so large in my mind. And I can't judge family members for making the judgment call that they don't really care what Facebook and Google collect about their online activity.

The point is not to be paranoid about what will happen if data leak, the point is to stick to "I don’t want my data shared without my consent" and see what happens.

We badly need more experiment like those because this tell a lot about our society!

It’s exactly like vegan diets. You have moral principles and you try to see how far/how difficult it is to apply them. This also helps other realize what is happening/what they are missing.

I admire her because I would be like her before having kids. As they say: "I had principles. Now I have kids.".

You've got to understand that you kids have been raised in different times.

In the 1980's, the German state tried twice to do a census of the population. Twice the protests by the people were so vivid, that they failed to do them. In 1983, the highest German court declared the planned census unconstitutional and in 1987, protests on May 1st turned into violence over this issue.

In 2022, Germany did a census again. There was basically no public objection.

Another data point, here in Australia we do a census every 5 years. Never really heard any objection other than it is annoying.

Germany has a very unique history when it comes to how records of their population were used...

Not totally unique. The US government used its census for Japanese internment camps.

And it was American innovation that made the use of that census data possible for both countries thanks to Herman Hollerith's punch cards & tabulators and Thomas Watson's greed leading IBM to furnish the Nazis with that technology.

I'm wondering if she wore facemasks in grocery stores before the pandemic? Or else they're probably tracking her purchasing behavior anyway by video. Maybe not 9 years ago but surely by now.

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