How to Protect your Privacy -- Personal, Financial, Digital

But Honkinggoose, scripta never makes a mistake. (couldn’t help myself) :grimacing:

I was more talking about credit card balances. I just want to know how much will be autopaid and when. CDs I don’t really need updates. I just follow things daily on PC and that’s enough for me until I download statements eventually. Only alerts I get nowadays are sms alerts for transaction and account activity. Emails are not that helpful all things considered at this point.

I understand your comment about the CC balances. To me, emails are helpful if they tell me things that I ask for, without providing specific details. For example, I would like to be emailed when an ACH withdrawal (push or pull) is scheduled or initiated, without providing the specifics of amounts, account nicknames, or partial acct numbers. If I were running a half-dozen transfers a day, I might like some of those details, but I suspect that most bank clients are doing that many ACH transfers that they need specific details in email messages.

Other examples include when I get above a particular balance on a CC, or below a balance on a checking account. I don’t need the specific numbers, just that I am above or below the balance that I set.

The ongoing T-Mobile data breach is impacting millions of people who are not T-Mobile customers:

The Latest T-Mobile Data Breach Effects Everyone, Not Just Customers

T-Mobile kept everything, even from non-customers. And now the hackers have all that data.

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I haven’t had a postpaid plan ever since I learned about prepaid plans almost two decades ago.

I have not used my real name to sign up for any postpaid prepaid plans. And I certainly never shared my SSN or Driver’s License number with any mobile providers, ever.

And I’m realizing that one of the most important privacy tips is missing from the wiki. Probably because I thought it was obvious, but maybe I’ll add it:

  • Your personal information (name, SSN, DL, passport, current or former addresses, employment info, financial info, list of nearest relatives or emergency contacts, etc) should only be shared on a need-to-know basis. The “need-to-know” must be an absolute, 100% certain, impossible-to-avoid requirement. For example, most banking institutions in the USA require your name, SSN, DOB, address, etc, because of the Know Your Customer regulations, so you can’t avoid it. Your employer requires it due to various state and federal employment laws. But your utility, internet, or cell phone provider do not always require all of that (even when they tell you otherwise). Your doctor, dentist, or car dealer should not need your SSN if you’re not applying for credit. The main point is just because someone asks doesn’t mean you have to provide an answer (or an honest answer).
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So much for your encryption.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/nsa-doesnt-think-quantum-computers-can-break-public-key-encryption/ar-AAO4Egk

I’m not sure what your comment means, but my interpretation of the article is that quantum computing is unlikely to be as devastating to encryption as previously touted. Of course, my ability to follow some of these stories at this time on a Sunday morning is somewhat lessened.

What caught my eye is something that is a lot more applicable that quantum’s threat to encryption.

“In a world where users will divulge their passwords in return for chocolate or in response to an enticing phishing email, the risk of quantum computers might not be our biggest threat,” Martin Lee, a technical lead at Cisco’s Talos security division told The Register .

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That if the NSA is telling you that your encryption is totally safe from quantum computation based attacks, they’ve already got those to work. Why else would they publicly comment on their capabilities except to deceive their targets?

As for passwords, you’re right personal security is poor and often easily compromised in practice.

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The thing about encryption is that it must continue to grow in complexity to sufficiently compensate for the increase in computing power. By definition. By the time we get a quantum computer that can crack today’s algorithms, we’ll have algorithms that it cannot crack.

I think you cannot necessarily rely on increasing the key length or similar approaches within the context of a particular current encryption scheme to avoid being able to be cracked in principle by quantum computers in the future.

A few years ago, it was proven that are problems which classic computers can never solve efficiently while quantum computer can solve them efficiently. Of course in practice even such problems may be more easily done via classic computers now due to the relative power of our classic ones and the nascent state of our quantum ones, but with exponential differences in difficulty that presumably won’t last.

Instead you need to rely on new types of encryption that are still hard for both classic and quantum approaches.

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“Invasion of Privacy” or “Just Part of the Job” - You decide

Bosses turn to ‘tattleware’ to keep tabs on employees working from home

How much personal surveillance is too much? How do you limit their intrusion to strictly business stuff? How do you know images of your home’s interior are not being abused or improperly shared?

Next: A camera in your bathroom??!

I dont understand the issue? if you want your home to be your office, your home is going to be treated like your office (where just about anyone can walk up to you at any time). If you want privacy in your home, dont do your work at home.

Opposition to these things is rooted in the idea that you are only productive a few hours out of every full work day, and people dont want to have to work the entire day else be “busted”.

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This is little different than the overhead cameras at a bank or your favorite fast food restaurant, the only difference is those aren’t pointed directly at worker’s faces, but those workers are also not seated at a desk all day. While I personally would never allow this, and nobody concerned about their privacy should either, I think enough people may not have this choice / luxury.

No.

I’m also assuming you would never allow it as in you wouldnt agree to work from home if that was part of the deal? Everyone has the option to go to or set up an isolated area to work at, where their home isnt on display for their employer. Leaving that area is no different than leaving your desk at work, which during work hours you should have a good reason why (and being in your home, there will be a much shorter leash due to more potential distractions).

People seem to act like employers are straping on survailance body cams that see everything you see the entire day no matter where you go and what you are doing. Using the laptop camera is no different than the boss sticking his head into your office and seeing you, which can also happen at any time throughout the day.

If your idea of “work from home” is pounding away on your laptop while taking a dump, then yes.

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Right – I’d rather look for another job. There are other ways to monitor employees’ productivity without such invasion. My work computer’s camera is disabled and has electrical tape over it :see_no_evil:.

I’m not disagreeing, but would really like pointers/links.

Thanks.

The bathroom cam would not, of course, be with malicious voyeuristic intent. Instead:

If you’re in your office, and not at home, and if you there need to use the bathroom . . . well . . . other options are at least somewhat limited. That is, if you’re not at your desk and not in the company bathroom, the boss knows you might be goofing off.

But for folks working at home, if you’re not on camera working away, you can post notice you’re using the bathroom but there are numerous other places in your home you might be. Without a bathroom cam, escape from your workstation is facilitated as you simply remain out of sight with no way for your boss to know for certain where you are or what you are up to.

Is he working, or at least using the bathroom . . . . or is he out mowing the lawn or walking the dog on company time?

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Google “productivity monitoring”. There’s software that can record and phone home everything that’s happening on a computer.

It wouldn’t catch these people, though.