@x Hedge wrote:
re "data mining", That may be part of my problem with the Fire tablet.
I view my phones and tablet as 'tools'. They're there to work as I want them to, for my benefit, not someone else's.
I've never given any of my devices permission to track my location, and as soon as I activate a device or app, I carefully go thru the settings and "opt out" or shut down anything that serves as their tool rather than mine.
It's clear they don't like this, because many options that would reduce data mining aren't even offered to us in the settings anymore.
My newer phone, like the Fire tablet, had changed some of my settings on it's own.
@x Hedge I think the newer versions of any electronics give you the illusion that you can shut down location tracking, but there are ghost programs running in the backgroud collecting info all the time. Any of the devices from Amazon cannot be totally shut down, their whole existence is to data mine their customers. Same with Android/Google. Same with Microsoft. Apple is a smidge better (as in, they appear to refuse to give the govt data like the other companies) but they all data mine and only ancillary software can be shut down and told not to track.
I had a Droid (google phone) a long time ago ,that I would shut a lot of the tracking off. It would reboot itself and reboot all the programs I shut down. I read a lot of tech blogs, so I did something called a d-root of the phone, eliminating many of the ghosts in the machine. It still rebooted itself, trying to install the background systems thru updates. It was after my phone got hacked that I switched to another phone brand.
The newer computers are so full of bloatware that we constantly need bigger amounts of space and memory just to run the basic computer (windows 10 comes to mind)
Like another poster said, google has our houses on maps, so it's not possible to have total privacy..just because someone doesn't use credit cards on the internet doesn't mean that the banks or stores don't store the info where there is internet connectivity (tried explaining this to my father to no avail) Even if you are careful with privacy, other people may have your info stored in their devices..and not have any idea that they are putting you at risk. Very few people actually read the agreements when they put an app on a device. Many apps require access to your photos and contacts, even if it's something like a calculator, needing neither.
I still read tech blogs and data mining is huge $$$$. Not going away any time soon, only going to get worse, but there are ways to mitigate your exposure as much as you can.
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