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Sigh, one thing that I've noticed since returning back to Australia is the insane amount of data collection that goes on from companies that have no need to know anything about me. Gone to the nut shop... sign up for this and that, can we have your email, can we have your phone number, name, address... now, I always lie like crazy for all of those requests... or better still, no I don't need 20 cents off my next shop.

But the habit seems ingrained into many consumers to just hand over private information... and for the companies to just record it down somewhere... with little to no security. Big companies do this, and get "hacked by sophisticated actors...", aka... we left it in plaintext on an unsecured public server with a default admin password.

... and the little shops and companies don't have any security at all to start off with.

And the general response seems to be... ooops, we lost all your personal private information, like name, date of birth, email, phone, address... well, it sucks to be you, and sorry (if you are lucky)... and we take no responsibility.

... and then this silly merry-go-round continues.

So, given that many of these places don't need your accurate information... LIE, LIE like crazy... no real information, just make stuff up. You never really need to be contacted... ever. Or just make up a new alias... with a dump email address.

But where this fails, is when you are dealing with things that need real data. Like ISPs, or banks, or telecommunications.... and then you have to at least have some semblance of truth.

Last week, an ISP got "hacked"... I'm a bit dubious as to how much it was a "hack" as opposed to a management cock-up due to the fact that they "just don't give a crap" as it isn't their data, and they won't be liable. And probably the leaders of these places are likely not happy if their personal data was just sprayed all over the place... well, that seems like a decent, if ill-advised idea for the future...

I really wish that there was no need for companies to store data... or at least, for those that do, ENFORCE some sort of ability to protect that data properly... and not leave it to cost-cutting MBAs and CEOs to realise that the cost of losing that data is not really upon the company, and in that case, you are just wasting money on security and good practice.

Bah... and I can't wait for the day when we have zero-knowledge methods for proving what we need to prove... without companies actually needing to see anything at all.

I can also be found cross-posting at:
Hive
Steem
Publish0x

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