Worry About 3rd Party Data Collection?

[Germ]

Mind.. we are being recorded by a number of Ring doorbells, security cameras are able to follow our every move, traffic camera's can see where we have been, and the government knows exactly how much we make in a year.

And we have NO influence on what is being done with all that data.

+1

[operadude]

So, I guess that I shouldn't worry that Big Brother is watchin', cause he's gonna' anyway!

Dunno. I think the fact that we can do little, isn't a good reason to do nothing....
BR, Lars.

I concur, my good man

The take-away for me is:

Do as much as I can, and then, let go of the worry.

The "can-of-worms" I referred to in the original post concerns how far down the rabbit-hole I am willing to go. It seems to be a bottomless-pit, and I'll have to decide on some kind of balance between irrationally exuberant digital promiscuity, on the one hand, and cabin-in-the-woods-off-the-grid-Nutso (not that there's anything wrong with that-- to borrow an old TV-sitcom line), on the other hand.

Anyway, I am enjoying the feedback!

[Eadwine Rose]

I do nothing, and don't worry at all.

Of course I am careful where I spread my stuff. Like not going into my bank when on a public wifi, not giving out personal data, basically the basic online safety stuff.

As far as google knowing where my phone is and such.. hey.. if I lose it, I can find it. And if it gets stolen, I know who to punch!

[operadude]

I do nothing, and don't worry at all.

Of course I am careful where I spread my stuff. Like not going into my bank when on a public wifi, not giving out personal data, basically the basic online safety stuff.

As far as google knowing where my phone is and such.. hey.. if I lose it, I can find it. And if it gets stolen, I know who to punch!

You are a better woman than I

I admire-- and aspire to-- your attitude

[CharlesV]

@operadude The words "hiding in plain site" come to mind :-)

So, to answer your question. I have ff setup to clear cookies and history at shutdown. Then, every 5 to 10 websites, I shutdown ff and start it back up. Not only does this clear cookies but it helps FF be lighter on my machine than running it. ( Caveate, I dont run that many websites - and yes, some times I DO go into privacy and clear all data.)

Here is the deal on cookeis... not JUST the website that created the cookie can read it. In many case affiliates of companyX can read cookies of companyX .. and Google ... is the big one. If your signed in, flipn everybody knows that. (And.. who you are.)

[operadude]

@CharlesV Thanks for the clarifications!

I, too, have FF to clear cookies and data on shutdown, and I rarely have more than 4 websites open at a time. Occasionally I have a few DuckDuckGo (default search engine) and StackOverflow tabs open for searches, and follow-up searches.

I like your idea of shutting-down FF and restarting after 5-10 tabs/sites.

I think I understand what you are saying about the dreaded Cookies! One reason I use Facebook Container. Also, I almost NEVER log into my Google account, except for one site that I use for Python programming, and it is set-up so that I have to be logged into my Google account. I wish it weren't that way, but it is; and I really use that site a lot! Anyway...

BUT, come to think of it: does Thunderbird automatically log me into my Google account to download my Gmail? I know that I set T-Bird up to automatically get my emails, and I think that involved using my Google credentials. Is that just to get the emails, and then I'm logged-out? Or is there some other process going on?

Just curious...I don't have the time for the next 2 months to do anything about switching from Gmail.

Anyway, Kudos on the Feedback!

[CharlesV]

Your welcome, and no TB only processes email via their authentication, it does not use cookies for that. (And you should not be browsing in TB, either - although that can also be set to remove cookies on exit.)

[jj 5117]

I make reasonable anti-tracking efforts. Reasonable for me. I don't imagine that any of my efforts, or loss of convenient features, make me untouchable. But I do expect my efforts to be registered as a vote against privacy invasion, at the very least.

And I expect that they reduce unsolicited emails, snail mail, phone calls, etc, etc, etc.

I would have guessed that ALL Linux users had information control issues, about one type of information or another. :-)

[Eadwine Rose]

"But I do expect my efforts to be registered as a vote against privacy invasion, at the very least."

They will not care, not one iota, about your efforts. They won't even notice.

[lars_the_bear]

They will not care, not one iota, about your efforts. They won't even notice.

Probably not. Doing the right thing is often not noticed in this world. All you can do is walk your sermon.

BR, Lars.