Thoughtless wrote: Fri May 02, 2025 3:51 am
You should look into wifi beacons and bluetooth beacons.
When you travel around a store with your bluetooth and wifi on the could triangulate your device. Say that you wander over to the electronics aisle stay for 5 minutes then speed through groceries yet linger at the drinks section. They gives them great data on what people are interested in, if they stop at the promotions, that people who are interested in 'A' are likely interested in 'B'. Not too creepy yet. Just market analysis right? After all what they have is just a device ID.
...
The fact that android and ios now rotate their device ids do not matter much as each time you check out your rewards give you away.
WiFi beacons, that legit actually sounds scary, I thought it was used if you were underground, and the GPS signal was too weak to be useful.
About Nissan, I watched a Louis Rossmann video once about how Nissan tracks your sexual activity... wow, that sounds crazy.
I'll try to bring something new into this discussion. After watching the video, I don't really think there is a way to get around avoiding these privacy measures. It's kind of like walking anywhere, busy or quiet. Say, if you walked in a city, you'd be surveilled by many CCTVs or something, but even if those failed, someone... someone would remember seeing you. Your phone would have told other phones where you were. It is possible to locate your device even without an active internet connection, so there's something to think about. If you were a criminal, and you were located in a desert, your footprints can be easily traced back.
If you burned paper, you release a ton of heat, smoke and end up with ash. Believe it or not, that's way too easy to catch using a thermal camera using a birds-eye view.
If you delete something on a computer, it isn't "really" deleted, even if the sector was overwritten. It may be expensive, but if the authorities want evidence of you doing something, they could xray that device somehow, and the remnants of your old data would still be visible. You could snap the ssd, but it can be easily pieced together like lego. If you grinded that ssd dead, the fine powder left behind proves you have something to hide.
As already discussed in the video, the best thing to do, really, is to avoid the data from getting back to you. I visualise this idea of data collection in 3 stages; collect, process, present.
Collection is obvious, collecting your activity and presence online. You can't really hide from it, it's kind of like touching sand, it never quite goes back to what it was previously. Though I have found a video on how to hide your presence from your ISP, which is right here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpeLclWHPPs
There is also another way of getting around this, particularly with link sharing.
When sharing links or searching something, there will be something random at the end of each link. Look at the one below
(don't click this pls)
https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ?si=<some random stuff>
<some random stuff> is actually an identifier that is linked with the current device you are using. I usually get into the habit of stripping this section from the end of the link, but come to think of it, it definitely tells them how YOU are related to the person who CLICKed on the link. The same happens with google search, your browser automatically submits a ton of information about the computer you are using to search, so it can better analyse your wealth, interests, everything, to better cater its information (or ads) to you.
I'll inject a disclaimer here, this method isn't bulletproof, as some information can be tokenised. With a token or cookie, it's possible to profile or trace you, even if it is less effective.
Processing is the most difficult part, but this part probably had a decade or 2 of experience in consolidating all the data to a profile, which can be linked to you. It's the process of collecting an activity, and finding who to profile it to. The speed you type in a javascript-activated field. Your scrolling heatmap. And onto the more obvious ones, the stuff you look up and what time you do it at. These can be traced back to a single "human" even across multiple devices. It doesn't matter if you do it on another person's device, it's only a small drop in the statistical bucket. This information identifies you, your interests and your wealth* to select the best content that can be successfully catered to you, for their positive outcome, such as increased watch time and a referral commission from an ad.
Present
Now comes my favourite. uBlock Origin. It's the most effective adblocker I used, and it's even better that it's free and doesn't come with a paywall. I have to be honest, I used to use the normal, traditional AdBlock because it worked well enough. But since they started begging for donations, I dumped it immediately for this thorough, effective adblocker that works on YouTube. It also works on Android as well, as Firefox natively supports extensions, something that Chrome and Safari still can't do to this day. Firefox does have promotions, but you can switch them off permanently. Even better, you can get the apks off github, making it possible to install a properly working browser on Android Wear, if you desire. (works smoothly
)
Segues aside, this is the most effective thing you can do. It tells the evil spirits that whatever they do cannot get to you. You won't see the ads, you won't waste your time, and they can't get paid. In fact, ditch chrome on android if you can, because of those pesky news suggestions, and turn off the "Swipe left for discover" type stuff, it really isn't good for you. If you're on Apple, just don't use Apple News.
And I'd love to praise Reject Convenience for opting in with phpBB, because it is locally run and isn't subject to the Ad and data collection crap Reddit is obsessed with.
And it can run on my ancient iPad, which is always a plus.
)