Mastodawn

My camera shoots fascists Apr 28, 2023

You're on a very promising first date and find out that your chosen restaurant only provides menus, ordering, and payment via scanning a QR code with your phone. No cash accepted.

Your date politely says this is a discriminatory practice and a bad #privacy and #DataSecurity situation. You:

(Hey, not to grovel for boosts, but I'd love it if this got wide exposure.)

Wholeheartedly agree because fuck surveillance

68.9%

Didn't know it was a problem, but open to learn.

21.2%

Grudgingly go along, but no second date, dweeb.

Think your date is a weirdo and leave.

2.8%

Poll ended at Apr 30, 2023 at 2:23am.

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My camera shoots fascists Apr 28, 2023

This has actually happened twice now. Both times my dates were polite about it, but I think there was a pretty hard silent eye roll and a sense that "this isn't going to work."

The Bay Area is really bad for this. A number of my favorite places are now closed off to me because I won't scan their fucking QR code.

If you're unsure why requiring a smart phone linked to a credit card is discriminatory and bad privacy practice, just do a little Internet searching.

Also, next time you're asked, tell them you only have cash and walk out.

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My camera shoots fascists Apr 28, 2023

I'm glad the last two options are getting a little bit of response, or I wouldn't really believe the results. I also know that on mastodon the first and second options are going to go pretty hard. Which is also why I like it here 😆

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My camera shoots fascists

Let's take this scenario one wee step further:

You go into the restaurant, scan the QR code (which sucks up a bunch of data about you right then), scan the menu (more data "sluuurrrrp"), order (ditto) and pay (sluurrrrp).

If you're cool with all that, then maybe your are also cool with the security cameras connecting your QR code (with your name and a ton of other data about you) with your face, your gait, your behavior and your date's facial scan and their behavior during the date and sending all of this to some anonymous data broker(s) to do with as they please?

Or would that be going too far? How do you know they're not doing this already? (I mean, they probably aren't...yet...in most places...yet.)

So, how far is too far for you? Maybe we should just stop this shit in its tracks and roll it the fuck back? Or nah?

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My camera shoots fascists Apr 28, 2023

I'm going to bed. Will be amused to see what happens by morning, since I see this is drifting into other time zones.

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Dec [{(

)}]Apr 28, 2023

@Mikal
I recall a @dnalounge blog post (from only 11 years ago) about a company with a venue surveillance system that was planning to do Creeping As A Service, possibly with facial recognition technology.

Have you heard of this "hot new startup venture" SceneTap?
https://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2012/05/16.html

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My camera shoots fascists Apr 28, 2023

@dec23k @dnalounge

CaaS: "Creeping as a Service" is way too accurate. *screams*

I think (?) that some large chain stores ID you via Bluetooth signals when you enter the place and then track your movements through the store, watching what you look at, what you pick up and put down, and other behavior, then link that to your loyalty card. They also have that data linked to your face, body, gait, etc. that they can then combine with all the other data they scrape from every scummy data broker... Yeah, no thanks.

If this isn't actually happening yet, I do know it's been repeatedly proposed for years. And, of course, you're probably not told about any of this when you enter the store. (I put my phone in airplane mode if I am in a place that I suspect might do this and never use loyalty cards.)

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Dec [{(

)}]Apr 30, 2023

@Mikal
I just put in some search engine effort, and found the @dnalounge blog post. It's from only 11 years ago. For some reason I thought it was older than that.

Have you heard of this "hot new startup venture" SceneTap?
https://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2012/05/16.html

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My camera shoots fascists Apr 30, 2023

@dec23k @dnalounge

OMFG that is as techbro douchy-among-douchebros as douchebro gets.

But that was rookie stuff! Here's a good NYT story from 2019 about how stores track us via our phones. It's gotten much, much more pervasive and accurate. TL;DR: use airplane mode or turn the thing off whenever entering large stores.

https://web.archive.org/web/20190614225158/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/14/opinion/bluetooth-wireless-tracking-privacy.html

"In 2015, Facebook began shipping free Facebook Bluetooth beacons to businesses for location marketing inside the Facebook app. Leaked documents show that Facebook worried that users would “freak out” and spread “negative memes” about the program."

Read that again: even Zuckerberg recognizes that people do not fucking want to be tracked and our behavior monitored and analyzed by creepy bots 24/7. This makes me wonder about people who defend this behavior. Those are the real creeps, IMO.

Opinion | In Stores, Secret Bluetooth Surveillance Tracks Your Every Move

As you shop, “beacons” are watching you, using hidden technology in your phone.

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Tom Ritchford Apr 28, 2023

@Mikal Dating tip: things will go badly if your "Them" and their "Them" don't overlap almost completely. (Your Them in this case includes "the predatory surveillance state", which the date trusts...)

Sadly, we all have a Them these days. Objectively, some of these Thems should be on everyone's Them list, because They are destroying everyone's future for everyone, but objectivity does not rule in a post-truth world.