Banks and data companies are moving to biometrics for proof of identity and you may have hit this.
At least 3 credit card companies I use are signed up/using a biometrics/information provider. (they wouldn’t tell me who, despite federal disclosure requirements — I only knew they were using someone because my current accurate info was replaced by info from 7 years ago)
There are companies trying very hard to find out everything from your hair color, facial features, and skin type to your email address and connect them all for everything from identity management to advertising. They are working on getting your payroll data directly from your employer as well, so you will not be able to self declare income in the future. You will know when you run across the companies that use these providers because their data is often wrong or out of date and they usually ask you for a video of yourself holding your id to update it and may even give you a problem then.
The amount of information these companies are collecting and piecing together is scary — one company is tracking major website comment activity and tying it back to their core data sets which has your IRL info.
This means that in the future, you could be denied employment, a mortgage, or an auto loan because of something you said last year in Twitter.
You’re forgetting about the KYC/AML laws that lets these companies do that.
They can deny bank loans, auto loans, etc based on comment history and then hide behind KYC/AML laws. Under those laws, they don’t have to provide any reason whatsoever for the rejection and can operate without impunity. They are the judge, jury, executioner and the government gave them that power.
You do realize most of these payment processors or even financial institutions have arbitration clauses right? And as a business, they have the legal right to refuse for any reason not disability related. Hell, they could deny a disabled person a loan based on the unlikelihood they would pay it back and then hide behind KYC/AML laws. Oh we're not denying you based on disability, it's just some flags have popped up in our system and we can't tell you why. Google doesn't have KYC/AML laws to hide behind.
The funniest part is that HSBC already revealed to criminal organizations on how to evade KYC/AML tripwires. When you outlaw freedom, only the outlaws have freedom.
Thank god NYS made it illegal for employers to query your existing payroll data from the databrokers awhile back.
But unfortunately every single major payroll provider (like ADP) in the US now shares your payroll data with Equifax and more. And those services openly advertise for employers to use them to be able to beat down new employees on salaries among other things.
Their data is pretty much always wrong for me. I share my father's name, so whenever I do a credit check they ask me about the homes I owned before I was even born... Unfortunately, my family has moved a lot and I can't remember all the addresses.
It's literally out of control. We cannot have a healthy democracy in a systematically surveilled society. When people understand they're being actively and constantly surveilled they tend to self-censor their expression. When we do not have a healthy and honest exchange of expression (something that has arguably been being eroded for a long while now) it will fundamentally erode one of the pillars of our society. Kudos to CA and IL for attempting to do something about this legislatively.
As a citizen with some modicum of hope for the future I will vote for strong privacy protections. As an engineer I will not work on products that progress our state of surveillance capitalism (yep, realize the constraints here). I hope others agree and act accordingly.
I’m not sure that these requirements are actually due to Surveillance Capitalism; Government KYC requirements may be the culprits, as they’re steadily on the rise (especially with all the recent sanctions).
These are not contradictory things. Capitalism is something that is maintained by the government in the first place - it exists so long as government continues to operate a property right framework that is in favor of large corporate entities. And, of course, said entities bribe the politicians who run the government to continue this state of affairs.
In short, surveillance state capitalism that strangles actual free markets and reduces choice is the natural form of capitalism.
I've always found this process and surveillance capitalism completely insane. It is a huge national security issue. I know governments like to have data on people to let them more effectively exert control (for good or bad) but the truth of the matter is that any data that is collected can similarly be used by your adversaries. It is always and will always be a double edged sword. I don't think the problems will be adequately resolved until this becomes deeply ingrained in both the public mind as well as the minds of politicians. Data is certainly extremely useful, but we need to take a moment to weigh the utility against how vulnerable it makes us.
>Are they tracking anonymous comments or how does it work?
Many people happily put their real names in their social media.
Many people put information and/or pictures which easily identifies them when combined with other data, which credit agencies have an enormous amount of (workplace, purchase of a new vehicle, house photos, school, etc.).
Those two things alone probably cover a large percent of the population.
Add in things like: using a username on social media that is the same/similar enough to the email address you signed up to credit monitoring, purchasing browser fingerprint data from whatever websites and comparing it to logged-in site visitors, etc. and the outlook is bleak.
Basically: a bunch of laws intersected to screw you over, even if it wasn't the intent of any one of them individually. But nobody cares, because anyone like you who looks out for their privacy is a weirdo.
At least 3 credit card companies I use are signed up/using a biometrics/information provider. (they wouldn’t tell me who, despite federal disclosure requirements — I only knew they were using someone because my current accurate info was replaced by info from 7 years ago)
There are companies trying very hard to find out everything from your hair color, facial features, and skin type to your email address and connect them all for everything from identity management to advertising. They are working on getting your payroll data directly from your employer as well, so you will not be able to self declare income in the future. You will know when you run across the companies that use these providers because their data is often wrong or out of date and they usually ask you for a video of yourself holding your id to update it and may even give you a problem then.
The amount of information these companies are collecting and piecing together is scary — one company is tracking major website comment activity and tying it back to their core data sets which has your IRL info.
This means that in the future, you could be denied employment, a mortgage, or an auto loan because of something you said last year in Twitter.