@roberto & @kirkmahoneyphd That’s just WRONG on so many levels. It reminds me of the story where a family’s conversations were recorded by the Amazon ECHO & then emailed to coworkers.
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Here’s two news clips which caught my eye from “down-under”
Perhaps a community member from Australia could shed some light on this. @grilledcheesebb 
Here’s another news article about this: Government considering 100 points of ID to get Facebook, Tinder account
https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/security/government-considering-100-points-of-id-to-get-facebook-tinder-account/news-story/624550c621d662da7d3bd98ff3f0e888
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It seems that most of the “conspiracy theories” about social credit (and many others) are becoming real at a boiling frog speed.
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@roberto This “social credit” idea is seriously scary. When I first read about this & that it was implemented in China, I thought it was such a far-fetched idea. However, as time goes on, there is considerable debate about the feasibility and desirability of implementing such a system. Like, it’s actually something that COULD HAPPEN. Even though there are concerns about its potential consequences and implications for privacy, civil liberties, and social equality.
The Overton window is definitely shifting
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G’day!
This is actually the first I’ve heard of this!
I wonder what happens if you already a social media account? Coz I’m gonna straight up close mine if Instagram want to see what my license looks like, haha 
The one thing that makes me majorly raise my eyebrows about this is we’ve had some huge privacy things happen here – Optus, (one of our major phone networks), and Medibank/AHM, (one of our major private health insurers), both got their databases hacked recently and lots of people’s personal information (including mine!), was put on the “dark web”. Apparently lists of people who had, had abortions in their past etc have all been posted, details of psychology treatments, etc. Really shocking. So it’s weird to me that the government would even consider doing something like this right now.
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The misspelling of “Signing” in “Singing in is fast…” makes me suspect that this is a scam.
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I’m torn on this. On the one hand, I believe social media should be limited to people over 16 due to the negative effects it has on child development, and the only way there can truly be age verification of users is for them to provide ID. On the other hand, I can see how having to provide ID could be abused by Big Tech companies and the government.
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“Bug”.
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We are boned, ladies and gentlemen. On one side I am happy to have been the first generation to get introduced to internet, but what is happening now is beyond me. And what’s worse, people complain, and then go back home, use smart lights, check their gmails, send their documents without any password protection solution, record their babies, their homes, put out everything! Just because it’s convenient…
I remember many, many years ago when biometrical photography came to life and people were concerned about it. Seeing where we are heading, it was just the beginning, and yet we are here now and still people are willing to pay millions for it. How more ridiculous can we get??
I for one am transitioning to Proton Mail and their services, getting rid of my Google Services entirely (or at least to the maximum it can be done): ProtonMail . It might not be a foolproof solution, but it’s something, and definitely much better then apple or google…
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@roberto This is frightening, however, I think it’s just a sign of our times. I’ve said it before & I’ll say it again, convenience comes at a cost & some people are willing to sacrifice their privacy to have the newest tech at their fingertips.
There is a saying- If you’re not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE SERVICE.
I don’t think they realize how vulnerable their data is. Or maybe they don’t care.
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As I say to my students: “If you make your brain an aquarium, you know what will happen if you do not change the water.”
It concerns me how the human being, in general, became so limited, including thinking a bit more out of the main (media) bubble.
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Exactly! This explains why I pay Sunbeam Wireless $40/year for the anonymity provided by SW’s Premium Service:
- Voice-to-text input when composing text messages – so you simply speak and your message is accurately typed up for you.
- Extended forecast and radar in the Weather feature
- Point-of-interest search in the Navigation feature – simply enter, for example, the word “pizza” to quickly find the nearest bite to eat.
If I get Mudita’s next cellphone and Mudita offers a similar subscription of anonymizing services for it, then I would gladly pay for that subscription!
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@kirkmahoneyphd I’m glad you brought this up.
Many companies price their products at the lower end of the scale, because they expect to offset some of the costs by monetizing the users data on the back end. When you PAY for something upfront, the company is making their money, by providing you with the service YOU want. Your location is not going to be monetized by some third-party because you PAY to keep it that way. On the other hand, GoogleMaps is FREE, but you are paying for it in another way.
As they say, “there’s no such thing as a free lunch.” LOL
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@kirkmahoneyphd Thanks for sharing. I don’t recall if it was on this forum, but there was a discussion about the reverse problem of BIG TECH sharing/selling user data to insurance companies, so they can profile who may have “undisclosed” pre-existing health conditions or their health habits have become more “riskier” for the insurance company.
Apple even partnered with John Hancock insurance several years back:
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@urszula: Thank you for sharing that John Hancock story. I have heard friends in corporate America talk about their employers giving them Fitbit watches in return for them using those watches diligently for, say, a year. The participating employees must let their employers access their Fitbit data.
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