[kwlug-disc] have I ever told you guys that Facebook is evil?

[Doug Moen]

On Thu, Jun 16, 2022, at 12:15 PM, William Park via kwlug-disc wrote:
> No one is gonna get fired over this.  So, don't worry about it.

The Ontario Personal Health Information Protection Act
  https://www.ipc.on.ca/health-individuals/file-a-health-privacy-complaint/your-health-privacy-rights-in-ontario/
gives me the right to
 * be informed of the reasons for the collection, use and disclosure of your personal health information
 * refuse or give consent to the collection, use or disclosure of your personal health information, except in certain circumstances

In the early days, patients were asked to give informed consent, consistent with the law. I would be given a form to sign that explicitly mentioned that information was being collected, and that I had right of refusal.

Now, nobody is being informed of the fact of collection, or of their right of refusal. This is prima facie illegal, according to the statement of principles on the web site I liked. And people don't care that their civil rights are being slowly eroded. "Don't worry about it", as you say. This process of civil rights erosion doesn't end well, it ends up with what's going on the United States, or worse. A generation of people are growing up, under a constant stream of propaganda from the surveillance capitalists, that privacy doesn't matter, and that privacy is the enemy of "convenience". And that worries me.

Like for example, we just bought a new washing machine and dryer. The top selling brand transmits everything you do to the manufacturer over the internet. For now, this is opt in, but internet surveillance already cannot be turned off for a growing number of consumer machines and appliances. We bought a less popular brand with no surveillance, because that's something that's still available.

Remember that Canadian government petition circulated earlier on the mailing list, about consumer data privacy and the right to repair? I signed it.