Great experiment!!! I did something similar back in the 1990's where for a month, I lived without the monopolistic control of the likes of Con Edison, Verizon and the US Postal Service. While not 100% successful, I was living like the Amish in New York.
Kashmir Hill
kashmirhill
Kashmir Hill is the deputy editor for the Special Projects Desk, which produces investigative work across all of Gizmodo Media Group's web sites. She writes about privacy and technology.
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Do No Track is the Baby On Board of browser features.
Just curious, but how old are your kids? Are they grown-up or are they very little (because you are saying you are not middle-aged)? Read more
This is why it’s so scary to be one of the people that are banned from Amazon for doing too many returns. Just google that because the horror stories are real. Read more
Amazon has a “Prime Household” system, so you and your husband can share a single Prime annual fee, while keeping separate his & her accounts.
Well I at least knew that Amazon is sharing our household browsing history with Facebook. A few years ago, Facebook nearly spoiled my wife’s xmas gift to me via an Amazon ad.
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IP-based geolocation is actually inaccurate enough that when companies do use it to pin down your location, it can cause issues. For example, I had to cancel my Hulu Live TV subscription because the geolocation had me pegged over forty miles away (far enough that I couldn’t get my local channels) and Hulu support was… Read more
I recently had a client spend half of a 30 min phone call going deeper and deeper into Facebook conspiracy theories (the illuminati and chemtrails were involved) and then the other half discussing the marketing we should start doing on Facebook. He genuinely was paranoid about Facebook’s tracking but had no qualms… Read more
Really interesting story, and definitely shows the ways in which the “Great Man” narrative (i.e., the idea that social change occurs through one or two individuals alone) can so easily erase the impact of women. Read more
kids, just wait until you get older and facebook starts “people you thought were dead.”
I find your scenarios rather ridiculous....but only on a personal scale. I cannot imagine these large companies targeting individuals. Read more
Surely that’d be infosex.com or something?
Excellent article Kashmir. I’ve always known that the majority of these sites are scams or prayed upon by scammers. But this is the kind of reporting we need to actually enact change needed. How many millions are thrown away each year in the name of faux love?
So in summary: plan a weeknight dinner party.
Kashmir, did you see this article?
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If you find yourself being hounded by debt collectors, here are some steps you should take. Read more
No, they are not the same - court fees typically arise from criminal conduct or some sort of interaction with the court system based on criminal behavior. Read more
It is disgusting to me, this criminalization of debt for poor people. We then levy fines, or put them in jail, thereby taking them away from their jobs (or the opportunity to find work). making them less able to pay. Read more
Jailing someone for owing debt is absurd. Jailing someone because a judge believes a defendant is actively defying court orders to avoid paying a debt is not. Whether the debt is valid or not, the worst thing you can do is fail to appear or refuse to comply with any other court orders (such as turning over financial… Read more
Great read, Kashmir! I particularly like the observation that these devices invite all of our friends and family to be part of our personal panopticon. At Mozilla we’ve mused about creating some kind of privacy warning for your home so you can alert people that their voice is being recorded, and other data is… Read more