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I'm getting a bit sick of large corporations a) demanding excess data as a condition of doing business with me, b) allowing it to be stolen, and c) giving zero fucks about it.

What are some things that us netizens can do to make our displeasure known.

Extra points for funny ideas.

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[-] owenfromcanada@lemmy.world 147 points 6 days ago
[-] WorldwideCommunity@lemm.ee 12 points 6 days ago

Explanation for illiterates?

[-] fool@programming.dev 40 points 6 days ago
[-] keisatsu@infosec.pub 12 points 5 days ago

As a security consultant who tests web applications on the regular: LOL

[-] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 19 points 6 days ago

Still, any programmer worth their salt should filter their inputs. One group at work refuses to do it and they always get away with it and it's infuriating

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[-] slazer2au@lemmy.world 94 points 6 days ago

Use EICAR test strings as your password.

If they store your password in plain text the AV will lock the user database.

If your password gets leaked and they are using bad password security, when your password is cracked the AV will isolate the file.

[-] shrodes@lemmy.world 72 points 6 days ago

Bold of you to assume a corporation storing passwords in plain text would be using AV

[-] qaz@lemmy.world 39 points 6 days ago

According to EICAR's specification the antivirus detects the test file only if it starts with the 68-byte test string and is not more than 128 bytes long. As a result, antiviruses are not expected to raise an alarm on some other document containing the test string.

This won't work, assuming the database file is more than 128 bytes long

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[-] Krudler@lemmy.world 20 points 6 days ago

Ah... "advice" consisting of "I've heard of a thing"

[-] HootinNHollerin@slrpnk.net 9 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Being a non-programmer I had to look up what that is

[-] Talaraine@fedia.io 11 points 6 days ago

This is diabolical. I approve.

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[-] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 87 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

More in the spirit of this, prefer and actively seek out alternatives that collect as little or even no data at all and test to make sure they run without internet access. If they give you a hard time or straight up dont work without an internet connection when they ought to be able to, chuck em

Edit: also call them out in reviews. Why you collect data guys, dont you want my money?

[-] Bluetreefrog@lemmy.world 20 points 6 days ago

This has been the go-to for decades and it's not working. I feel like we need to be prepared to engage with the system, but make it clear we are not just passive consumers. Something that becomes viral maybe?....

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[-] noxypaws@pawb.social 19 points 6 days ago

that only works when there are alternatives that work offline. which is not guaranteed.

[-] JoeKrogan@lemmy.world 25 points 5 days ago

Use bots to apply for the open positions to waste time. Reject them all for not enough pay.

Post public info of the CEO class

Piracy

Give fake data when using all services.

Start and join boycott groups.

Use their social media against them. Eg post their dirty laundry as a comment on their post.

[-] BrotherL0v3@lemmy.world 47 points 6 days ago

Not exactly what you're looking for, but Ad-Nauseum is a nice way to inject a ton of garbage into the data corps collect.

[-] Brewchin@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

I played around with this some time ago, until I thought more about it: using tools like this makes adtech money.

Adtech doesn't care if you're interested in X or Y, just that they can charge the advertiser for it. By injecting fake traffic, they're getting more data to sell.

Stop using as many services as possible. It might not be funny but, I mean, what if you went to a music store and bought used CDs instead of using Spotify? Do all of that you can.

[-] granolabar@kbin.melroy.org 48 points 6 days ago

Deny engagement and profit. It a takes a mind set change but a lot of shit can go avoided.

Streamimg can be replaced with Yarr

Use products you have longer until they break or not longer don't fit use case

Start your shopping on the second market.

Generally Corpo's and government are centralized and get benefits of that system, working class is decentralized naturally so we need to lean into that.

[-] Norin@lemmy.world 16 points 6 days ago

Absolutely.

Buy things used, repair and jailbreak what you can, and learn to make things for yourself.

We can’t, at least as individuals, divest from every exploitative system. But, we can remove ourselves from more than we think.

Often enough, you get a better experience out of the homemade and secondary market than whatever the new thing you’re being pushed can give.

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[-] GrumpyDuckling@sh.itjust.works 41 points 6 days ago

If you send back one of those reply mail envelopes it costs them money. Stuff those envelopes with junk and send them back.

[-] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 18 points 6 days ago

I don't get many of them anymore, but when I do, I mail them back with a little slip of paper inside that says "poop".

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[-] hansolo@lemm.ee 23 points 6 days ago

If a company is publicly traded, then all leaked individuals are given 50.1% controlling stock in the company, split among the victims with new stocks created for them, with unclaimed stocks held in a trust controlled by anyone that did respond to claim stocks. They can sell the stocks, or drive the company into the ground out of spite. Maybe even both.

Companies not publicly traded have 3 months to make all code used, trademarked material, and patents open source in perpetuity, and 1 year to convert their corporate structure into a non-profit.

Regardless of the size of the company, the CEO, CTO, and board must eat their weight in fried bugs. They get to pick the type of bug from a list of 5 options, and any seasoning they want. Live streams of the bug eating will be monetized and the proceeds given to orphans, under the title of "It's not a bug, its a feature."

[-] j4k3@lemmy.world 38 points 6 days ago

Send a copy of the receipt for your donation to the open source project that most closely aims to be their alternative. Explain why you're angry in 3 sentences and do so like you are condescendingly speaking to a five year old.

[-] Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 14 points 6 days ago

Make the letter public, so other people know & get informed.

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[-] halloween_spookster@lemmy.world 32 points 6 days ago

I'm skeptical that anything legal will work for very long because they will quickly work to make said legal action illegal.

[-] Bluetreefrog@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago

But we can have some fun along the way, and it does change behaviour for a bit.

Maybe pirate your media and donate the money to open source alternatives

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[-] fool@programming.dev 24 points 6 days ago

Make your data useless or wrong.

More passively, there's probably an oddly large amount of John Does born on January 1, 2000 ;)

More offensively, anti-image-gen data poisoning such as Nightshade exists. It's well-defended against IIRC so hopefully someone can Cunningham's Law correct me. And this is also more solo of a movement (as opposed to gaining mass support for something)

[-] JollyG@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Every "big data" data source I have ever worked with is already filled to the brim with low-quality, obviously wrong data. I have to think that is also true of the data scraped or collected by the big companies. I don't think it matters that the personal data they collect is wrong, so long as they can convince ad buyers that it is accurate.

[-] RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com 26 points 6 days ago
  1. Get into politics
  2. Get elected
  3. Rip them a new one

*might take some time

[-] WhatSay@slrpnk.net 27 points 6 days ago

Use AI to generate false info to feed into their database

[-] henfredemars@infosec.pub 22 points 6 days ago

I love putting wrong AI slop in every optional field or space I can get away with for profiles and accounts that don't really matter.

[-] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 16 points 6 days ago

If an extension exists for this I'll use it

[-] y0kai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 5 days ago

Start Self hosting. Keeping my data at home is how I'm sticking it to the man these days.

[-] helmet91@lemmy.world 18 points 6 days ago

Don't use their services.

[-] stinerman@midwest.social 23 points 6 days ago

As others have said, the best instances of direct action are illegal.

[-] BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works 16 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Edit: whoops, I missed the "il" part in "not illegal". Anyway you should definitely not do the following. Allegedly doing the following would be arson, and society frowns upon such things.

Easy:

  1. Identify company
  2. Wait until it's a weekend night. We're not after the wage slaves after all.
  3. Mix polystyrene and gasoline. Remember that gasoline can melt some plastics, so if using a plastic container for mixing do a test first. You do not want napalm all over the place.
  4. Fill the gooey substance in glass bottles.
  5. Cap the bottles. (see #7)
  6. Drive to the company.
  7. Open bottles and put wicks in them. (important not to do this earlier. Driving with open gasoline containers in your car will make you drowsy and is a fire hazard)
  8. If you haven't already got gloves on, put them on and wipe down the bottles - you may have to leave some at some point.
  9. Have accomplices trigger fire alarms all over the local fire department's district. Either automatic fire alarms will be discarded for a bit or the marshall will be tied up investigating.
  10. Light a wick, throw the bottle at the company, try to get it to break a window.
  11. If you're out of bottles or you see blue lights cheese it. Otherwise go back a step and repeat it.
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[-] MojoMcJojo@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago

Do not use actual names, birthdays, phone numbers, addresses, email addresses, etc. There's no reason they need to know that info and I love/hate seeing physical mail and email show up with my made up info. Doesn't work when paying for stuff though.

[-] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 6 days ago

The fake name generator might be useful. There are also temporary email services for when a site account requires a confirmed email.

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[-] OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml 8 points 5 days ago

Report bugs that don't actually exist. Keep reporting the same bug from different emails. Works especially well for apps.

[-] 11111one11111@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

Oh fuck you, buddy. Lol I find it infuriating the amout of product and software bugs that get ignored and passed to every sequential generation that follows and you wanna pile on fake bugs. You're not my buddy, pal.

[-] yournamehere@lemm.ee 7 points 5 days ago

luigi had an idea

[-] BerenstainsMonster@kbin.earth 16 points 6 days ago

I think the most effective method is to do some sort of organized boycott. We all know well enough how sheisty these companies are. Time to start encouraging each other to quit them en masse.

[-] nichtburningturtle@feddit.org 12 points 6 days ago

To bad that most participants give in and return shortly after leaving.

[-] metaStatic@kbin.earth 14 points 6 days ago

me explaining how evil Nestle is every time a family member buys a product, them agreeing that's the most evil thing they've ever heard, and then doing it all over again next week ...

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this post was submitted on 25 Dec 2024
287 points (98.3% liked)

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