For those who give a shit about privacy, consider the linked past post. The ATM reads the serial numbers of banknotes as it’s dispensed and later used to track your habits.

So to mitigate the threat of unwarranted mass surveillance, it’s a good idea to put your ATM withdrawals in an envelope with the transaction date. Then let it sit in your safe for 6—12 months so the tracking data becomes stale before you actually use it. A good length of time suggests the banknotes went through many hands before they are back on the radar.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [S] 1 point 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Data is relevant forever.

Nonsense. All sensitive data has a window of sensitivity. After you die, most of your personal data will become instantly irrelevant. No one will give a shit what embarrassing shit you said on social media after you’re dead, including this absurd claim that data is relevant forever.

Some data is instantly and forever irrelevant from the moment it is created, like the fake birth date on my acct.

Even direct solid evidence of a criminal offense can become irrelevant if the statute of limitations is reached.

When the cash you draw from the ATM changes hands a dozen times before coming back on the radar 6 months later, the data about the source (your withdrawal from the ATM) is absolutely irrelevant and useless.

It’s tracked forever.

That does not make it relevant. My hard drive is perfectly capable of storing irrelevant totally useless data. It just means the data controller has plenty of storage space and the effort of determining whether it’s relevant has a higher price than the storage space.

They’ll know if they look.

Know what? Whatever you think they’ll know, the knowledge is not useful after the banknote changes a dozen hands.

  • source
  • parent