I feel this all the time. There is so much data over which I have so little control (SSN, birthdate, address, phone #) -- anything I do with me kids requires massive data hemorrhages. And I don't see how I can avoid it.
Here's an example: signing my kid up for a sports competition and everything on the form is required. Do they actually need my address? No, but I can't sign him up without inputting it. Try calling: nobody knows how to change it because the form is a third party thing. Great. Also: they want a picture of him for his "profile" -- I used a cartoon image I generated. Of course then at the competition his is the only picture that isn't a real life photo. It's all small stuff, but it all adds up to total exposure.
I don't know how to live life without being laid bare like this. And I get the sense that it hasn't even begun to be used against us yet.
Kids is the real problem. Not because its hard, but because they're the most targeted group that, unlike you or I, will be tracked cradle to grave. Anyone born before the turn of the millennium at least got some years without tracking.
I feel this all the time. There is so much data over which I have so little control (SSN, birthdate, address, phone #) -- anything I do with me kids requires massive data hemorrhages. And I don't see how I can avoid it.
Here's an example: signing my kid up for a sports competition and everything on the form is required. Do they actually need my address? No, but I can't sign him up without inputting it. Try calling: nobody knows how to change it because the form is a third party thing. Great. Also: they want a picture of him for his "profile" -- I used a cartoon image I generated. Of course then at the competition his is the only picture that isn't a real life photo. It's all small stuff, but it all adds up to total exposure.
I don't know how to live life without being laid bare like this. And I get the sense that it hasn't even begun to be used against us yet.