Nobody Knows What's in Our Fridge! Wow, Spooky!
Freedom means you can also purchase things anonymously
YESTERDAY we went to Town and spent a couple of hours at shops, some of them in the Christmas markets (they officially opened some days ago; we wanted to arrive early). Poppies were visible (we remember the fallen!) and nearby at old Trafford Ruud van Nistelrooy was demonstrating his skills as Manchester United's interim head coach.
We recently made this routine of going to Town at least twice a week, pay with cash (they always ask "are you paying with card?" and ask if we have some "loyalty" cards bearing an identity; that's how they spy on and profile shoppers - the latter even if they pay cash!), then return home and fill up the fridge. None of the food we buy is tracked or marked for profiling*. There's no recorded buyer associated with that food. The Digital Vegan (Dr. Andy Farnell) routinely writes about this. This past summer he wrote: "Finland has overzealously embraced many dangerous aspects of a technological society pushed by business that shows no tolerance for marginal life or ideas. Because my bank stiffs me on overseas card transactions I always carried cash in Finland, and spent it generously. That's almost impossible now. Helsinki, at least on university campuses, has become a hellish dystopia for technological pluralists. You cannot even buy a sandwich that isn't tracked, data-mined and tied eternally to your identity. It sickened me so much that I went without food for several days."
Part of people's personal freedom is being able to buy things anonymously. About a decade ago I ranted about how Twitter (in "analytics") was broadcasting the food-buying habits of a user's "audience" (they showed this to users in Twitter, not just advertisers!).
If I purchase some food and want to talk about it in public, then that's consensual (willful) disclosure of information about oneself. If I cook some meal and then talk about it (e.g. in IRC), then again... this is a personal choice.
Society used to be like that before every food one orders "online" or pays for with "card" (i.e. plastic or cash but with "Tesco Clubcard" or "Nectar" or whatever glorified plastic with ribbon/chip) meant it'll be "tracked, data-mined and tied eternally to your identity," As Dr. Farnell shrewdly put it. He was not exaggerating because that's exactly what happens nowadays. Ignore this at your own peril/risk.
Maybe the food gets "cheaper" (well, it does not, either; they do offer tiny "discounts" for being spied on or, conversely, they penalise people for privacy) because the shop profits a little more by selling your data "upstream" (data-mining firms or data brokers that sell this data to insurance companies and unscrupulous vendors).
In increasingly oppressive societies, lacking a "food footprint" will be deemed "suspicious activity" and people whose dietary (food consumption) record is blank or unknown will be presumed "poor". Let's change that. Let's try to spread the message that people privileged enough to buy food with cash (and no plastic with a chip for "discounts") are not "chavs" but well-informed people (not dumb "consumers") who value their dignity and have foresight. █
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* Someone might say "CCTV!" but CCTV does not infer identities, especially in a city with millions of residents. Moreover, we still wear masks outdoors, impairing the ability to recognise a random person because the face is mostly occluded. Another someone might say "but your mobile phone broadcasts location!" (no, we don't carry those things, either).