Is your privacy really that private?

I no longer spend time worrying about things I can’t do anything about. I try to leave the smallest footprint wherever I go, but it is increasingly futile for the reasons you listed above. I don’t like any of it, but there isn’t a thing I can do about most of it.

I mostly run with cash because it’s the way things are here. My travels are well documented, as is the movement of my vessel. My cell phone, which I rarely use, is basically a beat-up old throw-away that I buy minutes for on a monthly basis from a local company in a woman’s name in Mexico—it was a gift from her, a good friend, so she could call me now and then. I have a very small footprint on the net: No Facebook, no Twitter Account. There are very few photographs of me on the net, the latest being from 2008 or 9. I purposely keep it that way. My boat is registered in my name in Florida.

I own no other property. I’m a nobody. My opinions aren’t important to any authority. I break very few laws. Those are my best defenses from incursions into my private life.

There is no way around it. It’s the world we’ve allowed to evolve around us, through bad behavior by some and lack of interest in protecting our own rights by the rest. There is much less of this surveillance in the developing world. It’s expensive and only the wealthiest countries can carry this off effectively.

”...your whole day could be recreated with much certainty?” That’s the way it’s done on TV shows these days. Detectives aren’t wearing out nearly as many shoes as they used to!

I used to feel very safe in my house on five private acres that the public can’t tell is here without doing document searches at the county. With the satellite images available now, and the rapid advances in drone technology available to anyone, I’m having second doubts about security.

If you never read another book in your life, read David Brin’s The Transparent Society http://www.davidbrin.com/transparentsociety.html

He wrote this in 1998, but it’s still very very relevant 17 years later.

I bought my copy back then, even now from time to time i marvel at how prescient it was when it was written,

If the government wants to know how many times you take a dump they will find out, I don’t use my cell phone all that much when not at work,sometimes I can go all weekend without even turning it on.
I don’t use my visa on line, but do have a paypal account or use a prepaid visa, we have an unlisted phone number.
Once in a while I will Google my name and nothing ever comes up.

@SQUEEKY2 If the government wants to know how many times you take a dump they will find out,…]
It might not be the government, it could be a hacker, some woman who is infatuated with you, etc. if they have mad gum shoe skills, they can piece together your day even if you never used your cell. If they managed to tail you to your home without being scene, they can Google Earth your house and see what color your patio furniture is and how it is arranged.

@Hypocrisy_Central Then they have way to much time on their hands,and real stalkers find a way to find out things with or without modern technology.