I am at a point where I simply stopped worrying and began to love the bomb. I did my best, I really did - degoogled before it was trendy, dropped all social media, built a homelab for complete data ownership, set up matrix messaging with family, and so on - but it feels like a wasted effort at this point.

All my data is out there, one way or another, and a dedicated cybercriminal - or worse, a government entity - can obtain or exfiltrate it without issues. I know it, they know it, everyone knows it.

The only thing I can change now is my reaction to this fact, and although the idea of off grid autarky is tempting, I am not there yet. I just don't want to stop living - flying abroad, going to doctors - I just accept that privacy in the current state of human condition is impossible, and move on with my life.

I recently needed a lawyer on something that involved lots of highly sensitive PI.

Sending my file over to lawyers in a semi-safe way has proved impossible.

And in any case, i received an answer with lots of PI over a plain email…

Absolutely maddening

> I don't think [...] these companies [...] can be trusted with my data

Abusing privacy is the lucrative norm. The laws won't help you and the government is busy with its corporate agenda.

I said it before as well, but it’s because nothing “publicly really bad” happened despite the leaks and stolen information over the past decades. After Equifax breach, everyone got tired, because company survived, and whatever identity theft happens from time to time gets swept under the rug. It didn’t impact most people’s lives, despite leaking half of the US’s SSNs and etc. Then fatigue kicked in, and with subsequent leaks everything just mellowed down, so nobody cares.

I’ve switched to operate with the idea that my information has already been leaked at some point. I should be generally ready to fix the problems if/when identity theft happens, rather than inconveniencing myself and figuring out the third party trust situation.

> where I'm opposed to talking to my doctor because the information may be digitally recorded and leaked

Let me say "Hi mate, +1". State doctors? There are territories in which a pharmacological prescription is shared DB only now (where previously they could be on paper - a secret between you, the pen, the paper, the pharmacist and the gods). Private entities? Good luck finding one that does not require a privacy waiver as a condition for the visit. Searching for a medical dock (a dock for a doc), calling them to ask? "This is a recorded message. If you proceed with the call then you agree..." (Hang-up click).

I mean why does every hotel need to make a copy of my passport?

I’m never going to a therapist after one company leaked all of the patient data / therapy notes for 33k patients.

This is just a general American complaint that has merit on its own, but has nothing to do with the article and is just derailing any discussion about the article itself and driving the conversation to your own personal concerns about something completely separate.

In this case, the EU does have consequences for data breaches where proper protocols are not followed.

Additionally, this is not private information .. most anyone can look this information up. ID numbers are not confidential information like SSNs are treated in the US.. they are just a number to tell person A from person B. You give this number to everyone without thinking about it because it's how every company you interact with identifies you.

In this case a rogue company, or compromised company, used their access to contact the central database to download everyone's information.

In my country we essentially use the same system, except for we still allow companies to download the whole database if they want to instead of making individual queries.

In this case the access to their system was unauthorized, and under GDPR data breaches have to be reported within 72 hours. Companies can't make the decision on their own that it's not a big deal.