Privacy through data poisoning

I posted a while back a link to a tool called AdNauseam

Despite the understandable critique, I think what makes this tool interesting is the idea of “fighting back” by overwhelming data collectors with useless spam. Which reminds me of Operation Troll The NSA, that was launched right after the Snowden leaks.

I don’t think this is a well-covered topic. For example, I could only find this article: How to poison the data that Big Tech uses to surveil you | MIT Technology Review talking about it.

Example application of this is increasing the circle of people you do online payments with. i.e: if you start using Zelle more often for paying strangers/stores, then in case you needed to Zelle a friend, that friend will “mix” into that group of people and won’t be a conspicuous. Of course, you have to take care of other metadata collection methods like messaging, but it’s only a step in “fighting back”.

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In theory, it seems good. But in practice, I am also wondering to what extent, the positioning is possible. Data collection mechanisms are becoming too sophisticated, so this poisoning can also make us more unique like happening in extensions.

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