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Background

For many decades now, I have placed an high personal value on privacy and on not using service's that require KYC. This is has often created friction between me and friends/family.

All Individuals have their own personal tiers of what is important to them and many times these tiers don't line up with others in a group or society. This concept, that others don't always think like you, is often a basic life lesson we teach people since they were a young child.

However, privacy and avoiding KYC appears to not be an acceptable goals to many people.

Two recent examples for context:

Not attending Friend's Graduation Ceremony - This Graduation was going to require air travel and was being held at "secure" facility. Both of these items were going to require ID and background checks to attend.
Business Trade Show - During the check in process to get one's badge for a trade show there was a "required" form to fill out. Usually I would just put junk data in and go about my life but this form was requiring a valid email/phone. I ended up just filling in the form with an actual email/phone (versus using a burner one) because I had my management team impatiently waiting in line behind me.

These are just two of hundreds of examples in the past decades.

Issue at Hand

The common reaction I get from friends/family is that I am being completely unreasonable in protecting my privacy and not participating in KYC.

In my personal experience people seem shocked that I would not go to a friend's graduation or extremely frustrated with holding up the line at the trade show.

A large percentage of people appear to value doing things more than privacy. As mention above, we all have different tiers of what is important to us in life and this diversity amongst people makes the world an interesting place to live.

But the reaction I am experiencing to privacy is hostile. Example: Why would you put privacy in front of friends/family?

I have had very little success in convincing friends/family that their frustration should be directed towards the entities require KYC and not the Individuals who want to remain private.

I welcome any thoughts, comments, and/or advice on this topic.

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70 sats \ 2 replies \ @teemupleb 4 Jun

If they just check my age in a bar when showing my ID, it’s fine, but I’m not comfortable letting them take a photo of it etc.

Otherwise I will soon be “coinbased” and my personal info is sold on darkmarkets by minimum wage Bangladeshi support agents.

I’m not comfortable with sharing my biometric data either.

A common trend in the city where I live is that the best quality gyms use facial recognition to access the gym. The alternative is to go to the 80s style poor-quality Arnold gyms, so often convenience here trumps privacy.

5 sats \ 1 reply \ @Wumbo OP 4 Jun

I thought about buying a pair of these glasses.

It won't solve your gym problem but might help against some cameras.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @96c0b276a3 5 Jun

They accept bitcoin

89 sats \ 2 replies \ @DarthCoin 4 Jun

Change your life style. Change everything you do if you feel that you have less and less privacy. Complacency is the enemy of privacy.

Do you live in a city? Move out to rural. Do you work 9 to 5 for a corporation? Start your own independent business, be your own boss. You will work less, earn less but your life will be much free. More money doesn't mean you are more happy. More free time it means more happiness. Especially if your actual job require traveling (you are forced to give up liberties) then you are a slave. If you really have to travel, use a bike, a personal car, walk or share-riding.

Finally if you still feel overwhelmed by privacy violation, you will find your own way to do it like me: build your own homestead far away from so called "civilization". In other words... FUCK'EM'ALL.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Wumbo OP 4 Jun

Complacency is the enemy of privacy.

This good saying, I will need to remember it.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 4 Jun

That is good. I've heard "convenience is the enemy of security" for years. Both are good and true.

31 sats \ 2 replies \ @LibertasBR 4 Jun

Your post touched on an issue I’ve been trying to deal with on my own, without showing it to anyone, because my family thinks the same way yours does. It’s really hard to convince people of a reality they don’t want to see, so I just don’t show them. I take my own protective measures, and when I’m put in situations like the ones you mentioned, I try to rely on cold, hard data — but it’s often not enough.

Recently, I had a close family member’s birthday at a restaurant, and I was caught off guard when they asked for my ID just to open a tab and allow entry. Unfortunately, I couldn’t just walk away because of the family connection, but I found it ridiculous that I needed to give up my identification just to access the place. I don’t know if this is common in other countries, and honestly, I didn’t even know it was common here, but apparently it’s a policy to prevent scams.

I believe I’m not doing too badly in terms of exposure, but I’m already so embedded in the system because of my past mistakes with privacy that I haven’t even stopped to assess whether a cleanup is still possible.

29 sats \ 1 reply \ @Wumbo OP 4 Jun

"Surprise KYC" is something I should of added in the original post.

The friction of asking friends/family 20 question about a future event has also been a source of conflict.

One "life hack" I found works well and gets very little push back is asking the venue ahead of time if they are kid friendly.

Example:

I am bringing a diaper bag, is that an issue for your venue? This question helps figuring out security and bag searches.
Do you allow kids? This question helps figuring out ID requirements.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @LibertasBR 4 Jun

This kind of thing feels insane.

I really appreciate the tips — they make a lot of sense. The real problem is when I get to the entrance of an event and they demand ID. That’s where it gets tough.

10 sats \ 2 replies \ @itsrealfake 5 Jun

keep it up!

I'm in the same boat and it confuses my people. they've gotten used to it but treat me a bit like the crazy uncle.

It's important both ways tho:

a) you want to be prepared with burner emails (masked email from Fastmail is an option I prefer.. all services get a different email)

b) you don't want your anti-kyc behavior to make you easier to profile, or to stick out as somebody with no record.

but don't thing and keep your head on a swivel

5 sats \ 1 reply \ @Wumbo OP 5 Jun

Thanks, Never heard of FastMail before I will check them out.

Masked emails seem like a great feature. https://www.fastmail.com/features/masked-email/

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @itsrealfake 21h

they're Australian & five-eyes still, so be prepared for that..

in my use case it helped me de-google and enabled portability across devices

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @Gian 4 Jun

When someone asks you for something, they want a piece of you to use it, or to feel better. This often happens in everyday life, when someone asks you something about a friend of yours, or about a person you know, either when you are working or with acquaintances. It may be innocent for you to say what you think, but surely in your life it has happened to you that what you said was misinterpreted, or was used for another purpose. This is what happens with kyc.............people only ask for their own benefit. Learning to give is a difficult path, always giving is almost always wrong. Learning to imagine what will happen when you give someone information helps you understand the world in which you live. Most people are vampires who don't want to put in the effort to commit to their purpose, but in the meantime they want to accumulate as much as they can from others.....Give less and to those who deserve it, you will get uninteresting people away from you and improve your day...Is a personal and difficult road that must be discovered every day and it is different for each of us..

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @79c9095526 5 Jun

The audacity of people taking photos of IDs nowadays is crazy. I had booked airport transportation online with a reputable company I've used for years when flying to Cancun. When I got in the van, the driver asked to see my ID, I thought OK that is reasonable he wants to make sure he got the correct passenger. Before I realized it, he had taken a picture and was sending it via whatsapp to his company whatsapp thread.

Now this driver has my home address, license number, photo, stored on his phone/google drive/whatsapp (plus everyone else in that dispatch thread)...

Sad state of affairs.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Wumbo OP 5 Jun

Some countries have passport cards, same size as traditional ID but don't have address information on the card. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_passport_card

I have started to also just tell people I left my ID in my other pants. It is interesting that many people accept incompetence as an excuse but not a principal stand.

20 sats \ 1 reply \ @guerratotal 5 Jun outlawed

stackers have outlawed this. turn on wild west mode in your /settings to see outlawed content.

How does one personally value privacy and avoiding KYC (Know Your Customer)?

Background

Issue at Hand

I welcome any thoughts, comments, and/or advice on this topic.