So recently, I went into a shipping service store, that is well known, etc etc. I walked in, asked a question, then walked out. I did nothing else.

A couple days later, I get an email from them, to the email address that I have used for them in the past. The email wants me to take a survey.

Now, since I have made a shipping label online with them before once, then took that label (attached to a parcel) in the store, which was then scanned, I can only assume that this recent email I got was the result of facial recognition data gathering.

I am an extremely privacy conscious person, but this tactic evades even me, as the only way to avoid it, would be to never set foot into their store.

I really really hate myself too because the email I used with them is one of my personal-name emails and now they have that. I did that before I became privacy conscious. I can only imagine how other people feel, who are much deeper in the hole than a random facial recognition incident.

Have any of your ever experienced this? where you walked into some place and then got an email? It's so creepy..

The only service that comes to mind for me is NordVPN, which is based in Panama.

Is Panama the big brain move? If so, why aren't more privacy services doing this?

What kind of privacy laws are good in Panama? Any that aren't? Does it have a history of bowing to Five Eyes requests?

We as a community must stop recommending Signal. For far too long we have blindly followed this app without a second thought. It has created a cult of followers, when there are much better apps out there for us to use.

https://archive.is/Lhe24 archive for the essay

This essay was posted to r/Privacy and subsequently removed and censored for literally No Reason. This is honestly really scary: https://old.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/wj5svi/signal_messenger_revealed_to_have_cia_ties_funded/ https://archive.ph/FZr1d

I am seriously hoping we can have a discussion about this on lemmy. @TheAnonymouseJoker , I know you from r/PrivateLife, and thought you'd be the one to go to about this. Thanks for being open in the past and not bowing to the inner circle of reddit cringelords.

I also am preparing an essay of my own about a complicit honeypot-ish web going on between Signal, Skiff, r/Privacy, r/PrivacyGuides, etc. They have a crazy little cabal that is very creepy. Any materials are welcome. Every time i turn over a stone i find two more. More to come.