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I'm getting a bit sick of large corporations a) demanding excess data as a condition of doing business with me, b) allowing it to be stolen, and c) giving zero fucks about it.

What are some things that us netizens can do to make our displeasure known.

Extra points for funny ideas.

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[-] owenfromcanada@lemmy.world 142 points 2 weeks ago
[-] WorldwideCommunity@lemm.ee 11 points 2 weeks ago

Explanation for illiterates?

[-] fool@programming.dev 35 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)
[-] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 17 points 2 weeks ago

Still, any programmer worth their salt should filter their inputs. One group at work refuses to do it and they always get away with it and it's infuriating

One group at work refuses to do it

Sounds like a huge liability to the company.

and they always get away with it

Until they don’t. All it would take is one malicious actor (competing company, spurned employee, data thief, etc) wrecking/stealing their entire database with an injection attack.

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[-] keisatsu@infosec.pub 12 points 1 week ago

As a security consultant who tests web applications on the regular: LOL

It’s an SQL injection joke.

Basically, when dealing with databases, you can use SQL to search or modify the data in that database. By default, you can do this by polling the database with an SQL query. But this introduces a vulnerability called SQL injection. Basically, imagine if instead of filling in a name in the “Name” field, you filled in an SQL query. If the database admins haven’t protected themselves against it, then the database will happily run that query; You have just injected an SQL query into their database. Maybe you’re a malicious attacker, looking to get a virus onto the system, or looking to extract the data.

Protecting the database from injection is done with something called sanitizing. Basically, you set up filters to disallow SQL, so it can’t touch your database. In this comic, the database admins didn’t do that, so they were unprotected.

The actual SQL uses the student’s middle name to search for any tables named “Students” and permanently delete it. The joke is that when the school admin staff enters his name into their database, it will delete any tables named “Students” and wreck their database.

[-] slazer2au@lemmy.world 95 points 2 weeks ago

Use EICAR test strings as your password.

If they store your password in plain text the AV will lock the user database.

If your password gets leaked and they are using bad password security, when your password is cracked the AV will isolate the file.

[-] shrodes@lemmy.world 69 points 2 weeks ago

Bold of you to assume a corporation storing passwords in plain text would be using AV

[-] qaz@lemmy.world 38 points 2 weeks ago

According to EICAR's specification the antivirus detects the test file only if it starts with the 68-byte test string and is not more than 128 bytes long. As a result, antiviruses are not expected to raise an alarm on some other document containing the test string.

This won't work, assuming the database file is more than 128 bytes long

[-] Talaraine@fedia.io 9 points 2 weeks ago

I think the important distinction would be 'file' or 'record'. Passwords aren't really a file in a database iirc and records in a database have a storage limit

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[-] Krudler@lemmy.world 19 points 2 weeks ago

Ah... "advice" consisting of "I've heard of a thing"

[-] Talaraine@fedia.io 11 points 2 weeks ago

This is diabolical. I approve.

[-] HootinNHollerin@slrpnk.net 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Being a non-programmer I had to look up what that is

[-] Sir_Premiumhengst@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

Whoa, I wanna try this now! Thx!

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[-] BrotherL0v3@lemmy.world 44 points 2 weeks ago

Not exactly what you're looking for, but Ad-Nauseum is a nice way to inject a ton of garbage into the data corps collect.

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[-] j4k3@lemmy.world 39 points 2 weeks ago

Send a copy of the receipt for your donation to the open source project that most closely aims to be their alternative. Explain why you're angry in 3 sentences and do so like you are condescendingly speaking to a five year old.

[-] Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 12 points 2 weeks ago

Make the letter public, so other people know & get informed.

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[-] GrumpyDuckling@sh.itjust.works 34 points 2 weeks ago

If you send back one of those reply mail envelopes it costs them money. Stuff those envelopes with junk and send them back.

[-] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 17 points 2 weeks ago

I don't get many of them anymore, but when I do, I mail them back with a little slip of paper inside that says "poop".

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[-] MNByChoice@midwest.social 7 points 2 weeks ago

But not a brick. They are apparently onto that.

[-] GrumpyDuckling@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 weeks ago

First class letter mail is up to 3.5 oz and within a certain l thickness. Every ounce costs extra over the first oz (idk about commercial return mail pricing) just stuff it with flat cardboard from cereal boxes or fill out the information wrong and put in a competitors corporate address.

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[-] halloween_spookster@lemmy.world 31 points 2 weeks ago

I'm skeptical that anything legal will work for very long because they will quickly work to make said legal action illegal.

[-] Bluetreefrog@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago

But we can have some fun along the way, and it does change behaviour for a bit.

Maybe pirate your media and donate the money to open source alternatives

[-] metaStatic@kbin.earth 10 points 2 weeks ago

I donate all the money I save pirating to the charity of Me

[-] WhatSay@slrpnk.net 25 points 2 weeks ago

Use AI to generate false info to feed into their database

[-] JoeKrogan@lemmy.world 24 points 1 week ago

Use bots to apply for the open positions to waste time. Reject them all for not enough pay.

Post public info of the CEO class

Piracy

Give fake data when using all services.

Start and join boycott groups.

Use their social media against them. Eg post their dirty laundry as a comment on their post.

[-] hansolo@lemm.ee 22 points 2 weeks ago

If a company is publicly traded, then all leaked individuals are given 50.1% controlling stock in the company, split among the victims with new stocks created for them, with unclaimed stocks held in a trust controlled by anyone that did respond to claim stocks. They can sell the stocks, or drive the company into the ground out of spite. Maybe even both.

Companies not publicly traded have 3 months to make all code used, trademarked material, and patents open source in perpetuity, and 1 year to convert their corporate structure into a non-profit.

Regardless of the size of the company, the CEO, CTO, and board must eat their weight in fried bugs. They get to pick the type of bug from a list of 5 options, and any seasoning they want. Live streams of the bug eating will be monetized and the proceeds given to orphans, under the title of "It's not a bug, its a feature."

Stop using as many services as possible. It might not be funny but, I mean, what if you went to a music store and bought used CDs instead of using Spotify? Do all of that you can.

[-] fool@programming.dev 22 points 2 weeks ago

Make your data useless or wrong.

More passively, there's probably an oddly large amount of John Does born on January 1, 2000 ;)

More offensively, anti-image-gen data poisoning such as Nightshade exists. It's well-defended against IIRC so hopefully someone can Cunningham's Law correct me. And this is also more solo of a movement (as opposed to gaining mass support for something)

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[-] stinerman@midwest.social 22 points 2 weeks ago

As others have said, the best instances of direct action are illegal.

[-] helmet91@lemmy.world 17 points 2 weeks ago

Don't use their services.

[-] BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works 16 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Edit: whoops, I missed the "il" part in "not illegal". Anyway you should definitely not do the following. Allegedly doing the following would be arson, and society frowns upon such things.

Easy:

  1. Identify company
  2. Wait until it's a weekend night. We're not after the wage slaves after all.
  3. Mix polystyrene and gasoline. Remember that gasoline can melt some plastics, so if using a plastic container for mixing do a test first. You do not want napalm all over the place.
  4. Fill the gooey substance in glass bottles.
  5. Cap the bottles. (see #7)
  6. Drive to the company.
  7. Open bottles and put wicks in them. (important not to do this earlier. Driving with open gasoline containers in your car will make you drowsy and is a fire hazard)
  8. If you haven't already got gloves on, put them on and wipe down the bottles - you may have to leave some at some point.
  9. Have accomplices trigger fire alarms all over the local fire department's district. Either automatic fire alarms will be discarded for a bit or the marshall will be tied up investigating.
  10. Light a wick, throw the bottle at the company, try to get it to break a window.
  11. If you're out of bottles or you see blue lights cheese it. Otherwise go back a step and repeat it.
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[-] BerenstainsMonster@kbin.earth 14 points 2 weeks ago

I think the most effective method is to do some sort of organized boycott. We all know well enough how sheisty these companies are. Time to start encouraging each other to quit them en masse.

[-] nichtburningturtle@feddit.org 10 points 2 weeks ago

To bad that most participants give in and return shortly after leaving.

[-] metaStatic@kbin.earth 13 points 2 weeks ago

me explaining how evil Nestle is every time a family member buys a product, them agreeing that's the most evil thing they've ever heard, and then doing it all over again next week ...

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[-] uriel238 14 points 2 weeks ago

The fake name generator might be useful. There are also temporary email services for when a site account requires a confirmed email.

[-] donuts@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Sounds like it does the opposite of what OP wants:

I stopped counting after 2000+ vendors

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[-] y0kai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 week ago

Start Self hosting. Keeping my data at home is how I'm sticking it to the man these days.

[-] MojoMcJojo@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

Do not use actual names, birthdays, phone numbers, addresses, email addresses, etc. There's no reason they need to know that info and I love/hate seeing physical mail and email show up with my made up info. Doesn't work when paying for stuff though.

[-] OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 week ago

Report bugs that don't actually exist. Keep reporting the same bug from different emails. Works especially well for apps.

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[-] shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee 6 points 2 weeks ago

What we're talking about can easily be devalued, among other things.

[-] yournamehere@lemm.ee 6 points 1 week ago

luigi had an idea

[-] QuantumEyetanglement@lemdro.id 4 points 1 week ago

If anyone has one specifically for airlines, I'd love to hear it! Got plenty of time to read the comments with my cancelled flight

[-] bufalo1973@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

If someone stoles the data then the corp can't be trusted. Punishment: erase ALL records from ALL of their databases and forbid that corp to take data for at least one year. The time would depend on the severity of the leak. If the leak if catastrophic, 10 years minimum.

[-] HootinNHollerin@slrpnk.net 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Sign someone up for Scientology

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this post was submitted on 25 Dec 2024
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