Everyone important in the world already knows my SiL bought it for me, tracked at the point of sale using a loyalty card, tracked via her credit card, her highway pass shows she visited to deliver it to me on my birthday, it probably has a RFID chip somewhere either for theft protection or inventory tracking (maybe in the presentation box not the bottle itself "obviously"?). The bank has a record of what she bought which is probably legally or illegally shared with the health insurance company and/or medical care. Her fitbit tracked her walking thru the store.
But, yeah, the "real" threat to my privacy is people on HN now know I have an expensive bottle of whiskey, LOL. Or my cat-meme sharing account on FB, if I used FB, would know that I have a nice bottle. Because that distractor is the "real threat" not everyone in the paragraph above whom I have zero control over.
If an organization or whatever knows they're going to piss people off, give them a false sense of control. Maybe give them fake elections where both candidates are insiders. Maybe provide corporate oversight by a revolving door between the regulators and the regulated. Its all pretty standard propaganda stuff.
The one little nugget I'm gleaning is that for people who are able, not even volunteering that you're incapable of simply ignoring the account is also worth considering. Like setting up an email filter instead of clicking unsubscribe on a mailing list, since doing so is yet another piece of information.
Volunteer random information or targeted information for who you want your character to be. Never volunteer personal information unless you want your character connected to your person.
Binary thinking. You can ONLY actively consume or actively delete, unthinkable that you can passively not use it.
Its like claiming its impossible for that bottle of whiskey to sit, undrinking, on my basement bar top, whiskey can only either be chugged immediately or angrily poured down the drain. Its impossible that bottle is sitting there without my drinking it.
I assure you, despite your claim that its impossible, I have a mostly full bottle of whiskey on my bar and an unused Facebook account. Why do you believe I'm lying? It seems realistic, reasonable, and a wise course of action.
The other reason deletion is pushed is to provide the illusion of privacy. You have no privacy anymore. Everyone important or actionable has total access to your entire digital life and always has and always will; the government, the banks, the big corporations. Its a false illusion that deleting your cat-meme-sharing account somehow protects you from the credit reporting agencies or the NSA. Its important to provide that false illusion of choice so that people are distracted from the actions of the credit reporting agencies and the NSA and the IRS and the banks and ...
This isn’t binary thinking.
It’s clear you don’t understand people who need these extra steps, and thank god for that. This is a problem I wouldn’t wish on anyone.
However, your lack of understanding does not make it any less relevant or useful.
Ironic that you talk about binary thinking then proceed to think of Privacy only in the binary of having it from government or not.
Aside from you being factually wrong on your take (you have massively over stated the competency of government and big finance, their data is more wrong than it is correct)
That however is not the only, and in many cases not even the most important, realm for which one may want to protect their privacy
At this point I am not sure what is more ignorant, your thoughts on addiction or your thoughts on privacy... it is a pretty close race
It would be a truly messed up world if that was the case