I read the governments idea for a new app
From January 2022, a pilot will see users wear wrist-worn devices
that can generate personalised health recommendations, such as
increasing their step count, eating more fruit and vegetables and
decreasing portion size.
A new app to help people make positive changes to their diet and
physical activity will launch next year, the government has announced
today.
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Points awarded for increasing step count and eating more fruit and veg which can be redeemed for gym passes and discounts at selected shops
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HeadUp Systems awarded contract to develop a new app with £3 million in government funding made available for rewards
Tracked everywhere! Is it a good idea - you can decide. I'm opting out!
Read the whole thing about it HERE
I've taken one small step and freed myself from being tracked by supermarkets and shops and cut up all the cards in my purse.
(This is not quite as drastic as it sounds because I've kept my Co-op card and didn't use any of the others anyway since Morrisons withdrew their points on the More card thing!)
I have another way of staying anonymous as I never subscribed to the controversial (now proved to be an expensive waste of money) covid track and trace app on my phone and have no intention of adding the new "healthy living rewards" app if it's eventually rolled out nationwide after the six month trial somewhere.
Not doing online banking is another way to keep myself free of being tracked even though it's getting harder to get to an actual physical branch.
I don't do instagram or twitter or tik tok (whatever that is) and only have Facebook - which we now have to call meta - to belong to local village groups.
Facebook/meta will eventually allow us all to live virtually - our whole lives will be online. I seem to remember a Star Trek programme from 40+ years ago where holidays were all taken in a virtual world on board the Enterprise and I've often said science fiction will become science fact.
( Did you watch The Man From Uncle in the 1960s where their communications were via something the size of a pen - we'd never dreamed of small mobile phones back then).
I expect most of my ideas for keeping under the radar are a complete waste of time because, as everyone who watches crime dramas knows, we can be tracked everywhere we go by our mobile phones and what we purchase online! Neither of which I'd want to be without now.
And of course I really shouldn't be blogging!!
Back Tomorrow
Sue
I don't care whether I am above or below the radar but I have never had store cards except my Waitrose one so I can use the zapper.
ReplyDeleteI had a waitrose one when we were near Saxmundham for the free coffee or whatever the deal was but haven't used it since we moved as there's no waitrose closer than right around the other side of Ipswich
DeleteI'll keep my Tesco card as this week I saved £6 on my bill with their special offers (things on my shopping list anyway). Aldi just give you a bill and I'm not signed up to Co-op. Fitbit already know my steps and I eat more fruit than I should and plenty of veg. If they are aiming that fitness ap at the certain sector of the population that springs to my mind, they are on an absolute hiding to nowhere right from the start! If people live on the cheapest of convenience foods and they "don't like" fruit and veg, then they ain't gonna change any time soon, nor will they swop their tv's and sofas for a 5 mile run round the park on a Saturday morning.
ReplyDeleteI occasionally post on Facebook, but follow lots of interesting groups. I have an Instagram account but never post on that, just use it to follow a few friends. What's Tik-tok when it's at home?
I try not to post personal things on my blog, just write about where I've been and what interests me.
Internet banking in rural areas is fast becoming an absolute must as all the banks are shutting - crazy. Since the banks already have all our details on line, if they are hacked, we're all doomed anyway! Oh, and I shop on-line for certain needs, again a necessity in a rural area.
How I loved the Man From Uncle. Ilya Kuryakin was my pin-up boy!
Yes I was fond of David Macullum too! Thursday nights was the night my Mum and Dad did the wages for his builders business and they actually bought a second-hand second TV so I could watch it in the other room - a most unusual thing for them to do!
DeleteI worry about hacking on my bank account but I have to have my bank online, because of the closure of bank buildings. My daughter got hacked last week but Barclays stopped both Morrison amounts before they were debited to her account. So maybe we will eventually be protected by the security measures of the banks. Don't need shop cards as I don't buy much. Shopping online has become a lazy habit but I am getting old;)
ReplyDeleteBarclays in Stowmarket closed in the summer after being there since the day they started the business ( might be an exaggeration but certainly a long time!)
DeleteHa, can but try.
ReplyDeleteI think it's impossible to be anonymous nowadays - and I don't want to stop blogging!
DeleteIt’s scary how you can get tracked but also useful - it’s how they caught and prosecuted the monster who murdered my daughter’s friend. They used the ‘pings’ off his mobile phone to masts to plot his journey and disprove his lies of him saying he wasn’t there. The motorway CCTV tracked him too. I’m a bit of a mind where if I’ve nowt to hide, I’m not very interesting to anyone !
ReplyDeleteThats one very good use of track and trace technology
DeleteI do use a Tesco Clubcard, but only as it comes with good discounts and I'm not able to shop in cheaper places. Big Brother is watching us.
ReplyDeleteMy tesco card vanished although I ought to get a new one because my phone is tesco mobile as they are the only phone shop anywhere near
DeleteOh dear! it's a shame that you cut the loyalty cards up as they make brilliant applicators and smoothers for Polyfilla as they are firm but bendy. Defunct credit and debit cards aren't as good because the raised numbers and letters can spoil the smoothing of the Polyfilla.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the Star Trek virtual holidays - I take myself on days out to new places using Google Street View and Google Earth
Oh bother. I forgot about that use for them. although I don't have any decorating planned at the moment!
DeleteThey can also be used to scrape the ice off your windscreen.
DeleteAnd didn’t they used be used to prise open yale locked doors
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOne minute you were there.........then gone!
DeleteI was going to reply
I am prone to change my mind very quickly ;o)
DeleteOooops, I revealed too much, ha ha.
ReplyDeleteMaking an effort is better than rolling over and giving in. My bank branch is still open but I hardly ever go there. With a bank debit card I withdraw cash from our village Post Office.
You could make a collage with those cut up cards. Make a statement art piece. The message being, stick your cards.
I have no problems with getting cash out either but it's getting less straightforward to actually go in a bank. I'm still not wanting to go to online banking until I'm forced.
DeleteIt musy be a thing people are thinking about. Margaret ("Life in New Zealand" blogspot) wrote on a similar theme in the last 24 hours. We all need a bit of mystery - stuff the world doesn't know about us.
ReplyDeleteBlimey - you can't even breathe nowadays without being tracked.
ReplyDeleteI'm another one who will be saying 'no thanks' to this!
I'm another Man from UNCLE fan. Open Channel D! And yes, my bedroom walls were covered with David McCallum posters.
xx
I totally agree with you. I do not have any loyalty cards and neither do I have the Track and Trace app. Banking is a little harder, but withdrawing cash means they can't see where you are spending most of your money. Having a VPN helps with not being tracked on the net. I never shop at ASDA because of their ridiculous facial recognition screens at their tills. I am a free woman and won't kow tow to current tyranny!
ReplyDeleteI cut my store cards up long ago, they were gaining information from me and giving nothing back, I won't get the new healthy apt either, we can do nothing without leaving a trace of ourselves. I still use facebook, but only to keep in touch with those who lives miles away, I rarely post on there. I do love the simplicity of Instagram.
ReplyDeleteI don't have any loyalty cards. I did when they first came out years ago but then it occurred to me that being "loyal" didn't quite ring true if you had a loyalty card for all of them! 🤪
ReplyDeleteThat did make me giggle! Very true though!
DeleteIt is interesting to see what different ways people do with there money and cards.
ReplyDeleteI had 2 different back acoiunts a few weeks ago I cancelled Barclays after 50 years and just now have one bank. I don't buy online except my Wool and I don't have a mobile phone. I do use cash and I do cheques but I have no problems with what other people do everyone can do what there want.
Hazel 🌈🌈
When I was researching my family history there were a few ancesters I couldn't find no matter where I searched and when I typed my findings up I did say that their anonymity was a luxury we didn't have any more.
ReplyDeleteI hate technology with a passion and apart from commenting on some blogs and the occasional purchase on line I don't have anything to do with it. My husband, who used to be an IT Manager, quite happily does everything on line which does annoy me. I do have a mobile but it is an old Nokia pay-as-you-go which I understand isn't traceable.
I did read Margaret's post last night which I found scarey, but it's too late now as we are already in the system.
I switch on my 18 year old mobile phone once a week, always in the same place. President Xi Jinping thinks I've hardly left the house since 2003.
ReplyDeleteI was going to say we are all tracked on our phones and cars now have a satellite system in them. I am doing nothing they would care about so I guess it is not a big deal to me.
ReplyDeleteCathy
Between all the government depts, the banks, insurance companies…you name it….if anyone wants information on me it’s there for them all to find.
ReplyDeleteI regularly think of Dick Tracy talking into his watch in the old cartoons. Every time I hear someone answer their watch as they go to pick up their mobile phone I have little laugh.
ReplyDeleteThere is no escape these days - only those people that live in the wild off grid and well away from civilisation otherwise someone somewhere has our details.
ReplyDeleteI think in future we might all be micro chipped at birth like a new puppy!!!
Some people think the covid injection is a liquid microchip!
DeleteI have a Sainsburys loyalty card, I save the points and use for my christmas food shop. Really comes in handy.
ReplyDeleteI try to keep as anonymous as possible. I was going to mention why I think the way I do online banking is secure but you never know who's reading this!
ReplyDeleteMy sister's Apple watch tells her when to get up a move around, tracks all of her steps, keeps track of her calories, etc... so that is already available to those who want it!
ReplyDeleteI do a lot online but I don't think I do anything that anyone would be interested in anyway!
I think I should download that fitness app. Does it make me fitter if I use it whilst lounging on the sofa with a box of chocolates and a bottle of fizz I wonder?
ReplyDeleteNow an app like that would be useful!
DeleteI agree with you 100% and do not want to be tracked. I find it all very invasive. Like you state, it is almost impossible to eliminate tracking fully but we can take steps that at least reduce it.
ReplyDeleteI have a weekly online grocery delivery from Sainsbury's and a Nectar account, which accrues points from my spending at Sainsbury's (and Argos, very intermittently). I also do Shop & Scan - scan my shopping every week and send the information of where I shopped and prices I paid. I don't understand why this is so bad; I have nothing to hide and don't care that supermarkets use the information to see who shops where and how much they paid. It provides me each year with my Christmas gifts spending money (also spent online!!!)
ReplyDeleteI didn't do the track & trace app nor will I worry about this one either. Arilx
ReplyDeleteIt does sound like "Big Brother Is Watching You" doesn't it! I only use a rewards card at the supermarket chain I do most of by mundane grocery shopping at. There have been people over here in NZ demonstrating "Loss of freedom" and also the 'it's my body and I don't trust the vaccine'. Illogical. We have had very few Covid deaths because of lockdowns, and now strict requirements to contact trace and wear masks (you con't go into a cafe or other public building without doing both) and those same people accepted vaccinations agains all the childhood diseases, and those required for overseas travel, so I can't follow their logic. However, I do understand that we're all 'over it' and just wish Covid would all go away! When I feel like that I try to think of one positive thing I've done that day, and tell myself to GetAGrip !
ReplyDeletetwo comments: What is wrong with government knowing where you have been? It could be useful to you if something bad happens, and if you are on facebook you are being tracked and not by government
ReplyDeleteI figure the government can trace me on my phone, in my vehicle and on computer so I am not too worried about things.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a great many store cards so I can't be tracked that way.
God bless.
Anybody who has been tracking me this morning will have been very bored. In and out the passage emptying the large pantry cupboard ready for painting and moving into the new kitchen! x
ReplyDeleteLove it!
DeleteIt is funny how many of these comments lament Big Brother but then go on to say they “only” use Facebook, have a Tesco card, shop online etc. Anonymity is important, I guess, until it’s fun or convenient for someone.
ReplyDeleteYour bank will share details with credit reference agencies, as will land registry, council tax, utility companies and others. From there they know how best to contact you (channel preference) ie email, phone or letter.
ReplyDeleteI think the thing that gives me some comfort in the data sharing that goes on, is that it's not an actual person doing the looking, but personal details are actually in amongst millions of others and really should be only accessible when theres a need to do so. Small comfort I know.
I dont have track and trace anymore, I'm double vaccinated so I wouldn't need to isolate if I was pinged and symptom free.