An issue is that many systems presume pronouns, and for some people, this is decidedly uncomfortable and significant. For others ... not so much.
There's virtually always the option to leave the option blank, or to make up a garbage or meaningless value. The first system on which I recall the option being offered was Google+. My response was "trans-krell", playing of my pseudonym's character.
For age, I usually try to find the earliest possible birth year acceptable to the system. For Google this seems to be about 140 years prior to the present date. Again, I avoid providing this information if possilbe (most of my various little-used Google accounts have either no value provided or a ridiculously early age).
I'm of the view that we don't need to be formulated, sprawling on a pin, within some global surveillance database(s). If I can evade classification and feed garbage to the system, I will, for as long as that is viable, and probably for some time after that point.
The gendering or nongendering agenda concerns me far less than the Total Information Awareness agenda. Services demanding anything from me other than some random username and password (I tend to use password generators to create both values), and possibly a contact email address ... tend not to get used.
As I just commented to a friend a few days ago, I can't remember the last time I did create an account, with the exception of some recent Mastodon and Diaspora* migrations in the past year or two.
For my most recent Android device (the Android aspect of it being among the least attractive characteristics), I bailed out of Google Play Store registration, which requires creating a Google account. (Even if not formally associated with other identities I have, those could all but certainly be trivially linked.) Instead I'm relying on F-Droid, APK-Mirror, and the Aurora Store. I've kept actual app installations to a bare minimum, and most of those through F-Droid. There are I think three apps with actual accounts associated to them, though only one has been so configured.
My use of the Internet dates to the 1980s. I've seen a lot. And am disliking increasing amounts of it. Read Dan Geer if you haven't recently.
> There's virtually always the option to leave the option blank, or to make up a garbage or meaningless value.
Right, but it's an uncommon option that relates to a controversial subject. That's why I mentioned to leave the option setCustomerPronoun() available without making it a necessary step: show it in the UI options but it doesn't have to be front and center in the sign-up form.
> The gendering or nongendering agenda concerns me far less than the Total Information Awareness agenda.
Sure, without a doubt. I may have inadvertently picked a flamebait example!
There's virtually always the option to leave the option blank, or to make up a garbage or meaningless value. The first system on which I recall the option being offered was Google+. My response was "trans-krell", playing of my pseudonym's character.
For age, I usually try to find the earliest possible birth year acceptable to the system. For Google this seems to be about 140 years prior to the present date. Again, I avoid providing this information if possilbe (most of my various little-used Google accounts have either no value provided or a ridiculously early age).
I'm of the view that we don't need to be formulated, sprawling on a pin, within some global surveillance database(s). If I can evade classification and feed garbage to the system, I will, for as long as that is viable, and probably for some time after that point.
The gendering or nongendering agenda concerns me far less than the Total Information Awareness agenda. Services demanding anything from me other than some random username and password (I tend to use password generators to create both values), and possibly a contact email address ... tend not to get used.
As I just commented to a friend a few days ago, I can't remember the last time I did create an account, with the exception of some recent Mastodon and Diaspora* migrations in the past year or two.
For my most recent Android device (the Android aspect of it being among the least attractive characteristics), I bailed out of Google Play Store registration, which requires creating a Google account. (Even if not formally associated with other identities I have, those could all but certainly be trivially linked.) Instead I'm relying on F-Droid, APK-Mirror, and the Aurora Store. I've kept actual app installations to a bare minimum, and most of those through F-Droid. There are I think three apps with actual accounts associated to them, though only one has been so configured.
My use of the Internet dates to the 1980s. I've seen a lot. And am disliking increasing amounts of it. Read Dan Geer if you haven't recently.