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submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[-] [email protected] 21 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Stupid question: What exactly are the dangers being implied here? I have accounts with all of these services although I don't use all of them. I know that they are using and selling my personal information, is there more? I have ways of doing things in private when I need and I'm aware that using these services has no expectations of absolute privacy.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago

Privacy = freedom. If you don't have privacy, or to the extent you don't have privacy, you are in proportion not free.

It seems to me this is the trade off we are all figuring out how to make. For example, I've considered not having a cell phone at all, but then I find it almost impossible to get a job, or operate in the economy. So I use a custom privacy ROM. I have no illusions that this is perfect, but at least a step in the right direction.

I think the most practical answer is to gain knowledge of the situation, and limit our attack surface. I don't think there's any silver bullets, unless you want to live like the Amish (which, doesn't sound like a bad idea, either. If that's what you want and you can do it, go for it.)

[-] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

what do you mean by free? if total privacy means i can’t have a phone or talk to most people then does that really make me more free?

i agree that privacy is important, but i think this is fundamentally a legislative problem. there’s only so much that can be done at the individual level without making massive sacrifices and dedicating a serious amount of time to it. i have a vpn, i use content blockers, etc. but i think its too simplistic to say more privacy = more free.

one of the other commenters mentioned the thing about having someone looking in while you’re watching tv. but if the only solution is to go live in the woods, is it really worth it?

[-] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

if total privacy means i can’t have a phone or talk to most people then does that really make me more free?

I have a phone; it runs GrapheneOS; I'm using it type this. I have attempted, in total, to get five of my friends and my own mother to talk to me on Signal. I have, so far, succeeded at getting four out of the five friends and my own mother to talk to me on Signal. That's five out of six; I would call that being able to talk to most people.

 

what do you mean by free?

If you're asking me personally, pretty much that. If you're asking someone way smarter than me, pretty much that.

People should be able to pick up the phone and call their family. People should be able to send a text message to their loved one. People should be able to buy a book online, they should be able to travel by train, they should be able to buy an airline ticket without wondering how these events are going to look.. To an agent of the government, possibly not even your government. Years in the future, how they're going to be misinterpreted and what they're going to think your intentions. We have a right to privacy.

—Edward Snowden

[-] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

I like to compare that to a stranger looking through your window while you sit on your couch watching TV.

There is no harm if the stranger knows how often you scratch your butt or what other information he gathers. But we still would put the afford in preventing that Espionage.

The thing about the collection of data online is you don't know what's happening to it.

Will radical groups buy information to categorize people into groups of enemies. Will it lead to false positives during a law enforcement investigation because they subpoena some cunk of information which contained yours.

This is of course an extravaganted worst case. But it won't get better during capitalism and enchitification.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Some are selling your data, some are using it internally. Beyond that who knows

this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2024
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