Peruvia

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Don't know if it fits here, but after the blackout I came across this comment (the picture is a fragment of the original comment) unfortunately I forgot where I took it from.

If anyone knows, please let me know so I can credit them properly. For accessibilty purposes, here is a transcript:

I'm angry that some of you are just fine with losing this place - this place that is my home on the internet, This place that I and my fellow mods have been fellow members FOR YEARS, right along side of you.

I'm angry. And I'm angry some of you aren't. That you're fine with this place becoming the festering flaming garbage dump that is every other social media platform.

But no one deserves for me to take that anger out on them. But please reflect on why we've fought to KEEP being here for you and for ourselves when this place changes overnight. Because it's about to. And I likely won't be here to watch it because it'll break my heart

End transcript of photo.

I saved this because it struck a chord in me, after I randomly found out about the protests and trying to salvage what I could.

The confusion turned into a low panic, which turned into grief and anger. Reddit used to be a little niche hobby hole for me to delve into from time to time. Those subreddits were there for me during some of the worst times of my life, and now, all that information would just be gone. I tried to save as much as I could, which wasn't much. Ironically, this was the time when I stumbled upon some of even more niche subreddits, that I knew would take too much time to try and archive.

Archives that would live the same way the dusty screenshots live in my phone, unused in years. But I couldn't just let them go. As I spent a few weeks gathering up what I could, not beliving myself that I was grieving a weird form of social media, I started noticing the lack of geniune community. It felt so empty, and that made it easier for me to move on.

The whole reason I felt at home on Reddit left and came here. And on Lemmy, I could feel at home once again, and I never looked back.

Why YSK: Because you deserve to have peace of mind. Your privacy can mean your safety. I found out about this today, and in this comment I mentioned it and said I would make something more detailed.

I bet you heard that Google tracks you, as have I. But it's insanely daunting to see every movement, app and thing you have interacted with on your device for the last 8 years just laid out in front of you neatly. When you add your google account on your phone(or any device), it tracks this, with a timestamp, including:

-any app you used(including Contacts, Calendar, Phone, and when you pressed your home screen button-it is regarded as Samsung UI Home etc.)

-apps you viewed on google play

-map area on maps(you don't even have to search a specific place in order for it to get logged)

-if you called a place from maps(if you press the call button from maps to call a place and make a reservation, for example)

-images you saw and searched for on your browser

-location, video and voice notes and more

It is mentioned that if you log in on another device, it can keep track of this on that device as well.

#What can you do?

The first thing you can do is turn it off. Log on your google account, press the icon on the top right, then press on "Manage your Google Account". On the left side you will see a panel, choose "Data and privacy", and scroll on the center of the screen to see History settings, and press on My activity. You can choose to turn it off if you want. Make sure to stroll around to manage your advertisement settings, location settings, subscriptions and so on.

I also recommend switch to Proton Mail if you can.

#How I found out?

Recently, as you probably know, Youtube decided to be foolish(yes, more than usual) and force its users to either consume ads or buy Premium, blocking you after three viewed videos if you use any form of ad block. I said ew, no. Let's use yt clients that don't scrape your data and allow you to have privacy and no ads, it's about time I jump ship.

I didn't want to have to manage every subscription and videos in playlists manually(it would take days). I wanted something for my desktop, and I stumbled upon FreeTube. They have a guide that tells you how to export subscriptions and videos, the whole thing.

Following the instructions, I inevitably stumbled upon my managed data. It's a weird feeling seeing all that was. I vaguely remember how I felt in those years, but I never thought I would see what I was doing or what app I was using then. Inevitably we forget some trivial things in our lives, but this is what gets to be remembered, and this is the proof that we existed. It's strange.

Ending note: I assume most people here probably already know this, but I just wanted to pass this along for awareness purposes. I knew that I wanted to have random stats at the end of my life to like, review and read, but not like this.

Disclamer: I haven't slept in over a day and idk if what I write makes any sense, I will adjust it after I wake up. Sometimes I do dumb stuff and end up not sleeping, other times there simply isn't time to sleep/rest as needed(assignments and lack of planning ahead). Any advice on how to stay awake for longer periods of time(preferably functional/not in a zombie state, I'm looking for 1 and half day of not sleeping max) and your favourite way of recovering from these sleepless stretches of time(other than sleeping of course).