In the last week:
I started using Syncthing. I was using cloud storage as a way of copying files from one device to another. Syncthing is so much better.
I signed up with Mullvad VPN yesterday.
Deleted my Surfshark account today which I signed up with over two years ago when I didn’t care about privacy.
Finally convinced my sister to start using Signal.
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Was that a privacy concern?
I mean fuck Reddit, but with tracking blocked was it ever more of a concern than other websites?
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Is that posting history or more than that? Because stuff that I’ve posted in a public forum is for public consumption, same as on here. If there’s underhanded tracking involved for things I do outside of Reddit that’s more concerning, but back when I signed up to Reddit it didn’t even need an email address, my Reddit account could have just been a fictional character for all Reddit knows.
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I understand that, and that’s why I block ad servers, but the subreddits I’m active on is also something I’ve shared publicly, albeit under a pseudonym, I kind of think of that as fair game for algorithms to analyse because it’s done in public. Good luck to them showing me ads because I’ve not seen an ad on the internet since the early 00s. Sneaky tracking of activity off of Reddit is another matter.
I would assume IP address, browser fingerprint, and handle if you reuse it are all being tracked between sessions, even assuming no tracking cookies.
Obviously some of these are more trackable than others, but there’s the risk of re-establishing identity between sessions-- say if your user-agent resets when you close your browser, but you sign in to a site that keeps track of you and shares it.
I’m very lax about opsec places like here or Reddit, my username is enough for you to find my city without much effort, and almost certainly find me in person with significant effort, and is certainly an easy start for trying to find me elsewhere online. My main defense there is that my password is different across every site, but many people aren’t even that careful, and that’s like the barest level of careful
I still use it every now and then, only old reddit. But I deleted the official app from my phone.
Same, I’ve only been back when I need to reference game guides etc that I was already using in June. But I don’t have the app anymore and I access it anonymously.
I deleted Whatsapp but created a photoshopped screenshot of Whatsapp banning my account so that everybody around me thinks it is involuntary, going to try to get them to switch to Signal soon. Wish me luck
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I will find out in a few days if it will work. I am unfortunately in the US so most people just use SMS/iMessage but within my social circle most used Whatsapp. Hopefully they install Signal instead of just texting via SMS
Lmao I think you might be needing new friends.
Optimal solution to everything isn’t it?
Hopefully they install Signal instead of just texting via SMS
Good luck with that. I got one person to move to Signal.
My work team uses WhatsApp for group messages re shifts etc. SMS just doesn’t cut it for that, so I have to use WA.
Also, we have a family group on there.
Could be worse, the part time job I did recently used Teams 😒
Update: it worked
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Trying to get people to use signal is like pulling teeth
I’m always surprised when I get a notification that someone from my contacts is using signal when I never expected them to even know what it is.
@PrivateOnions @BigTechBlows Holy fuck, this is the most funny and genius tactic i’ve seen. questionable? sure, but hey, still funny. I’d probably do the same, just to bypass “the persuasion phase”.
has the same ingenuity as “have a screenshot of messages as your lockscreen wallpaper, that way you can sneak out of any social situation imaginable.”
Nobody has questioned it yet. Here is the screenshot if you were curious:
I photoshopped the top menu and the bottom and also made the picture the same as my phones resolution so there is no room for doubt 😎.
I need this made for iOS 💀
It was a successful attempt I got them to switch
Tended to my garden. Hard to get info if you don’t post info.
Jokes on you. Now I know you have a garden.
Finally switched from from Windows to Linux (specifically EndeavourOS, an Arch-based distro with a GUI installer).
I also bought a new phone, on which I intend to install GrapheneOS and distance myself from Google’s ecosystem.
I signed up for Proton Mail.
LibRedirect browser addon to switch to privacy-respecting frontends for popular websites.
I just did too but I went with manjaro. After getting it all set up I’m thinking of jumping to endeavor but I’m not sure I want to go through the entire setup again.
Manjaro will break on you a lot more often than EndeavorOS will because of their release schedule. Should be ok if you stay away from the AUR but that kinda defeats the biggest selling point of using an Arch-based distro in the first place. Manjaro is the one and only distro that I actively ward people away from.
Stopped using google search. Started using duckduckgo, brave, startpage, or SearXNG instead. Been using SearXNG the most.
Deleted my windows partition I’ve been dual booting for a year and finally deleted my google account.
I’ve been using signal for a long time and managed to pull my family and close friends with me (I don’t know how but fuck yeah).
I use pihole on my home network and mobile with wireguard. I blocked all meta / twitter / google / amazon domains.
I host my own instance of searxng.
I deleted all my content on Reddit and kept my account to delete restored comments / posts. I ask them to stop restoring my content under GDPR “right to be forgotten” and am waiting the 30 days delay to report them to the authorities with the proofs I gather.
I blocked
threads.comthreads.net on my mastodon account.I live a fucking hell but it feels great messing up with big tech. Fuck them.
The domain for Threads is threads.net, not threads.com
Yes, my mistake.
Replaced a lot of apps on my phone with FOSS alternatives.
Can you list a few examples?
I’ll do you a few better. Others have done it before. Here are some examples of excellent posts on the subject. Search Lemmy a bit and you’ll find many more.
A website that lists quite a number of Android FOSS apps:
And here is an entire community dedicated to that topic:
Saving this comment, thanks for the links!
ty!!
“Foss for Android” has a ton of good info. Sorry, I don’t know how to link communities yet.
Like so: !fossdroid@social.fossware.space (Note this post: Community moved to new space)
It’s “exclamation mark” “community name” “@” “server name”
No problem. Thanks really goes to all those who put in all the effort to write these lists.
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Why do you expect Apple to increase your privacy over Google? It’s just moving from one megacorporation to another. You have no reason to expect better privacy.
At least apple uses the data to sell you their stuff to my knowledge. On the other hand, google bombards you with ads from tons of different firms and sells you out to these companies.
How can you even know how Apple uses your data?
They don’t have an adsense banner on almost every single website or mobile app that tries to sell me something based on the data they have collected from me. This is already an indicator. They even made zuckerberg mad by making it possible to opt out of sharing certain data with them. I am not saying apple is privacy example, but I would definitely put them higher on a list compared to google.
@ritchie @lauha https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/14/apple-faces-new-lawsuit-over-its-data-collection-practices-in-first-party-apps-like-the-app-store/ as long as there are share holders, data is collected to present to the share holders. I think all big tech companies collect and use data, for their benefit.
True. And there seems to be nothing in between big corporations that want to squeeze out every last cent profit and un-/underpaid open source developers trying to figure out how to maintain something requiring more and more resources over time as the user base gets bigger. I am fortunate to have a Samsung S9 passed down to me, on which I can run e/ os, but comes with compromises (e.g. can’t rent e-scooters from a company), plus they did something with the last update that messed up the colours of the screen. When it’s time to replace it, I am seriously considering a used iPhone.
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did that too are you using a mac and plan to switch to some linux laptop in time? The new M1 Macs are too good :(
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- I deleted all my Meta accounts and started using Signal.
- I’m moving all accounts linked to Gmail and Outlook to Proton Mail and Tutanota.
- I’m using many privacy-oriented extensions on Firefox.
- I’m trying to change all software to Open Source if that’s possible.
- I have a Nextcloud and i’m using it to sync my Calendar, Task and Photos.
- I started using Bitwarden for my passwords (and deleted them from all Microsoft, Apple and Google cloud services).
- I’m setting up my home server to host Nextcloud and Bitwarden.
I started using freetube on the desktop. It’s like newpipe with how you have local subscriptions and feed without an account. I like it a lot.
oof, probably the best I’ve seen and still suffers from youtube just being total trash in general without a dozen or so extensions. there’s some channels I follow I had no idea had clickbait thumbnails and there absolutely will be sponsored content.
We need something like this for peertube
Stopped taking my phone everywhere, leave it in a closed drawer when I’m not using it.
It’s actually quite liberating to switch it off every now and then and just go about ones business without it.
I have moved my personal knowledge base and task lists to logseq and using syncthing to sync with my other devices . Finally migrated my google drive data completely over to Nextcloud and then encrypted all of the data on google drive using cryptomater(just another more reliable backup over my local host until I can get enough money to configure redundant backups). Moved to Lemmy from Reddit. And started my plan to move back to GrapheneOS from my iPhone. Just need to get some money to migrate to a pixel.
I started using the browser extension Chameleon. It automatically changes your user agent to make it look like you’re using another browser or OS. As usual, this should be used in conjunction with other addons such as uBlock Origin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/chameleon-ext/
This actually drastically decreases privacy and makes you more trackable. The best thing to do with your user agent is to set it to the most common one and leave it at that. Anything else (especially an ever-changing one) is a much more uniquely identifying piece of information.
Try Vivaldi browser, it’s old school Opera with a Chrome dress on. So you get the benefits of Chrome with the focus on privacy and innovation of old school Opera.
(Replied to the wrong comment but you get the gist.)
Ok, thanks for informing.
last week i deleted reddit, github, steam, google, discord, facebook and probably more I forgot about
I only keep my Microsoft account cuz I got Minecraft on it, otherwise I use fedi, xmpp, irc and matrix for everything else
But steam has all my money and games :(
well if you got important stuff in it then keep it I guess
I only deleted my steam account because I never use it
I was mostly just lamenting that I could never be as hardcore as you. I am too addicted to gaming to give up steam haha
I only play offline indie games 99% of the times (using the 🏴☠️ method) which means I dont have to worry about DRM or mandatory login/internet connection
so technically the only thing I had on my steam was my status/scores, which are meaningless since I dont have friends lol
I have the exact same problem not being able to delete my Microsoft accounts since they’re linked to paid Minecraft accounts :(
Try out Minetest and download the Mineclone2 Mod through the game. It is quite literally a Minecraft clone that is free and open source, does not require any accounts, has tons of mods, and does not have any tracking or bloatware programmed into it.
I’m sorry but minecraft is way better than that even if closed source, sorry
I do play minetst, but I gotta admit Minecraft is 1000% better
