• Hey Guest,

    As you know, censorship around the world has been ramping up at an alarming pace. The UK and OFCOM has singled out this community and have been focusing its censorship efforts here. It takes a good amount of resources to maintain the infrastructure for our community and to resist this censorship. We would appreciate any and all donations.

    Bitcoin Address (BTC): 39deg9i6Zp1GdrwyKkqZU6rAbsEspvLBJt

    Ethereum (ETH): 0xd799aF8E2e5cEd14cdb344e6D6A9f18011B79BE9

    Monero (XMR): 49tuJbzxwVPUhhDjzz6H222Kh8baKe6rDEsXgE617DVSDD8UKNaXvKNU8dEVRTAFH9Av8gKkn4jDzVGF25snJgNfUfKKNC8

AbusedInnocent

AbusedInnocent

Enemy brain ain't cooperating
Apr 5, 2024
255
Would like to rant about the lack of awareness about digital rights and online privacy.

In many ways the 90s internet was better than the current one, and we ruined it ourselves.

Every time I talk to someone about online privacy they say some bullshit like "I have nothing to hide", by that logic if you wear clothes you must be an alien pretending to be human, if you close your windows you must be cooking meth in your room.

You have plenty of things to hide and any data collected about you can be used against you, for example when Roe v. Wade was overturned some apps and services sold users' data to the US government so they could track who was traveling across states to get an abortion or buying abortion pills, you still sure you have nothing to hide? why are you willing to share such information anyway?


Surely if someone is spying on you they don't have your best interests in mind, if someone was stalking you on the streets you wouldn't think they're making sure you get home safely, you'd think they want to rob/murder/rape you and you'd call the police.

And what about the people who REALLY have things to hide? how are we supposed to plan protests if everything is tracked? saying privacy doesn't matter because you have nothing to hide is like saying free speech doesn't matter because you have nothing to say, privacy should should be protected by everyone for those who need it the most, without Tor/VPNs all whistleblowers would be dead.

I hear these idiots say that some potentially harmful information/content should be universally censored, I think it's only rational that censorship be implemented by platforms independently with some choosing to remain completely uncensored, sure if you regulate the whole internet you can stop people sharing child porn and hateful ideologies but you also make it impossible for whistleblowers to share their findings and allow dictators to censor and arrest anyone who criticizes them which is arguably a much greater harm, I believe that regulation should always be kept to a minimum and should be decentralized if possible, when it comes to the internet it's better if it remains completely unregulated.

The governments are constantly trying to censor the internet and the people don't realize this, they come up with excuses like "think of the children" to censor opinions they don't like and take control of the web.

Speaking of Web 1.0, most websites were simple forums and blogs run by people, no data collection, no algorithms, no Big tech Big brother, an internet by the people for the people.

Unfortunately as the internet became easier to use and more accessible you didn't need to even understand how it worked in order to use it, it was easy for tech startups to trick these people with some ads and suddenly we became dependent on their platforms while they grew to become billion dollar companies.

To prove to you the effectiveness of advertising and how clueless people really are, Mastodon and X (formerly twitter) are basically the exact same except Mastodon is open-source, federated, decentralized, run by volunteers, not owned or controlled by any centralized entity, while X was fucked up by Elon without its users having any control, yet X remains much more popular.

Same with Signal and Whatsapp/Telegram, Lemmy and Reddit, Odysee and Youtube, and many others.

These are social media services that are only useful if enough people use them, they really ruin the internet for everyone by using these awful services and forcing everyone else to use them as well.

With some time and effort most people can find open-source alternatives to almost all the software they use, even the people who are aware of how bad Windows is and where Microsoft is heading with it refuse to even try Linux, I think at this point Windows is only good for gaming and compatibility with some obscure/legacy software.

How can anyone actually buy an Adobe software license with all the shit that company has been doing? you don't think it's better to pirate it and donate the money to GIMP, Krita or Blender? these are open-source projects that will remain free forever, respect your privacy and rely on donations for support, at this point only corporations are buying Adobe licenses, I refuse to believe anyone buys it for personal use. Do you want Adobe to continue to dominate the media creation market and fuck with users?

I refuse to let anyone fuck me over, I keep all my data locally and don't stream movies or music, subscription services are just paying someone to offer you a service from their computer where they can change the terms and conditions, features or price at any time, the cloud is just someone else's computer that you know nothing about, some people still use unencrypted cloud storage or don't keep physical backups for fucks sake.

There might be hope though with Linux rising in popularity and the Fediverse becoming more popular, Mastodon is usable but Lemmy is still a ghost town.

If you've never heard of the Fediverse basically it's a network of social media servers that are decentralized and federated, each having their own rules and content policies and communicating over a common protocol called ActivityPub, it's the best of both worlds between Web 1.0 and popular modern platforms, you can have large social media networks with plenty of users and content while still remaining decentralized and free.


I've been reading about online privacy and digital rights for a few years now and it has taken me on a strange path, it's better this way though, I almost exclusively use open-source software now, I block internet access to all the closed-source apps on my phone with a firewall (my phone doesn't support any custom android ROMs unfortunately) and most of it is open-source anyway, I dualboot Windows and Ubuntu only keeping windows for games (telemetry blocked of course) and exclusively use open-source apps on Ubuntu (not much I can do about drivers though).

Please don't make fun of me for using Ubuntu, I haven't had too many problems with it and don't want to try other distros for now, also I'm aware that it's GNU/Linux.

Surprisingly I don't have a Google, Microsoft, Apple or Meta account and I get by just fine, you probably don't really need them anyway except for email and there are various privacy respecting email alternatives, freeing yourself of these services should be a priority on the road to privacy.

Least you can do is check if open-source alternatives are available before downloading any software and check for decentralized alternatives before using any service, you may not be able to give up features or convenience at first but just keep privacy in mind, help make the internet and computing in general a better place for everyone.

Interested? Here are some great resources to check out, sorry to redirect you to Reddit but it's a good wiki and subreddit in general, you should be fine if you use a fingerprint-resistant web browser with ad and tracker blocking.


Let me know if you'd like another post focusing just on the benefits of open-source software as this thread is getting quite long.
 
  • Like
  • Love
  • Informative
Reactions: Adûnâi, astr4, BlackEyedDog and 17 others
Throwawayacc3

Throwawayacc3

Freedom
Mar 4, 2024
1,387
One of my few subscriptions on YouTube is Louis Rossmann. Fights for a lot of the things you've mentioned here but too many people are blasé about it. The type of attitude that involves "I'm not doing anything wrong so it's fine".
 
  • Like
Reactions: GuessWhosBack, DistraughtWolf, sserafim and 2 others
hoppybunny

hoppybunny

Fearer of the Future
Jun 26, 2024
189
Would like to rant about the lack of awareness about digital rights and online privacy.

In many ways the 90s internet was better than the current one, and we ruined it ourselves.

Every time I talk to someone about online privacy they say some bullshit like "I have nothing to hide", by that logic if you wear clothes you must be an alien pretending to be human, if you close your windows you must be cooking meth in your room.

You have plenty of things to hide and any data collected about you can be used against you, for example when Roe v. Wade was overturned some apps and services sold users' data to the US government so they could track who was traveling across states to get an abortion or buying abortion pills, you still sure you have nothing to hide? why are you willing to share such information anyway?


Surely if someone is spying on you they don't have your best interests in mind, if someone was stalking you on the streets you wouldn't think they're making sure you get home safely, you'd think they want to rob/murder/rape you and you'd call the police.

And what about the people who REALLY have things to hide? how are we supposed to plan protests if everything is tracked? saying privacy doesn't matter because you have nothing to hide is like saying free speech doesn't matter because you have nothing to say, privacy should should be protected by everyone for those who need it the most, without Tor/VPNs all whistleblowers would be dead.

I hear these idiots say that some potentially harmful information/content should be universally censored, I think it's only rational that censorship be implemented by platforms independently with some choosing to remain completely uncensored, sure if you regulate the whole internet you can stop people sharing child porn and hateful ideologies but you also make it impossible for whistleblowers to share their findings and allow dictators to censor and arrest anyone who criticizes them which is arguably a much greater harm, I believe that regulation should always be kept to a minimum and should be decentralized if possible, when it comes to the internet it's better if it remains completely unregulated.

The governments are constantly trying to censor the internet and the people don't realize this, they come up with excuses like "think of the children" to censor opinions they don't like and take control of the web.

Speaking of Web 1.0, most websites were simple forums and blogs run by people, no data collection, no algorithms, no Big tech Big brother, an internet by the people for the people.

Unfortunately as the internet became easier to use and more accessible you didn't need to even understand how it worked in order to use it, it was easy for tech startups to trick these people with some ads and suddenly we became dependent on their platforms while they grew to become billion dollar companies.

To prove to you the effectiveness of advertising and how clueless people really are, Mastodon and X (formerly twitter) are basically the exact same except Mastodon is open-source, federated, decentralized, run by volunteers, not owned or controlled by any centralized entity, while X was fucked up by Elon without its users having any control, yet X remains much more popular.

Same with Signal and Whatsapp/Telegram, Lemmy and Reddit, Odysee and Youtube, and many others.

These are social media services that are only useful if enough people use them, they really ruin the internet for everyone by using these awful services and forcing everyone else to use them as well.

With some time and effort most people can find open-source alternatives to almost all the software they use, even the people who are aware of how bad Windows is and where Microsoft is heading with it refuse to even try Linux, I think at this point Windows is only good for gaming and compatibility with some obscure/legacy software.

How can anyone actually buy an Adobe software license with all the shit that company has been doing? you don't think it's better to pirate it and donate the money to GIMP, Krita or Blender? these are open-source projects that will remain free forever, respect your privacy and rely on donations for support, at this point only corporations are buying Adobe licenses, I refuse to believe anyone buys it for personal use. Do you want Adobe to continue to dominate the media creation market and fuck with users?

I refuse to let anyone fuck me over, I keep all my data locally and don't stream movies or music, subscription services are just paying someone to offer you a service from their computer where they can change the terms and conditions, features or price at any time, the cloud is just someone else's computer that you know nothing about, some people still use unencrypted cloud storage or don't keep physical backups for fucks sake.

There might be hope though with Linux rising in popularity and the Fediverse becoming more popular, Mastodon is usable but Lemmy is still a ghost town.

If you've never heard of the Fediverse basically it's a network of social media servers that are decentralized and federated, each having their own rules and content policies and communicating over a common protocol called ActivityPub, it's the best of both worlds between Web 1.0 and popular modern platforms, you can have large social media networks with plenty of users and content while still remaining decentralized and free.


I've been reading about online privacy and digital rights for a few years now and it has taken me on a strange path, it's better this way though, I almost exclusively use open-source software now, I block internet access to all the closed-source apps on my phone with a firewall (my phone doesn't support any custom android ROMs unfortunately) and most of it is open-source anyway, I dualboot Windows and Ubuntu only keeping windows for games (telemetry blocked of course) and exclusively use open-source apps on Ubuntu (not much I can do about drivers though).

Please don't make fun of me for using Ubuntu, I haven't had too many problems with it and don't want to try other distros for now, also I'm aware that it's GNU/Linux.

Surprisingly I don't have a Google, Microsoft, Apple or Meta account and I get by just fine, you probably don't really need them anyway except for email and there are various privacy respecting email alternatives, freeing yourself of these services should be a priority on the road to privacy.

Least you can do is check if open-source alternatives are available before downloading any software and check for decentralized alternatives before using any service, you may not be able to give up features or convenience at first but just keep privacy in mind, help make the internet and computing in general a better place for everyone.

Interested? Here are some great resources to check out, sorry to redirect you to Reddit but it's a good wiki and subreddit in general, you should be fine if you use a fingerprint-resistant web browser with ad and tracker blocking.


Let me know if you'd like another post focusing just on the benefits of open-source software as this thread is getting quite long.
Gosh you're so right about this!! now i'm not a porn addict and I honestly never use porn sites but when i was complaining about my state Texas requiring an ID to log into porn sites I was getting backlash like, "why don't you want them to make sure that kids aren't watching porn?" like, i do not give a fuck about parents not watching their kids. There is no reason the government should know what i'm watching or getting off too.

there's so many rights and shit being taken away from us because the government is obsessed with tracking everything we do and it feels like no one cares. Even now I can barely use any software without worrying about AI scraping the stuff or being tracked.

I wish there was more I could do as an idividual to fight this on the government level. Even now i made some jokes about the whol trump rally situation and one of my friends on my server asked me to stop because they were scared the government was watching our conversation. Like that's just so shitty that I can't even make a fucking joke without worrying about the government trying to investigate me for a 'private' conversation.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sserafim, AbusedInnocent, EvisceratedJester and 1 other person
AbusedInnocent

AbusedInnocent

Enemy brain ain't cooperating
Apr 5, 2024
255
One of my few subscriptions on YouTube is Louis Rossmann. Fights for a lot of the things you've mentioned here but too many people are blasé about it. The type of attitude that involves "I'm not doing anything wrong so it's fine".
Don't really follow Louis Rossman but I've seen a few of his videos on right to repair, great guy.

Check out Mental Outlaw as well.
 
  • Like
Reactions: smaragdyne, sserafim and Throwawayacc3
Agon321

Agon321

I use google translate
Aug 21, 2023
1,559
Very good thread.
We are digging our own grave.

At this point, the Internet is moving towards centralization.
In the past, there were many forums for every topic.
At this point, Facebook and Reddit have largely taken over this role.
This is a terrible situation because Facebook and Reddit are not known for free speech and respect for people's privacy.
They can actually do whatever they like.

Unfortunately, it is currently impossible to completely avoid large corporations and governments.
For example, gimp, to my knowledge, is not necessarily suitable for professionals.
However, if someone is not a professional, they can try it.

YouTube is the hardest thing to replace, but there are ways to avoid ads, among other things.
But this is a short-term solution, because in this way we only eliminate part of the effects.
Google, having a monopoly, can still dictate terms and tighten the noose around its neck.
We must destroy the cause.

The biggest problem is a vicious circle.
For example, people don't give up on YouTube because other alternatives have much less content.
Alternatives have less content because they have few users.

The internet is becoming more and more of a shithole because we allow it to be.
Our "convenience" and habit are killing us.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Praestat_Mori, ForgottenAgain, KuriGohan&Kamehameha and 4 others
hoppybunny

hoppybunny

Fearer of the Future
Jun 26, 2024
189
Very good thread.
We are digging our own grave.

At this point, the Internet is moving towards centralization.
In the past, there were many forums for every topic.
At this point, Facebook and Reddit have largely taken over this role.
This is a terrible situation because Facebook and Reddit are not known for free speech and respect for people's privacy.
They can actually do whatever they like.

Unfortunately, it is currently impossible to completely avoid large corporations and governments.
For example, gimp, to my knowledge, is not necessarily suitable for professionals.
However, if someone is not a professional, they can try it.

YouTube is the hardest thing to replace, but there are ways to avoid ads, among other things.
But this is a short-term solution, because in this way we only eliminate part of the effects.
Google, having a monopoly, can still dictate terms and tighten the noose around its neck.
We must destroy the cause.

The biggest problem is a vicious circle.
For example, people don't give up on YouTube because other alternatives have much less content.
Alternatives have less content because they have few users.

The internet is becoming more and more of a shithole because we allow it to be.
Our "convenience" and habit are killing us.
I agree with you so much. Also for people trying to make money it's scary to go onto a new place which is why it would he great if already successful youtubers posted elsewhere but why would they do that when youtube works. So like u said convenience.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sserafim, AbusedInnocent and Agon321
destinationlosangel

destinationlosangel

Experienced
Feb 16, 2024
286
Very insightful thread
 
  • Like
Reactions: AbusedInnocent
ForgottenAgain

ForgottenAgain

On the rollercoaster of sadness
Oct 17, 2023
1,008
A great thread. I'm not as knowledgeable as you on privacy and Internet safety but I naturally fell into the idea of not wanting to be part of this current Internet we've been creating. There are just some things that are so hard to replace. For example: I use Facebook because of selling used items on marketplace and because of niche pet care groups that I can't find elsewhere.

For the second hand selling, I did try ebay but I get much better results on Facebook and without fees. For the pet care groups, I did find 2 websites on the topic but one closed down and the other has a lot less activity than the Facebook group.

Then there are other things I can't give up on because that would mean friends or family would have to use a new app and they won't. Examples of that are WhatsApp, everyone else uses it so I have to use it if I want to keep in contact with them. What would be a solution for that? I'd love to protect myself without having to make other people use a different app that, we all know, they won't use.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AbusedInnocent and Praestat_Mori
AbusedInnocent

AbusedInnocent

Enemy brain ain't cooperating
Apr 5, 2024
255
A great thread. I'm not as knowledgeable as you on privacy and Internet safety but I naturally fell into the idea of not wanting to be part of this current Internet we've been creating. There are just some things that are so hard to replace. For example: I use Facebook because of selling used items on marketplace and because of niche pet care groups that I can't find elsewhere.

For the second hand selling, I did try ebay but I get much better results on Facebook and without fees. For the pet care groups, I did find 2 websites on the topic but one closed down and the other has a lot less activity than the Facebook group.

Then there are other things I can't give up on because that would mean friends or family would have to use a new app and they won't. Examples of that are WhatsApp, everyone else uses it so I have to use it if I want to keep in contact with them. What would be a solution for that? I'd love to protect myself without having to make other people use a different app that, we all know, they won't use.
Signal is the most popular open-source alternative to WhatsApp, if it's not popular where you live there's not much you can do, give the app as few permissions as you can although internet access being necessary will always allow some tracking.

Encrypt your WhatsApp cloud backup as well, better not to give it to Google too.
 
  • Hugs
Reactions: ForgottenAgain
DistraughtWolf

DistraughtWolf

Member
Dec 11, 2023
16
Ooh, great thread!

I started my own privacy journey about 6 years ago, And by that i mean that i really started to pay more attention and focus on the finer details.

I still slap myself for being an idiot when i was younger and sharing way too much personal information and creating accounts everywhere. Still... i'm glad that it has been 9 years since i deleted Facebook and about 6 years since i removed Google almost entirely from my life. If only there was a better platform other than YouTube... though i think that using a front-end and not having an account does help a lot.

As for my phone i'm running LineageOS and using open source apps and it's been "good enough" experience, but i have noticed that LOS itself and many apps definitely lack that polish that you would get from using normal "mainstream" OS and apps. I've been thinking of switching to traditional dumbphone but the convenience is crazy with smartphones and i think it would be hard for me to switch. Definitely possible to do so, but hard.

I have to admit that i feel a bit smug whenever someone asks me if i use any social media or mainstream messaging app and my answer is "no". Lots of people just can't comprehend the fact that not everyone wants to share their personal information online or that they care more about their privacy and possible data/info shared.

One thing that really sucks is that every goverment service that you might need to use here has turned or is very rapidly turning into a digital nightmare. You have to verify yourself by your "bank id" and you have to give every fucking permission that is available in this world to them to use said service. It also has been made very hard to do anything without the use of these digital services.

I do get anxious often when thinking about privacy and where the world is headed. Privacy really is a constant battle where you have to actively keep yourself informed and ahead of things. You also have to trade convenience for privacy which shouldn't be the case, but that's just what it has become.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AbusedInnocent
Gangrel

Gangrel

Arcanist
Jul 25, 2024
400
Ooh, great thread!

I started my own privacy journey about 6 years ago, And by that i mean that i really started to pay more attention and focus on the finer details.

I still slap myself for being an idiot when i was younger and sharing way too much personal information and creating accounts everywhere. Still... i'm glad that it has been 9 years since i deleted Facebook and about 6 years since i removed Google almost entirely from my life. If only there was a better platform other than YouTube... though i think that using a front-end and not having an account does help a lot.

As for my phone i'm running LineageOS and using open source apps and it's been "good enough" experience, but i have noticed that LOS itself and many apps definitely lack that polish that you would get from using normal "mainstream" OS and apps. I've been thinking of switching to traditional dumbphone but the convenience is crazy with smartphones and i think it would be hard for me to switch. Definitely possible to do so, but hard.

I have to admit that i feel a bit smug whenever someone asks me if i use any social media or mainstream messaging app and my answer is "no". Lots of people just can't comprehend the fact that not everyone wants to share their personal information online or that they care more about their privacy and possible data/info shared.

One thing that really sucks is that every goverment service that you might need to use here has turned or is very rapidly turning into a digital nightmare. You have to verify yourself by your "bank id" and you have to give every fucking permission that is available in this world to them to use said service. It also has been made very hard to do anything without the use of these digital services.

I do get anxious often when thinking about privacy and where the world is headed. Privacy really is a constant battle where you have to actively keep yourself informed and ahead of things. You also have to trade convenience for privacy which shouldn't be the case, but that's just what it has become.
Oh my god i wish i could be like you, but the convenienses just get the best of me. I get anxious about privacy too, am anxious by just visiting this forum because i know serious things happen here.

I miss the old internet so much, i miss forums, i miss geocities, i miss going to websites. The internet and technology is turning into a shitshow to suck our information out of us. It's unberable sometimes.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DistraughtWolf and AbusedInnocent
eden101

eden101

Student
Aug 12, 2024
108
it's very important. i feel bad for the digital footprint i created over the years. i try to be better. but i just don't have the energy to think about it at all. the news you shared are so disgusting. usa is like a shithole in terms of women's rights lately. christ. also, i think this is on the topic. one time i came across a site that was giving (for free) information of passengers on flights - passports, date of flight etc. so when i think about it - yes you can be as private as you can online but there are people that you give your info too that are careless. banks, airlines, schools, hospitals etc. they all use the internet to store it somewhere and they are pretty reckless with it, i've been thinking about that lately. you can only do so much
 
  • Like
Reactions: AbusedInnocent
AbusedInnocent

AbusedInnocent

Enemy brain ain't cooperating
Apr 5, 2024
255
it's very important. i feel bad for the digital footprint i created over the years. i try to be better. but i just don't have the energy to think about it at all. the news you shared are so disgusting. usa is like a shithole in terms of women's rights lately. christ. also, i think this is on the topic. one time i came across a site that was giving (for free) information of passengers on flights - passports, date of flight etc. so when i think about it - yes you can be as private as you can online but there are people that you give your info too that are careless. banks, airlines, schools, hospitals etc. they all use the internet to store it somewhere and they are pretty reckless with it, i've been thinking about that lately. you can only do so much

The road to privacy is a long journey, take it step by step, it doesn't have to be stressful, there are plenty of guides around.

True that data breaches will always exists as long as data is valuable, best to share as little information as possible.
 
  • Like
Reactions: eden101
Adûnâi

Adûnâi

Little Russian in-cel
Apr 25, 2020
1,024
To prove to you the effectiveness of advertising and how clueless people really are, Mastodon and X (formerly twitter) are basically the exact same except Mastodon is open-source, federated, decentralized, run by volunteers, not owned or controlled by any centralized entity, while X was fucked up by Elon without its users having any control, yet X remains much more popular.
Why not say Gab or Parler? Because those words are scary?

It's like with YouTube - BitChute, Odysee, Rumble, Brighteon, Bastyon, all failed.

Or with the Reddit alternatives - just today I've found my ancient Saidit password, only used it once. Also Voat and Lemmy.

Anyway, China, Korea (#1 and #193) and Japan all censor their Internet, and their societies are hella based. Whereas Americans are anarchic and <censored>.

you can stop people sharing child porn and hateful ideologies but you also make it impossible for whistleblowers to share their findings and allow dictators to censor and arrest anyone who criticizes them which is arguably a much greater harm
Do you even understand that law only makes a distinction between the two because in one case, that "protest" is directed against America's enemy, and in the other, against Washington itself? Do you understand that "hate speech" is dangerous precisely because it threatens America? What an amusingly myopic view!

All governments are interested in protecting itself against rebellions. Conversely, if you intend to break the law, you effectively want to topple said governments. Which would cause a coup d'état and/or a civil war, like in the Ukraine or Syria. Like, do you even see you're playing with fire? Or just another case of Americans not realising they live on planet Earth.
 

Similar threads

D
Replies
26
Views
1K
Suicide Discussion
opheliaoveragain
opheliaoveragain
FlufflesAway
Replies
9
Views
481
Offtopic
Deleted member 8119
D
FlufflesAway
Replies
3
Views
389
Recovery
miyamura_04
miyamura_04
V
Replies
0
Views
409
Recovery
ValiValid
V
M
Replies
4
Views
421
Suicide Discussion
MyTimeIsUp
M