9mo ago

Talking to normies about privacy:

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Much of the obsession internet people have over ""privacy"" is just a feel-good-about-themselves thing, rather than actually protecting themselves from their data being collected and used. If you're posting on the internet, yes that includes Lemmy, there's almost no doubt that any government and world-destroying corporation would have easy access to everything about you in an instant, even if you go out of your way to try to use services "focused on privacy". You aren't protecting yourself from anything by not using Google/Microsoft/etc. products.
There is no "chipping away bit-by-bit" when it comes to this, it's pretty much meaningless unless you're nearly completely off the grid, to the point where you don't even use modern technology. The worst you're gonna do otherwise is fuck up targetted ads, but that's not very hard to do considering Google apparently thought I was a pregnant woman looking for leather boots and beauty products when I still had ads on YouTube.
I wish people would admit it's really not about their privacy. Say it's because FOSS services are better (because they are), say it's so you don't get spam from shitty sites you gave your email to, say it's so you can fit in in your niche online communities, whatever. But 99.99% of people in "privacy" communities haven't even put a dent in the data being collected from them by large entities, hell most people in these communities think VPNs will protect them from anything at all other than their parents or boss not noticing them being on porn sites (VPNs can help with privacy, but only under specific conditions that most people aren't meeting)...
- That's just demonstrably false
  
  Okay then, I'll ask you this. What can you demonstrate that you have prevented extremely large corporations or the government from doing with your information by replacing some of your services with "privacy-focused" services? Do you really think that, say, the NSA and Amazon don't know you better than you know yourself regardless of your efforts? What do you think is prevented by using some isolated services while you still, no doubt, have most of your data being collected and used by other things?
  Could you prove that your life would be any different if, for example, every single piece of information Meta has about you that you don't know they have were wiped off of their servers? Or that anyone here's life would be different?
  The only thing I could imagine you could demonstrate is that targetted ads could be "worse". Which is a non-answer, many peoples' ads are completely inaccurate regardless, and ads aren't such a good metric to base the government's or Nvidia's or whoever's access to your data off of.
  Fact of the matter is is that, unless you're mega-Amish, your efforts to prevent powerful entities from collecting your data are meaningless, they don't work well, and without strong privacy laws it will forever be that way unless everyone suddenly agrees to only use FOSS user-friendly products and all the ISPs are replaced by good guys. I guess some people here have spent thousands of dollars and hours in an attempt to keep their privacy in their own hands in spite of that, so they have to convince themselves it does work... I don't blame them, government corruption & corporatism has made me desparate before too.
  
  I love when people try to text wall and rhetoric to „winning“ a convo to ultimately feel good.
  Neither have I the time nor the patience to point at all the biases and fallacies included in this.
  Surprise fact: People can do whatever they like. If they install an ad blocker and deny tracking as much as possible, that is great and every little bit against megacorps is great.
  This comment is defeatist to no end.
  Instead of telling people to give up and be how you imagine people should be, be the change that you want and show them how to protect themselves and how to do things „the right way“.
  
  If this person's beliefs are sincerely held, showing people on the internet the "the right way" to go about being serious about privacy is an impossible task. One can't be on the World Wide Web and "be the change they wish see" (i.e. not be on the web) with regards to their privacy perspective.
  And I'm not sure if it's defeatist to state that all of us, just by being online, likely have some hooks in our mouths. It's just the cost we pay for not being luddites. Yes, there's benefits to not having a ton of hooks in us, which is why we do what we do, but even one hook is enough to steal your private info and sell it to everyone. We're posting to the World Wide Web after all, not Gopher/Gemini/Onion. Hell, this goes beyond the internet since the DMV freely sells your personal information too. We make these limited sacrifices so we have an actual community instead of feeling like we're self-righteous in our loneliness.
  
  Aaaaand... now you just only spit nonsense. Great :) but I won't even try talking to a wall
- What in the ‘towels-on-mirrors’ did I just read?
- Your comment suggests that it is pointless to avoid tracking. In 2019 journalist Kashmir Hill tried to live without the tech giants and failed : I Tried to Live Without the Tech Giants. It Was Impossible.
  But if you look a bit deeper at this, my conclusion is that it all depends on your needs and your habits. It is quite possible to minimize the amount of tracking that is done.
  And doing so makes me feel a bit more relaxed personally about the surveillance capitalism circus and that is well worth it.

157 comments