The fact of running an OS and other software that spies on you is proof against being 'privacy focused'. And many cybersecurity professionals use Windows at home, have dozens of devices with always-on microphones all throughout their house, use a host of cloud-based home automation, etc. It's just not true that working in cybersecurity means you do much to preserve your privacy.

And in practice today, privacy and security are in tension when it comes to desktop OS choice. macOS has a more destructive security model than most Linux distros, better suited to running proprietary software from untrusted sources. But compared to *BSD along with many Linux distros, macOS is also absolutely teeming with telemetry and cloud-centric functionality. In a word, macOS is more secure but less private. That many cybersecurity professionals would take that tradeoffs doesn't at all show that macOS has better privacy than Linux.

[–] MJBrune@beehaw.org 3 points 6 months ago

I feel like you are then gate-keeping the term privacy-focused to mean "You must use Linux otherwise you aren't privacy-focused!" Either way, this points back to my original point. You need data to make this claim that more privacy-focused people use Linux. Otherwise, the opposite claim holds just as much water.