Privacy

31856 readers

235 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
Don't promote proprietary software
Try to keep things on topic
If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
Be nice :)

Related communities

Chat rooms

[Matrix/Element]Dead
Discord

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

What is the cost of privacy? (lemmy.world)

submitted 5 months ago by joat_mon@lemmy.world to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

47 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I have been pro privacy and anti data harvesting for many years now, however it is becoming increasingly more difficult staying off some platforms. Mostly Meta.

Over the years I have convinced most of my friends and family to use Signal instead of WhatsApp. However, there are still chat groups that I am missing from, and trying to keep up to date with local events seems next to impossible without Facebook or Instagram.

Additionally, I am finding it more and more tiring to have the awkward "No I don't have WhatsApp. No I don't have Facebook either. Or Instagram, sorry. Do you want to try an app that you've never heard of to stay in contact with me?" every time I meet someone new.

I saddens me that it feels like the multi-billion dollar data harvesting companies are winning, but I no longer know if this is a hill that I'm willing to die on.

What are your thoughts on what we have to give up in our lives just to stay in control of our personal information?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] AnAnonymous@lemm.ee 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

It's easy, use a VPN and as many fake data as you can, also you can use an AI generated profile pic, if you need a phone number you can use a virtual number like TextNow app.

[–] original_reader@lemm.ee 8 points 5 months ago

You are right on all counts.

Just not sure if "easy" is the operative word here.

[–] joat_mon@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Thanks, yeah I'm always on a VPN, but as you suggested, maybe nowadays it's not about trying to live without an account, but having the account with generic/fake profile data.

[–] AnAnonymous@lemm.ee 6 points 5 months ago

Yeah the point it's into giving them fake data, you keep using the service and they get fake stuff at exchange. Better than not using their service.