Privacy

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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.

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How is instagram spying on me? (slrpnk.net)

submitted 1 month ago by countrypunk@slrpnk.net to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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I want to preface this by saying that yes, I know that Instagram is bad. I am planning to get rid of it in the future but as of now I have to keep it for communication with people who are only on that platform.

So I have grapheneOS, use protonvpn (free version), use mull as my browser, and do not have google play services enabled on my phone. I do have some apps downloaded through aurora store such as Instagram, whatsapp, mychart, and mint mobile, but the rest came from f-droid.

I have noticed multiple times that after having private conversations on matrix, I get Instagram content in my feed that is scarily accurate to the conversation I had on the other platform immediately after. I know that things discussed in Instagram direct messages and group chat will give suggested content based on those conversations, but I get stuff that that is very specific to what I have ONLY discussed on matrix and didn't look up via my browser.

So my question is how is Instagram doing this and what can I do to mitigate the spying it's doing on my other apps. Thanks.

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[–] Atelopus-zeteki@kbin.run 14 points 1 month ago (3 children)

whatsapp is owned by Meta. I did a quick DDG search to see if I was correct and got this:

"Meta owns several companies, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, Threads, Meta Quest, Horizon Worlds, Ray-Ban Stories, Mapillary, Workplace, and Portal (discontinued)."

I've been working to get the people I communicate with on Signal.app, instead. Other more informed individuals may be able to make additional suggestions.

[–] countrypunk@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I have gotten some people on signal but I will have to wait to try and get more on it. I've also heard that there's privacy issues with signal but even if the allegations are true it's a big step up from Instagram. I'm hoping to mainly use signal and my self-hosted matrix server in the future.

[–] Atelopus-zeteki@kbin.run 0 points 1 month ago

I suspect the main issues people 'in the wild' have with signal involves ineffective use of the app. Do you check the 'safety number' with every user? Do you use disappearing messages? Does anyone have access to your phone, or other linked device?

Here's what the interwebs say about Signal and Security:

Signal encryption key vulnerability being fixed on Mac (and less fully on Windows), July 12 2024 https://9to5mac.com/2024/07/12/signal-encryption-key-vulnerability/

https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/is-signal-safe-4129801

https://restoreprivacy.com/secure-encrypted-messaging-apps/signal/

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