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Online privacy: to what extent should you try to go dark?

cyb3rsecurity.tips

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Re: Online privacy: to what extent should you try to go dark?

#71

Post by [deleted] »

sam345 wrote: post #69
photochemsyn wrote: post #51

The only real way to ensure your data isn't being collected and sold in the course of every single transaction you engage in (cash transactions being somewhat less trackable, however), is to get data privacy laws passed that forbid this activity by retailers, data brokers, and related entities. The EU has the right idea on this. Ordinary individuals who attempt to use technology to 'go dark' will likely, if they're c…

". This is called mass domestic warrantless surveillance and it is illegal under any reasonable interpretation of the US constitution, and certainly shouldn't be allowed by private parties either." I don't think this is correct. Google etc are private actors so no state action, no constitutional violation plus they get your legal consent whether you like the way they do it or not. Government agencies if they get the…

[deleted]

Re: Online privacy: to what extent should you try to go dark?

#72

Post by [deleted] »

[deleted] wrote: post #70
photochemsyn wrote: post #51

The only real way to ensure your data isn't being collected and sold in the course of every single transaction you engage in (cash transactions being somewhat less trackable, however), is to get data privacy laws passed that forbid this activity by retailers, data brokers, and related entities. The EU has the right idea on this. Ordinary individuals who attempt to use technology to 'go dark' will likely, if they're c…

[deleted]

[deleted]

Re: Online privacy: to what extent should you try to go dark?

#73

Post by junofan »

photochemsyn wrote: post #51

The only real way to ensure your data isn't being collected and sold in the course of every single transaction you engage in (cash transactions being somewhat less trackable, however), is to get data privacy laws passed that forbid this activity by retailers, data brokers, and related entities. The EU has the right idea on this. Ordinary individuals who attempt to use technology to 'go dark' will likely, if they're c…

Certainly you can ban the sale, but it’s hard to imagine a law that outright bans the collection—there will be exceptions for law enforcement, and it’s not inconceivable those exceptions will be abused. I think technological and social solutions may be a better bet than laws on the books in this case.

Re: Online privacy: to what extent should you try to go dark?

#74

Post by ssklash »

A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #67
bee_rider wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't disagree with your anecdote in general. But it is somewhat interesting that, in the modern world, the implicit threat of an authority figure knowing this bit of trivia about you wouldn't be all that threatening. To the person in the story, it implies someone fairly close to him is giving information. To us it would be like "did get that bit of information from my Google searches, Facebook likes, or did you go…

This is the part that interests me the most. In a way, its a thousand times worse now. In a practical sense, if the story was told today the story would suggest that any agent would get this information just by asking ISP, banks and maybe Amazon for your history with them. We don't just know that you drink tea. We can predict your daughter is pregnant and know wife is cheating on you. Full blown surveillance requires…

This is a fantastic comment. And it perfectly answers why the idea of "having nothing to hide" is so dangerous. Everyone will one day have something worth hiding, and probably not something illegal at all.

Re: Online privacy: to what extent should you try to go dark?

#75

Post by encryptluks2 »

wolverine876 wrote: post #27
encryptluks2 wrote: post #7

I guess it really depends on what country you live in. In America, history has taught me people with enough money and power can destroy your life with immunity and that you could be one election away from 1984 or Hunger Games.

They can only do it if you do nothing. It's a system that requires the people to act. What are you doing about it?

Definitely not participating in a failed coup like January 6.

Re: Online privacy: to what extent should you try to go dark?

#76

Post by icelancer »

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #60
netr0ute wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about Monero, which is supposedly completely anonymous even with chain tracking?

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/09/mastercard-to-buy-blockchain... Lets assume Monero is untraceable. Did MasterCard buy a company that cannot deliver on its promise of Monero tracing. In 2020, it was announced that American tax dollars were paid by DHS to CipherTrace for "tools" to trace Monero transactions. Thought experiment: What is the financial incentive to keep transactions "untraceable". Is it greater than the f…

CipherTrace didn't even win the actual contract from the IRS; Chainalysis did.

CipherTrace's tools - by their own admission - can only provide probabilistic analysis and not deterministic analysis.

They'll help in an investigation, but are hardly a silver bullet.

Re: Online privacy: to what extent should you try to go dark?

#77

Post by freebuju »

kornhole wrote: post #3

Author does not mention the major reason I care which is that allowing others to know what we are doing, thinking, saying, where we are going.. either individually or collectively anonymously or not, gives them power over us in many ways to predict, manipulate, dispossess.. which leads to the imbalances we have today of the haves and have nots of data. The people who say big tech already has so much data on them so w…

> What you did, thought, said.. last year is much less valuable and useful than what you are doing today.

This isn't true for biodata or medical related data.

Re: Online privacy: to what extent should you try to go dark?

#78

Post by nunorbatista »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #6

These articles frequently err on the side of assuming that online security is entirely about worrying about random internet strangers taking advantage of you. For many people, the primary concern is an abusive SO, ex or relative, getting fired from their current job et al. Some articles do address such things but they have something of a tendency to be addressed as a separate issue from "online privacy" rather than o…

OP here. It is true, and a missing part of the article. Took note of it, thanks.

Re: Online privacy: to what extent should you try to go dark?

#79

Post by nunorbatista »

superb-owl wrote: post #5

I think it's mostly pointless to put more than a basic minimum amount of effort into protecting your own privacy (e.g. sensible social media settings). There are too many surreptitious means of getting your info. Instead we need to focus our efforts on political action. Privacy is not something that can be controlled at the individual level when you're up against billion dollar budgets.

OP Here. The legal part is important, but you don't have to make it easy. GDPR was a good step forward if not in the way people think about the subject. It would be great to see other countries follow this.

Re: Online privacy: to what extent should you try to go dark?

#80

Post by nunorbatista »

night-rider wrote: post #19

The extent can mean doing basic things like installing and AD blocker, using a password manager, surfing in isolated sessions (incognito mode) to stop cookie tracking and to leave no forensic artefact on your device, always posting with pseudonyms, using privacy-aware operating systems like Linux, etc Then you have the extreme options available like Tor, using Qubes, GrapheneOS on your phone, changing your legal name…

OP Here. I'm interested in the balance you found. Happy to include it in the part 2 and reference you.
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