Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Poll: How do you protect your privacy?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 64 posts

Re: Poll: How do you protect your privacy?

#31

Post by mrkuchbhi »

MichaelApproved wrote: post #20
Achshar wrote: post #5

That list makes me uncomfortable. I can't imagine doing all of it unless I was some criminal. But to each his own I guess because I don't really care what government or add company person is looking at me browsing reddit or programing forums. So nothing to hide, too much trouble and I don't care about my privacy. Now if I really wanted to hide my activities, I would be using tor BTW. Plus I am a little optimistic abo…

"I can't imagine doing all of it unless I was some criminal." This is the #1 misconception about why people are concerned with privacy and it needs to stop. Not everyone who wants to protect their privacy is a criminal. Here are a few reasons you'd want to protect your privacy unrelated to criminal activities. I'm sure fellow HNers could add more to the list. Private life away from work. Political enemies within the…

this article might be helpful too http://chronicle.com/article/Why-Privacy-Matters-Even-if/127...

Re: Poll: How do you protect your privacy?

#32

Post by rosser »

Other: I use multiple browsers. Broadly, I have one browser logged into Google services, one logged into Facebook, and one in which I do everything else.

I also use Ghostery, AdBlock, HTTPS Everywhere, and a cookie management extension that deletes all non-whitelisted cookies after an hour, as well as make liberal use of Incognito windows.

Re: Poll: How do you protect your privacy?

#33

Post by jschuur »

ljd wrote: post #13
jschuur wrote: post #7

Nothing (because none of these are necessary for the kind of privacy I practice). I think about what I post to what social network and some things I just don't post at all. I think I still have privacy. I have private conversations with people via Skype, IM, Facebook, email. Is it possible that at some point those leak? Perhaps. It's just not likely enough that I chose to worry about it. I value the benefits I get ov…

What you might not be considering are the details between the lines. You might not post private information to Facebook but when and how often you post can tell someone more than you would casually share with a stranger like what your sleeping habits are or if you are at a special event (determined by the lack of generated events during a normally scheduled period of activity for you). After a while, even the non-int…

I love that the replies are full of people who, like me, don't mind if advertisers know more about me. Why wouldn't I want to experience more relevant information about purchase opportunities? What's the alternative? Random stuff that doesn't apply to me? Sites who can't bring in enough revenue to operate that I don't get to use because they can't target me specifically?

I'm confident in my ability to say 'no' to an advertiser, just as I appreciate being told about things that might help my lifestyle. I'll research it, I'll look at the pros and cons as well as the costs and will make the final decision.

Although, fair disclosure, I run an ad blocker in my browser, so I don't see most of the ads anyway ;)

PleaseRobMe was a fun little project that those with a heightened concern for privacy love to point to, but I doubt it ever led to anyone having their house robbed. Again, the benefits of me being able to selectively tweet a conference hashtag and see if anyone wants to hang out in person outweighs the fear that someone's going to see if I left any Apple gadgets at home to steal.

Re: Poll: How do you protect your privacy?

#34

Post by lucb1e »

For anyone looking to get cookies under control, which also keeps your browser much faster on low-end systems I've found[1], I can very much recommend the Firefox extension called "Self-destructing cookies"[2]. The first three days or so, you spend about five minutes configuring it (per day), after that it'll cost you no time at all.

Also another poll option: Https Everywhere. That way governments, secret services, carriers, transit networks, local network owners (school, open wifi networks, etc.), and hackers on the wifi networks have a much harder time spying on you.

[1] https://lucb1e.com/?p=post&id=95

[2] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/self-destruct...

Re: Poll: How do you protect your privacy?

#36

Post by pyre »

Achshar wrote: post #5

That list makes me uncomfortable. I can't imagine doing all of it unless I was some criminal. But to each his own I guess because I don't really care what government or add company person is looking at me browsing reddit or programing forums. So nothing to hide, too much trouble and I don't care about my privacy. Now if I really wanted to hide my activities, I would be using tor BTW. Plus I am a little optimistic abo…

You say criminal like it's a bad thing. In some countries, speaking out against the oppressive government is criminal (e.g. North Korea).

Re: Poll: How do you protect your privacy?

#38

Post by PeterisP »

Avoid posting controversial issues. I mean, not only avoid posting them under your real name facebook/google+ account, but avoid posting them at all, since they'll be linked together automatically anyway.

If you consider a possibility of going into politics at age of 40-50, then you better think what you say even at age of 20.

Re: Poll: How do you protect your privacy?

#39

Post by marssaxman »

I use three different browsers: Firefox for real browsing, Safari for activities which require me to log in to a Google account, and Chrome for activities involving Facebook. If I want to move a link from one context to the other I use the clipboard.

I have never logged in to Facebook or Google on my phone. I don't feel confident that I know enough about Android to be sure my information isn't leaking.

Re: Poll: How do you protect your privacy?

#40

Post by gnosis »

jschuur wrote: post #33
ljd wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you might not be considering are the details between the lines. You might not post private information to Facebook but when and how often you post can tell someone more than you would casually share with a stranger like what your sleeping habits are or if you are at a special event (determined by the lack of generated events during a normally scheduled period of activity for you). After a while, even the non-int…

I love that the replies are full of people who, like me, don't mind if advertisers know more about me. Why wouldn't I want to experience more relevant information about purchase opportunities? What's the alternative? Random stuff that doesn't apply to me? Sites who can't bring in enough revenue to operate that I don't get to use because they can't target me specifically? I'm confident in my ability to say 'no' to an…

One problem is that once information is collected about you, there's no guarantee use of it will be limited to the people or entities who collected it. There's also no guarantee that the information won't be abused.

Corporations get hacked in to and have data stolen from them all the time (the frequent news stories we hear about data breaches are probably just a drop in the bucket compared to those that happen and go unreported).

Unscrupulous employees of these corporations could use the data the corporation collects. This information could also be sold (either legitimately or illegitimately) to others. It could be for stalking, harassment, identity theft, finding out your political sympathies, sexual orientation, etc.

The data collected on you could be used by prospective employers, insurance agencies, or love interests to weed you out based on the impression (accurate or not) that they get of you or your social media "friends".

Once the data is collected, it could stick around virtually forever. And good luck correcting any mistakes in it.

Post reply on HN