Poll: How do you protect your privacy? • Hacker News Board

Re: Poll: How do you protect your privacy?

#61

Post by Achshar » Fri, May 31, 2013, 3:11 AM UTC

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…

As I said in my comment, to each his own and I don't think badly of people who work to protect their privacy. It just so happens that I have nothing to hide, everyone knows about my sexual orientation, hobbies and political opinion (I have none). I happen to be in a state where I can (I believe) afford to not worry about anyone finding something about me that I don't want them to. Prn habits however always go to incognito, I don't have anything worthy of a TOR setup for example.

This also can be because I have never been stalked or harassed. If I were to go through that then maybe I would change my stance.

Re: Poll: How do you protect your privacy?

#62

Post by PeterisP » Fri, May 31, 2013, 6:42 AM UTC

stablepeak wrote: post #43

PeterisP wrote: post #38

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.

If you do not dare to post your opinion with an anonymous accounts at age 20 you should definitely not go into politics at age 40-50.

In practice, anonymous accounts don't work and our generation will have a permanent record as data analysis gets better and cameras like Google Glass will become ubiquitous.

The idea is that you should think through your opinions so that you can sign under them proudly even 20 years afterwards. Don't run your mouth rashly or drunkedly, don't respond to provocations, etc. And if you're ashamed to sign under an opinion, then think twice - either change that opinion or dare to sign under it. I mean, you can't hide under anonymity 24/7, you have to say what you are and be what you say.

Re: Poll: How do you protect your privacy?

#63

Post by geekam » Sat, Jun 01, 2013, 10:58 PM UTC

daeken wrote: post #17

geekam wrote: post #2

I use a VPN - https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/ and I have been meaning to ask folks here if they have experience with the VPN service or is there anyone better out there. They claim that they do not log at all.

I use them as well, but I find that I have a hard time trusting them. They haven't done anything to lose my trust, but nor have they done anything to gain it; they could just as easily be logging my every move, and I'd never know. But I can't really see a way around it, so I'll continue to do so and use end-to-end encryption when possible.

I just blogged about my chat with them - http://writing.amanjeev.com/2013/06/my-chat-with-private-int...

Re: Poll: How do you protect your privacy?

#64

Post by geekam » Sat, Jun 01, 2013, 11:01 PM UTC

fuzzywalrus wrote: post #21

geekam wrote: post #2

I use a VPN - https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/ and I have been meaning to ask folks here if they have experience with the VPN service or is there anyone better out there. They claim that they do not log at all.

I use PrivateInternetAccess as well, they make it pretty easy and I'm able to log multiple boxes on at once (my HTPC, laptop, Mac Pro) without them complaining. http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-providers-really-take-anon... I also stack on Little Snitch, Adblock and Facebook Block (to stop Facebook from loading its iframes on sites that are not facebook).

Thanks, I started using the tools you had mentioned and it made things a little better for my paranoid self. I always needed something like Little Snitch.