Earlier quoted context omitted.
Look suspicious in what way?
Like, say, routing 100% of traffic through a vpn
It's only suspicious if few people do it. Make it the norm.
Online privacy: to what extent should you try to go dark?
101–110 of 139 posts
Re: Online privacy: to what extent should you try to go dark?
#102The 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…
> they get your legal consent whether you like the way they do it or not.
Facebook tracks millions of people who never sogned up to a facebook account and has never agreed to anything
Re: Online privacy: to what extent should you try to go dark?
#103The 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…
Is your middle ground the same as what you listed in basic things? You always surf in incognito mode?
I use incognito mode sometimes for NSFW stuff and when I don’t want to be tracked with cookies. I have a browser profile for when I need to be logged into something, like Amazon for example.
Re: Online privacy: to what extent should you try to go dark?
#104It's a bit hard for me to understand what's being argued for here. For many people in publicly visible positions, it's not practical to avoid having an online identity under your real name. This is not even exclusively a white collar issue for someone who speaks at conferences etc., how about a contractor who needs an online presence to find clients? Certainly there are steps someone can take to be make themselves in…
OP Here. I'm arguing the *why* you should care and *what* can happen. The article is a reflection on how I can explain my mother that she should care. Going invisible online doesn't mean you have to limit your presence - it really depends. That's why I think there are some fair criticism about the last paragraph of the article, that really doesn't tell you what to do.
> The article is a reflection on how I can explain my mother that she should care.
I think you forgot one important point. Lack of privacy harms journalism and activism, making the government too powerful and not accountable. If only activists and journalists will try to have the privacy, it will be much easier to target them. Everyone should have privacy to protect them. It’s sort of like freedom of speech is necessary not just for journalists, but for everyone, even if you have nothing to say.
Re: Online privacy: to what extent should you try to go dark?
#105Author 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…
There are some who have argued that crytopcurrency is an effort to make everyone's spending habits public. Imagine virtually anyone having access to global purchase history. No need to approach VISA, etc. to purchase the data. This seems like Nirvana for "tech" intermediaries sitting on the internet. A crypto proponent might argue that transactions are anonymous. However it is impossible to remove entries from the le…
> No need to approach VISA, etc. to purchase the data.
Surely for a government, approaching VISA is far more conveneint
Re: Online privacy: to what extent should you try to go dark?
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t bother unsubscribing. Just filter to spam and ignore.
Right, for pure spam, yes. I want to know about my hotel or air reservation but not get their junk email. So I can't go scorched earth on them, but I can't unsub from the junk either due to my tracker dns blackhole.
I batch unsubscribes to once a month and disable pihole for ~5 minutes
Re: Online privacy: to what extent should you try to go dark?
#107Usually when a question is asked in a headline one would expect the article to at least attempt to answer it. This piece doesn't guide you on how to make trade-off decisions between privacy and usability, it doesn't even give concrete tips on how to improve privacy (apart from a single mention of password managers, where it doesn't even say whether they should be used or avoided). This is as useless for beginners as…
OP Here. Thanks for the feedback.
When I started to write the article, I was set to give a list of things we can follow to improve privacy. In the middle, I noticed the arguments why you should do it were not clear. As I said in another comment, it's not clear for my mother the consequences of oversharing, so it's not easy for me to tell her not do do so.
The reality is that it really depends. Maybe you do need to flash your phone and use a VPN or maybe not. It's complex. I work in Cybersecurity and I often get into projects where PMs want magic bullets but there isn't one. Are you processing personal data? Are you going to have legal, financial or reputation implications if you have your data stolen? It's not binary.
The idea is to get the basics right so I can defend to my significant other why she doesn't see ads on Google: it's because pi-hole, honey.
I will come up with the list of things you can do and share it here soon, sorry if you think it's clickbait.
Re: Online privacy: to what extent should you try to go dark?
#108The 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…
The US gov purchases the data that comes from the mass surveillance and they don't need a warrant to do so, essentially bypassing the constitution
By your interpretation this is okay because its done by a private industry. That makes no sense to me, can the cops now go pay some random thugs to break into my place and search it without a warrant too? Sorry, that's fucking insane just like being able yo purchase the surveiled data
Re: Online privacy: to what extent should you try to go dark?
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
OP Here. I'm arguing the *why* you should care and *what* can happen. The article is a reflection on how I can explain my mother that she should care. Going invisible online doesn't mean you have to limit your presence - it really depends. That's why I think there are some fair criticism about the last paragraph of the article, that really doesn't tell you what to do.
> The article is a reflection on how I can explain my mother that she should care. I think you forgot one important point. Lack of privacy harms journalism and activism, making the government too powerful and not accountable. If only activists and journalists will try to have the privacy, it will be much easier to target them. Everyone should have privacy to protect them. It’s sort of like freedom of speech is necess…
I find your argument to be true, but the idea is to discuss what we can do versus the standards which I find them to be GDPR and Apple. The first because it came out with a set of rules that didn't exist anywhere else in the world and the second because it prevented millions of people to be tracked when they navigate (obviously a commercial stunt, but still). I would question if anyone else made more for privacy in the last few years than these two (Maybe Firefox?)
Maybe the whole world must push for GDPR-like regulation or for Android to block third-party cookies. Until then, the responsibility is on each individual.
Re: Online privacy: to what extent should you try to go dark?
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
OP Here. I'm interested in the balance you found. Happy to include it in the part 2 and reference you.
By balance I mean I don’t go full LARPer when doing basic stuff like online banking and buying stuff from Amazon. LARPer means Live Action Role Play and refers to someone overly paranoid about every little thing. In other words, their threat model is wrongly applied to basic things. If you’re a journalist you may want to use Qubes and use disposable VMs to open PDF documents, for example. Most people would be fine ju…
Thanks, makes sense. I will explore how the Intel Management Engine can make an effect on privacy.