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.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
Don't promote proprietary software
Try to keep things on topic
If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
Be nice :)

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Noob Question: If you aren't willing to deal with custom OSes like Linux (for computers) and Android Custom Roms (for phones), do you just not have any privacy at all? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I mean, exactly how invasive are default operating systems? (Like Windows, Mac, Chrome OS, Android, iOS) Do they log your keystrokes, log passwords, capture screen, upload your photos, videos, or audio? (Assuming you aren't a target of government) Is it even possible for the average person who doesn't feel comfortable messing with installing operating systems to have any privacy?

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Mac is less intrusive than Windows. Windows 10 is a whole lot less intrusive than Windows 11. You can lock Windows 10 down even more if you use Shut Up 10. It's an amazing piece of freeware. Just be aware that Windows will reset a lot of your options after major updates.

Duck Duck Go is more secure than any other search engine and browser. Firefox is next in the list if you're not on a Mac. Get uBlock Origin and NextDNS.io.

Don't give your real information to companies when possible. Don't browse the web logged into Google, Facebook, Reddit, TikTok, etc.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I would say there's an argument to be made against duckduckgo with how they're not open source, and the whole allowing Microsoft trackers deal, but it is definitely a better option than google or bing. I don't understand why you're mentioning their browser however, as there are definitely much better alternatives.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Their browser runs in permanent privacy mode and blocks all tracking scripts and cookies by default. You can configure Firefox to act the same way, and it's a better browser overall, but I figured that anyone who knows how to do that wouldn't be asking the question, so recommending DDG browser is an easy solution. Plus it has a cool window burn animation!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Fair enough, and the window burn animation is definitely nice.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There's a Burn My Windows plugin for Debian if you're on Linux that lets you apply that, and many other animations, to all of your windows. You can get it working on Arch too if you're into that sort of thing. It's probably my favorite part of my Linux computers, which is silly considering all of the other benefits, but I love it. LOL

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah that sounds quite nice, I'll look into it.