Privacy

31935 readers

647 users here now

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 :)

Related communities

Chat rooms

[Matrix/Element]Dead
Discord

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

121

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]

59 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] LemmyNameMyself 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Default OSs are very invasive. Windows, Mac and iOS are constantly spying on everything you do and stock Android is only as private as the apps it comes with which include things like Google Play Services - an app so baked into the system it can only be disabled through adb/root

If you want to read into this - Louis Rossmann made a video on this and this is the paper he mentioned.

possible for the average person who doesn't feel comfortable messing with installing operating systems to have any privacy?

Yes, depends on how far you are willing to take it.

Replace default apps with FOSS (F-droid)

Delete or disable defaut apps through developer options/adb

Limit the number of permissions you give to apps (your calculator shouldn't have access to internet or your camera)

Don't install apps that you don't trust/need

Block app's access to the internet with a firewall

Check out r/degoogle on Reddit for many useful resources

For Windows/iOS, etc.: change settings to be more private: give less permissions and turn off telemetry wherever possible.

If you think that's not enough, consider dual booting a Linux distro like Linux Mint Cinnamon (easy to set up and very beginer-friendly). If you do that you can learn Linux and keep your private data there instead of on Windows/iOS

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=CE0EB5bXj14

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.