this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2023
34 points (97.2% liked)

Privacy

31235 readers
1306 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

Related communities

Chat rooms

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I have been trying to take my digital privacy more seriously as of late, but I find myself falling into a cycle of all-or-nothing. I will do a little bit to improve my privacy and then will suddenly feel like I need to go full-on down the rabbit hole. This leads to burnout, and then I'll convince myself that it's all futile and I should just use what's most convenient.

How do you all find a balance that works for you? Or do you just change things constantly?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

The most important thing in all these things is to actually consider what you need, and what your're willing to pay for it. The Internet is both extremely good and telling you about niche but really really good sorts of things, while really really bad at not making perfect the enemy of the good.

So, as an example - look up any product category. The highly advertised options are rarely the absolute best option, but the absolute best option is often like getting sold on a McClaren when you need a Toyota. Or an F350 when you really need Ranger.

So - in privacy, often the online people are talking about avoiding government "Enemy of the State" type surveillance and risks (look up the movie if you don't get the reference). And that level of opsec and precautions are going to do the job, but at a huge cost in practicality and connection with the rest of the world. Now, are you going up against a government? If not, you have to figure what you are going against, @RandomDude said - do a threat assessment.

I will say one thing - I won't publicly disclose my own threat assessment for several reasons, but I'm sure online there are some examples you can look up. Are you looking to weaken Google / Ad tracking? Are you looking to not send all data to your ISP for marketing? etc. And there are reasonable things you can do there.