Privacy in the digital age

The original post: /r/privacy by /u/nattygorgon on 2024-11-11 16:46:10.

I am a pure novice in this field.

& there is certainly a recent post that has addressed this issue.

But beyond getting a seperate phone, (my layman normie idea), how can I stop this on my current phone?

What I mean by this, and probably the wrong terminology I am using, but I am not too techy... across Twitter, TikTok, IG Facebook and even Reddit, you come to these apps after you where reading or watching something on another app, and instantly that same topic is shown..

I am sure some people will roll their eyes at this as you guys worked out how to deal with this ages ago but I am not scared to say I am a novice here.

Is there a way to stop one specific app, whichever it may be, constantly tracking my activities across the other apps?

Or refer me to a previous post that has addressed this concern?

I thank you in advance...

The original post: /r/privacy by /u/a_Ninja_b0y on 2024-11-11 16:33:20.

The original post: /r/privacy by /u/Jimjamtx3 on 2024-11-11 16:26:06.

If I use AdGuard or similar with DNS activated, does it mitigate any collection of data from installed apps on iOS?

As an example - Waze collects Financial Info, User Content, etc that it doesn’t need in order to function. If so, Is there any way around this? So many apps need far more info than needed. I’m just starting my “privacy journey” so forgive me if this is a simple 101 question. TIA

The original post: /r/privacy by /u/therecanonlybe1_ on 2024-11-11 16:17:35.

For the past years I've used NerdWallet simply to monitor credit building and finance accounts. The output worked though now I'm beginning to realize where all the credit card offers are coming from when receiving mail, junk, and spam.

The original post: /r/privacy by /u/Drywinner_ on 2024-11-11 16:11:44.

Hired a car at record go in Barcelona airport and got charged €400 euros for crossing the Spanish-french border by 10 miles.

Is the rental car company legally allowed to track where you drive? There were no stickers on the car or anything saying that the car was being tracked

The original post: /r/privacy by /u/OldFredBaer on 2024-11-11 16:02:40.

Hey everyone, I have read the rules, and have had this lingering question that I would really appreciate some quality input.

A portable prepaid wireless hotspot device, NOT a phone, can be purchased for around $50 at some local big-name stores. You basically buy it, then you can buy the pre-paid pin cards, or usually a Visa or Mastercard gift card works.The sign up process is fairly easy. Then you just turn it on and you connect to a tower and you have internet wherever.

My question is, at least with certain internet providers to these hotspots, there is NO asking for personal info. Or at least Real info. No SSN, nothing that can be connected to you. You could put a fictitious and e-mail and I believe that's it. Again, no credit checks or "deeper" analysis of your used name/address. You just use the prepaid card and you're on the net. And yes, I've tested and while I figured it would, the IP address is different than what my home wifi says.

So, could this be a tool, and a decent tool to maintain my anonymity online? I understand if you where really wanted and doing crazy stupid shit, they will find you, but doesn't using a device like this, a totally different ISP with NO link to you as long as your paying cash and using prepaid debit/data cards, make some sense to increase your OPSEC?

Also, if I were to get a new sim for this device, is that going to change things, like my IP and enhance my anonymity? Or does it really not do much overall?

Would really appreciate any thoughts, thank you.

The original post: /r/privacy by /u/Squeaks11 on 2024-11-11 15:33:45.

Hi all - I have a work laptop, and connect via their network on my home wifi. I use Microsoft Edge, and everything on that laptop is restricted to my work accounts - I am not signed into anything personal on that computer.

On my personal laptop, I use Chrome, a different Windows account and am not signed into anything from work on there.

The only connection is my phone, where I've got my work outlook and an authenticator and of course my personal activity. I'm now seeing ads on my work laptop that are coming directly from my personal activity on my laptop. WTF? I'm assuming it's because of having my work outlook signed into on my phone. Anything I can do to keep my private activity out of my work activity?

The original post: /r/privacy by /u/xyzzy321 on 2024-11-11 15:10:56.

Recently switched from an old car to a 2015 BMW X3 and unsure whether this car is collecting data and selling it without our consent. As far as I know it has never connected to the Internet but it's possible the relative we bought it from did connect it at some point.

Ideas/suggestions for preventing data collection/sale?

The original post: /r/privacy by /u/miso25 on 2024-11-11 14:26:29.

The original post: /r/privacy by /u/night_movers on 2024-11-11 12:36:51.

There have no extremely privacy focused cloud service in market. But, among those some are best and some worst. So, today I am mentioning the secure mail provider with their recent activities.

pcloud - A cloud provider with built in file viewer capability but they just provide a separate vault in the name of zero-knowledge encryption and it require extra cost for that.

sync.com - A privacy focused cloud provider, in which I personally take a paid subscription but recently they remove end-to-end encryption keyword from their website.

Mega - Another privacy focused zero knowledge encrypted cloud provider which can't be trusted by many people due to their chinese investors. And also, many reddit post claimed that Mega deleted copyrighted file so who knows!

Filen.io - I think it came in 2018 (correct me if I am wrong) it is relatively new. Although, their privacy, encryption are up to the mark.

Tresorit - The most expensive privacy focused email provider. I don't think they are providing any extra features with their expensive plan.

Proton Drive - A good cloud provider come under the widely known company Proton. A new service and need many improvements.

Besides this services, a user can always use Cryptomator, Veracrypt etc for encrypt uour data by yourself and then upload it in any cloud even that is gdrive.

But most of the time, we store that types of data which need very frequently so encrypt them is not a goof idea. That's why choosing a provacy focused cloud service is also necessary.

The original post: /r/privacy by /u/night_movers on 2024-11-11 11:42:07.

Hey, I am currently in the way of de-googling myself. Everything is in a good way except few services. I have some doubts regarding it.

Standard Notes - It is recently acquired by Proton which is known for having privacy focused google apps alternative.

Protonmail is in my list of email provider, I'm thinking regarding this mail provider.

Alternative that I'm avoiding - Notesnook

Reason - still buggy, popular for it's encryption, not for usabilities.

Requirements of Note taking app: * Smooth and easy to use for daily usages * Privacy friendly (not that strict) * Cloud sync must have * Markdown optional better to have (not necessary) * Android app needed.

SimpleLogin : It is also a popular option in email forwarding service. It comes under Proton and it share same server of Proton.

Alternative that I'm avoiding : Anonaddy

Reason: Used both but I feel SimpleLogin better and speedy.

Requirements of Email forwarding service: * Privacy friendly * better UI and user experience. * Android app better to have.

Reason why I make this post

Standard Note and SimpleLogin both come under Proton and I'm also planning to take a plan for protonmail, all of these will be internally connected so is it a risk from privacy standpoint? As SimpleLogin will be linked with mail account so I don't mind it but for Standard Note, I don't want to connect it with my mail account. And, I can't find any cloud based note taking app which is as privacy focused as Standard Note and Notesnook

The original post: /r/privacy by /u/Electronic_Pea3975 on 2024-11-11 10:57:32.

Hi all, I have an iPhone that was provided to me by my employer. And before anyone jumps into conclusions, I know it is not my property and that the company has the right to do whatever with its own property. But how do I know if everything on the phone is monitored? I was just thinking of downloading reddit on it, and just want to know if the activity on reddit will be monitored.

TIA.

The original post: /r/privacy by /u/Big-Raspberry4580 on 2024-11-11 10:14:03.

Hello. I am thinking about deleting my instagram account for obvious reasons: Addiction and privacy. I am worried that in future AI will use my data. And I am consuming loads of brainrot content. (Sigma sigma on the wall whos the skibidiest of them all)

Now I am asking a question specifically about privacy. When I delete my instagram account will there be data that I no longer can delete, but I could delete before? I know this sounds complicated but I will try to explain what I mean.

Lets use reddit as an example: If you create a post you can delete it afterwards. However if you don't delete the reddit post but delete your account, the post will still be visible it just says deleted account. Now for instagram. Is there something like that? Are there things that I lose the ability to delete?

Also I fear that after I delete my account I get impersonated by someone else (specifically bots) which I would not be aware anymore because I've already deleted my instagram account. I know I can be impersonated anyway, but I fear getting impersonated and not even being aware.

The original post: /r/privacy by /u/joeyjojosjrshabadoo on 2024-11-11 09:25:49.

I'm thinking about changing my phone number (for personal reasons), but I would like to use this opportunity to improve a bit my privacy by not sharing the new number with so many websites and platforms. And I know Whatsapp isn't private at all, but I need to use it.

So I wanted to ask if there was any way to transfer/copy only two or three chats to the new account without Meta linking both numbers officially. I know there is an option to change the number of your account in Whatsapp, but it gets registered and notifies people who had your old number.

The original post: /r/privacy by /u/fuckspez-FUCK-SPEZ on 2024-11-11 09:18:12.

I like to use matrix for privacy communications, but there is also signal.. which service do you use?

The original post: /r/privacy by /u/piangero on 2024-11-11 09:03:05.

I cant find a place to discuss FUTO, as it's only on GitHub and there doesnt seem to be anywhere to talk about it there, so I am wondering if anyone here is using it for android? (I got it off the play store, but its not a place for discussion either)

It seems to have had an update for me recently, as the layout changed a bit and I could have sworn the settings were much more advanced last time I checked. I used to be able to decide exactly how big I wanted the keys, now I can only enlarge it by one big box.

Either way, I am going crazy using it now on my phone. I am constantly pressing wrong buttons, that seem to have moved slightly or something. It drives me up the wall.

Some emojis are still basically unusable or just broken-looking, for example the emojis with the x_x eyes and the spinning stars around it, (dizzy emoji), is just a smiley with the spinny eyes + star emoji next to it, a black cat is just a yellow cat with a black box next to it, a crow is just a bird emoji with a black box next to it, etc. I somehow have 3 santa emojis (1 male santa, 2 women santa, except in the display, one of them looks like just a man head next to a christmas tree.)

I am also missing quite a few very standard emojis, i cannot for the life of me find them in the categories. (Like the stone emoji.).

I am looking for alternatives at this point, but would love to know if anyone else is using this app and if it's like that for you.

The original post: /r/privacy by /u/Public_Weakness_1708 on 2024-11-11 08:36:50.

Or should I degoogle and switch to foss apps?

I'm currently using pihole at home and NextDNS on the go with the Hagezi ultimate list. I plan to degoogle and de-MIUI my phone because I see many tracking requests in the logs. Because these request are blocked, I'm not sure if it's really necessary to do so.

The original post: /r/privacy by /u/Purple_Split4451 on 2024-11-11 07:59:14.

I have a Samsung Z Fold 5, just curious if I can make it private as much as possible?

Just don’t like corporations eyeing on my smart phone.

The original post: /r/privacy by /u/NerveLocal5866 on 2024-11-11 05:57:11.

i want to start off saying that i know this is probably pretty creepy but i have a reason. ive been friends with a girl i met on twitter for about 1-2 years and we usually talk almost every day. the thing is she hasnt tweeted in several days and i know im going to have people saying that shes probably just taking a social media break or something of the sort but shes taken breaks like that before and she always tells me and our friend group in advance and usually shes been semi online on her private account. this time its been complete radio silence on all accounts and platforms since the 3rd. shes struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts which i thought wre getting better recently but now im not sure. even if she did harm/kill hersellf shes not the type to do it without leaving a note or something to let us know what happened. she could just be grounded or maybe her phone was taken away since she is a minor who still lives with her parents (were the same age but i dont really want to share the exact age bc that seems like too much personal information about the both of us to be on a on a subreddit so for context were both in highschool) i have no contact with anyone that know her irl other than herself. i know the general area she lives in to about a 15 minute radius ,i know her first name and what she looks like. i really dont know what to do im super worried about her so any help would be appreciated. i just want to know if shes ok. even if shes dead i just want to know what happened to her so i dont live the rest of my life afraid of what became of her. i will not be posting any of her or my personal information here other that what i have included in this post. im only looking for a place for me personally to search. im sorry if this is the wrong subreddit for this or against the rules in some way i wasnt sure where to go. if this is the wrong place for this i would appreciate if someone could tell me where a good place for this would be. im also sorry for all the typos of which im sure theres a lot of im kind of stressed typing this. again any help on how i would go about checking on her would be very appreciated.

The original post: /r/privacy by /u/TheOGMIB on 2024-11-11 03:56:26.

Recently, I've had this experience a few times. I wasn't signed in (which is typical) and had been looking at a book. I was originally viewing the digital version and tried to switch to paperback. Prompted to sign in.

Earlier today, I was looking at some tech items, and when I went to filter reviews to a specific star rating, boom... prompted to sign in.

Never had this happen previously. If it's a newer change, it matches the really obnoxious general trend of forcing people to log in/have an account just to browse content.

The original post: /r/privacy by /u/MR-GALLIENO on 2024-11-11 03:04:35.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of mobile phones with Linux-based operating systems? And which phone would you recommend?

The original post: /r/privacy by /u/bojanradovic5 on 2024-11-11 02:42:42.

I've contacted support but they're slow to respond (once a day at best). I've got a new phone and I want to log into my Burner account, but it says the account is associated with a Google login. The issue is there's no option to sign in with Google.

Anyone run into this issue before?

The original post: /r/privacy by /u/nidostan on 2024-11-11 02:33:57.

This is something that I've been wondering for a long time but because of another current thread about someone's browser fingerprinter I thought it was time to ask it now.

My understanding of hashes is that if you change the input by a tiny amount it can change the output completely. So 10000000000000000000001 has a completely different hash than 10000000000000000000000.

With that in mind, if someone changed some arbitrary value like screen resolution by one pixel would that give a completely different hash? And if this is the case then shouldn't browser fingerprinting be very easy to thwart by addons that do that?

Or is there a way using probabilistic attribution which advertisers also do, that they can say that user's record was so close to a another record that they are likely the same person?

The original post: /r/privacy by /u/demonic-mud on 2024-11-11 01:12:29.

So this might be a kind of stupid questions to some, but i hope it isn't too bad.

I'd like to take and print pictures without any data leaks, diagnostics, whatsoever being send to any company the second it sniffs some sort of network. So i wanted to invest in older gear. I know polaroids exist but i dislike the limit of how many pictures you can take. So i thought about straight up sd from a digital camera into personal, internet excluded printer

My question: So is it even possible, even in older gear, to make sure nothing leaks at all? Or did older gear also face any kind of data-sending issues?

The original post: /r/privacy by /u/Sufficient_Floor8798 on 2024-11-10 23:40:06.

do you think its better to make your browser not stand out at all or to give it all fake data, like wrong language, timezone, user agent switcher, adnauseam, ect. and why? i have looked online and cant find much info about it. i personally give fake data but i dont know how effective it is or if being no unique is better