mattomattic
@mattomattic@discuss.tchncs.de
- Comment on [Australia] Government to overhaul privacy laws, including opting out of advertising, a right to be forgotten, and new rules for small businesses 1 year ago:
Sounds great, but knowing something about how screwed Australians are for privacy I’m sure there’s a caveat. Probably have to have a digital ID 100% verifiable human citizen before you can use it. Allow yourself to be AI tracked online and off 24/7 to get rid of some ads. If people did a bit of research you will find you can already do these things and more to increase your security and protect your own privacy. The governments don’t like that though. If it’s something like the EU’s GDPR with no caveats then it will be an improvement.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 year ago:
Ok, so I’m wondering how you explain the billions of dollars profit corporate sites generate from scraping and selling our private data? I’m also genuinely interested in how you might explain how TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or anything Google are more privacy friendly than Lemmy?
- Comment on [deleted] 1 year ago:
I’m not suggesting any Federated service is private. However, we should be aware of and always working towards preventing Lemmy (in context) from becoming anything like those abusive corporate data selling clusterfucks.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 year ago:
No, you don’t need to, but I was interested in what you might say.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 year ago:
Can you elaborate how making Lemmy like current popular sites will prevent tech and “tankie” content?
- Comment on From FaceID to Amazon One, should you share biometric data online? 1 year ago:
should you share biometric data online?
FUCK NO! And this is why - These abusive corporate sites already prison-rape our privacy, profile us and sell our secrets to who-the-fuck-ever will pay for it. Meanwhile, they can’t keep their databases secure, so our personal and private details go for sale on the dark web. It’s then used to screw us over further by extortion, theft and identity theft, which is really difficult to rectify. Who the hell thinks giving these incompetent morons more unique identifying data to keep safe for us is a good idea? If you’re in doubt just go for a visit to the data breaches community on any instance that has one. The thing we NEED to be doing is taking control of our own identities by implementing web3 technology and using methods that preserve our data for our own use. We decide who gets what. One example for clarification purposes is something like InternetComputer’s solution.
We’ve all grown accustomed to managing hundreds of usernames and passwords, recovering forgotten accounts over text or email, unwittingly permitting companies to profit from our data at the cost of our personal privacy, all while falling victim to threats of identity theft and fraud.
On the Internet Computer blockchain, users can securely authenticate themselves without ever needing an email, username, or password. Using a passkey, users can login conveniently without their information being monetized by tech companies. Internet Identity is designed to prevent Web3 services to track user activity across dapps.
And yes, you could still use fingerprint or faceID, but you’re not handing it over to anyone else.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 year ago:
Total agreement. I left Reddit years ago because I thought it was toxic long before the big migration. I really dislike seeing post after post of bot created Reddit content here. It makes me angry actually. I block it as best I can, but it should just fucking stop!
- Comment on [deleted] 1 year ago:
How can we make it more popular?
By not doing the things that corporations do to make things popular. Do we even need Lemmy to be popular? I think we concentrate on trying to keep the Fediverse and Lemmy user focused and privacy friendly and people will naturally come over as they get burnt on the ever increasingly enshitified corporate data-theft sites. We need to be something different than the big sites. A breath of fresh air. I think people will be OK with putting up with a few quirks to escape those toxic environments. I think Lemmy is progressing just fine and I’m enjoying it.
- Comment on Why does lemmy have it, so any link takes you off the page instead of opening in a new window? 1 year ago:
I really don’t mind doing right-click-new-tab. What I don’t like is, when you click back it often doesn’t take you back to where you were before. So, totally agree with the request as it would leave you at your place.
- Comment on Google gets its way, bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome 1 year ago:
Is Mullvad better than Firefox?
That’s hard to qualify. The question needs to be more specific. Is Mullvad better than Firefox* at what*? Firefox is a great general browser with decent security and privacy in mind. It allows you theme and modify to your desire. However, any time you add theming or extensions it makes your browser more unique and identifiable. The more you add, the more unique. Stock Firefox is a little promiscuous for my liking and I usually install UBlock Origin and add a little css, like Betterfox. You can create a new Firefox profile which you can swap between depending on the purpose of the window. Or, you can just add a
user.jsfile to your existing Firefox profile. This is called “hardening”, and there’s many different hardening css available. Some make most things unusable, so a balance is recommended. If you’re on Linux you could just use Librewolf which is a sandboxed Flatpak app that is built from Firefox, and, has a great balance of security and privacy tweaks out-of-the-box. Then we have Mullvad browser. Is it better? Maybe it isn’t as fast. Maybe it doesn’t open some web pages that stock Firefox would. However, Mullvad is brilliant at making you blend in. Mullvad have created the browser with a great balance of privacy and security tweaks that harden it somewhat. What it does, just like Tor browser, is make your online “fingerprint” look like thousands of other people’s browsers. As long as you don’t identify yourself somehow there’s a better chance at anonymity. Identifying yourself could include logging in a known account, adding themes or extensions or using social media. Read more about it here. I recommend you use both. A lightly hardened Firefox that you use for general purpose, and a Mullvad for browsing, searching and shopping (not purchasing). Mullvad browser is best used with a VPN that lumps your IP in with many other VPN users, like MullvadVPN or IVPN.I hope this helps.
- Comment on Google gets its way, bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome 1 year ago:
That is the whole point - your indifference screws us all. We ALL end up with no choice!
- Comment on EU unveils ‘revolutionary’ laws to curb big tech firms’ power 1 year ago:
These laws and the ability to remove currently hard-coded apps is a good first step. What citizens the world over should be demanding of their respective law makers is forcing apps to disclose EXACTLY what they do and what they collect and EXACTLY who that gets shared with. For example, there’s many apps that don’t need access to your contacts, location or camera to operate sufficiently, but do that anyway. App creators should be forced to explain WHY their app is accessing that data or utility. Data harvesting is the most lucrative business right now. The underhanded deceitful ways that corporations steal people’s data needs to be made transparent in plain language. The practice of hiding inferred consent to all manner of abuse in legalaleze has to stop. PLAIN FUCKING LANGUAGE! Fail to disclose - You get fined.
Apologies for TLDR. The latest posts about [auto manufacturers harvesting mountains of personal data without proper consent[(…mozilla.org/…/its-official-cars-are-the-worst-pr…) just broke me. ALL 26 major car manufacturers failing to meet most basic privacy standard. Despite being part of groups that declare they do, they’ve been found to do the exact opposite and in abundance. Together with Google’s contemptuously deceitful WEI, I feel broken, used and pessimistic about any hope of having rights or freedom. We NEED this disclosure and education about apps and data harvesting.
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Explain explicitly the app’s required privileges and whether it needs that to function.
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Any administrative privilege needs to be explained further, especially if the app doesn’t need more than user status to do it’s expected function.
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Exactly what data, files and utilities this app accesses. I mean exactly in detailed plain language, not ambiguous broad sweeping possibilities. And WHY and HOW OFTEN. People might be less inclined to install that stupid little game or social media app if they knew it sends a pulse of data back to the makers every four minutes, even while running in the background.
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Exactly what methods of personal tracking is utilized. Exactly what technology is being used and explain it in plain language.
For example, most people were, and still are, completely ignorant of the fact most Covid apps were just a quick UI tweak of NSO’s citizen tracking software utilizing bluetooth. It connects to ANY discoverable device and logs it’s identity. Then creates a digital mesh that can be used to track any single one of those devices as it moves among all other devices with the app. To spell it out, you can be tracked even if you don’t have that app. People should be told in plain language that their government app makes them part of a surveillance network. Did you honestly think your government could whip up a quality app with such sophistication that worked on nearly all device brands and models in such a short time? THIS IS JUST ONE EXAMPLE - There’s many.
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The app should supply a list of EXACTLY who receives the disclosed data the app sends. If some entity other than the ones listed is found to be getting it the app makers are fined.
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The app should supply a list of exactly WHO the data is shared with or sold to AFTER it has been received by the nominated recipients. The makers need to list if it’s their intention to sell your data to data brokers, law enforcement or any other entity. If found selling data to any entity not on the list the app maker gets fined.
You may not install that pregnancy app if you knew they sell the data to law enforcement, or a data broker who has no hesitation doing so. If your data is found to have been sold to anyone not on the list the app maker gets fined.
- App makers need to be transparent about data breaches. It needs to be prominent in the app. They need to include both the details and what they’ve done to rectify the breach. Failure to comply - You get fined.
The data harvesting and brokering industry is abusive and deceptive. Forcing app developers to disclose everything the app does in detail could help people make informed decisions instead of having their right to privacy prison-raped. It would lead to better software, and, it would force these corporate entities to implement better security practices and security on their networks and servers. The current amount and frequency of data breaches is astounding. These incompetent corporate assholes want to make money off your data and do almost nothing to ensure it’s safety.
I’m not saying developers, governments and corporations can’t have or sell data. Or create a profile on you for marketing purposes. They would just have to be completely transparent, up front and honest about it, or get fined. Imagine this world.
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- Comment on Google gets its way, bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome 1 year ago:
It’s frustrating, I get it too. Nobody cares until the leopard bites their face. Then it’s too late, and we’re all affected by their indifference/laziness/ignorance.
- Comment on Google gets its way, bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome 1 year ago:
No, Mullvad browser is built from and in conjunction with Tor browser, which is built from Firefox. It works really well if you leave it stock, which is the whole purpose. Blending in with all users.
- Comment on Not so private room: Zoom’s AI privacy fiasco exposes how vulnerable we are to Big Tech's whims 1 year ago:
So…nothing has changed except they have notified people the data they’re already scraping and keeping is now going to be used to train AI too.