Nobody Understands Online Privacy.

[@dubfather521]

"On this channel, were all on the spectrum" FACTS!!!

[@Pakkwe]

So autistic people want privacy?

[@moltzer]

build your own computer (including the parts themselves), code your own os, move to an underground bunker in the woods, faraday cage it, build an antenna and a satellite to steal wifi

[@kenos911]

The average person doesn’t have billions to spend on rnd lol, also I doubt your hardware itself is selling your data?

[@moltzer]

I am merely satirizing how far one would go for true privacy, if you know what I mean. And hardware spying is indeed a thing.

[@panzershrek7942]

​@@kenos911You sir...

[@orion9590]

@@kenos911 It does do it sometimes.

[@kenos911]

@@orion9590 the software is allowing it to..?

[@AmadeMuse]

I'd rather have my info be given to the swiss government than the american government when using protonmail

[@NothingXemnas]

Same. I'd rather have none of my information collected, but within my current limitations, I can at least choose companies and services from countries not included in the Fourteen Eyes (if Snowden is to be believed).

[@SoppyBiscuit]

It’s the same thing

[@xboi3607]

it literally doesn't matter which, they will give each other info on people from their country of origin

[@handsanitizer2457]

There's better options tho, skiff says it's encrypted maybe. But pm isn't

[@handsanitizer2457]

Also, the Swiss will simply sell it to the USA just saying or a private entity

[@Seacat17]

There's another problem about "normies". Since they "have nothing to hide" they can be a huge problem for people who are privacy-conscious. They use all the poop that corporations want them to use and being close to them can be fatal for your privacy or anonymity.

[@EricMurphyxyz]

Like a lot of normies will upload their entire contacts list on their phone to Facebook and inadvertently give Facebook all of your connections 💀

[@Seacat17]

@@EricMurphyxyz You can call me crazy but I saw people doing that :_)

[@NuryPPanaligan]

Hypernormies are worse. They would call you creep, plastic, and even a hypocritical liar if you're a private person.

[@kitkatmelon]

​@@EricMurphyxyzyea istg some people just click "allow" when an app asks them to like it could say "steal your soul and sell it to google" and theyd click allow like fucking read goddammit 😭😭😭

[@ShooberTimber]

​@@kitkatmelonthey don't have the attention span required anymore to even read those is the main problem. Thanks Tik Tok

[@pinatacolada7986]

The big misconception is that you must choose a privacy lifestyle for everything you do. That's not the case. You can be a public figure, use your real name on social media, do absolutely nothing to protect your privacy. And at the same time have another paranoid profile on another computer, with a fake name in which you do more secure things, like crypto trading, secure emails etc.

[@ICE0124]

Its like how some privacy experts use their real name for stuff like writing a book or having a social media presence but as soon as you look deeper into them there is nothing to be found more than their social media and their intended to be seen public stuff.

[@ecocadia]

This. People are far more complicated than a single identity that has to be on constant guard. Have multiple personas, use multi user and secure partitions on devices to take on different identities. For having no online presence is a bigger red flag for people to question what you have to hide.

[@MichaelMaurakis]

I’ve found that misunderstandings of privacy are usually baked down to not understanding basic networking.

[@Kioget]

What is "basic networking"?

[@christopherlee7334]

​@@Kioget"my stuff is safe because it's in the cloud" And where is that cloud located? "My stuff is safe because Google keeps it safe" And what keeps it safe from Google? "My stuff is locked behind a password" And what company do you trust to hold that password for you? Is what I'm assuming.

[@bettercalldelta]

@@christopherlee7334 "My stuff is locked behind a password" The password in question: qwerty123456

[@C4Oc.]

​@@KiogetBasic knowledge about how the internet operates (at a lower level), I'd assume

[@jacksoncremean1664]

@@Kioget not knowing what an OSI model is

[@NothingXemnas]

I think the most important thing really is, at the end of the day, to live intentionally. Awareness goes a long way and helps you already gain some privacy back to you and act upon it. Activism requires a lot of time and effort, choosing targets well and sometimes losing money for it, but I also don't live in a cave away from civilization, nor do I want to.

[@EricMurphyxyz]

Agreed, awareness is the first step. Not everyone has the time or the desire to be an activist.

[@SidheKnight]

Anonymity is also a big concern for me. I don't want people who want to hurt me to be able to find out who I am, where I live, my personal info, who I work for, what I do/like/etc and use it against me. Stalker exes and weirdos with extremist political beliefs tend to do this a lot.

[@hakerananasek]

You control what you share online. As long as you don't post your address online then those people are not a problem. If anything the problem is the companies and the government knowing who you are and what you do online.

[@Gr3nadgr3gory]

To be honest, if someone wanted to Doxx me and came to my house to hurt me, they're gonna end up as a blood eagle sacrifice to Odin.

[@4x13x17]

@@hakerananasek And sometimes stuff isn't under your control. Here in Chile there's a page named "Rutificador" that literally with the name or ID number of a person (which is used for pretty much everything) you get full access to their first registered address and data of family members. You can't do anything about it either, it will register you automatically as soon as you hit the age of 18 and the government refuses to take it down.

[@lazylurkerbro9855]

I literally paused the video to scroll through the comments like why do all these videos and articles that explain how to be anonymous assume I want to hide from Google or the government?? Bruh no I'm hiding from rando internet idiots who're obsessed with harassment campaigns :/

[@LegioXXI]

​@@Gr3nadgr3gory It dosent matter how strong or well armed you are, you are not combat-ready and vigilant 24/7 every single second of any day. You sleep, you eat, you meet with people you (think) you know, you take a dump, you shower etc pp. If you get ambushed in one of those moments, you will most likely get the short end of the stick. You are not an Anime protagonist. No one is.

[@Sam-n6v1s]

Privacy is essential for a free society.

[@INTJ791]

Privacy freak, just accept privacy is dead on internet, or stop using Google or KZbin at all

[@brandonmorel2658]

We do live in an unfree society, both in the Fist World capitalist imperialist core countries and in the Third World over-exploited countries, a society which is essentially controlled by a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and their business interest.

[@digestiveissue7710]

Good thing that America is the (least) free country in the world and a leading world power!

[@MrCmon113]

@@brandonmorel2658 That's a very stereotypical and childish worldview. People in "third world countries" do good work and produce stuff that people in "first world" countries want to buy. Producing those things and services is prefered over doing something else.

[@brandonmorel2658]

@@MrCmon113 Necro, but anyways. The third world is as free as a chain gang, only able to move in the direction of it's masters. The latter control the former and the exchange of commodities is realized in an unequal proportion, since monopolies themselves distort true commodity prices, that is, the first world monopolies control the market itself and the third world is forced to sell it's raw resources at lower prices than it's true value. The third world's resources are in turn controlled by the monopolies of the first world and it is thusly not free to produce what it desires or what is productive for society, but rather, what is relatively profitable. The over-exploited countries are also victim of the fact that it is not free to transcend the global division of labour and technology, meaning that industrialization policies which are healthy for evolving societies are impossible to achieve under the current economic order, thusly, making these nations dependent on north expertise and machinery. This is the truth. I would know, since I was born on the third world. The childish perspective you talk about is synonymous with liberal ignorance thus preached by you.

[@rohitchaoji]

The best privacy practice imo is to just not have information you'd like to protect uploaded anywhere online or even on your computer. Don't list your current workplace anywhere, don't upload pictures of your family, don't fill out your social media profiles (if you intend to use social media at all), never share your location with apps when they ask for it (even though Google still tracks you regardless). Just make it such that the highest detail of information available on you online is nothing more than you'd willingly give out.

[@angelinacamacho8575]

All of my info that I don't want leaked is stored in what the boomers call a file cabinet. Unless someone is in my house with a camera taking pictures of my info it's pretty much secure. Some are on a thumb drive but it's mostly just college papers that are on those.

[@JimNH777]

workplace - if you carry phone with you they will know you work at place you go 5 days a week for ~8hours. Family? They just need to check who are people who are not your age yet you communicate with the most and they have your parents, people who are close your age but you have different social circles and you left the Internet footprint from the same IP address years ago and they have your siblings. Unless you use old pre-smartphone phone or something like GrapheneOS whether Apple or Google will know where you work, when, who is your family, where you live and what's your daily routine. Yeah, it is different if by family you mean your own kids. But I'd never believe social security, hospitals, government census bureaus, kindergardens and schools have highly protected databases which private corporations cannot access ;)

[@rohitchaoji]

​@@JimNH777 Yeah, all of those are definitely holes in privacy and security, but this approach is minimizing the readily-available information on yourself. Sometimes it is us who make it easier for corporations to track us and our activity, and aside from trying to push for better, pro-consumer legislation in the technology sphere, there isn't much we can do to prevent being spied on (like there was a report on the information collected by Google and it is far more than any end user gives consent for). Best idea imo is to find a good balance between usability and privacy while trying to maximize the latter.

[@electricfishfan]

Having your physical identity be ‘traceable’ is no big deal for the vast majority of people or else they wouldn’t choose to work at all. The trick is to insulate your personal identity from your personal information so your public life is kept separate from your private life.

[@seeibe]

Most people also have different privacy needs for different activities. In fact if you want to be secure, it's probably good to push some "normie" behavior just to be less suspicious. For example having public social media, a regular phone etc. that governments can check if they want to investigate you. Meanwhile for your pseudonymous/anonymous identity you would use entirely separate devices and accounts.

[@CatroiOz]

That won't work forever. Google is able to recognize you through the way you use your mouse & keyboard for example

[@joemama8233]

@@CatroiOz wait what? actually?

[@szymonbaranowski8184]

if you have android or used social media or email on your private phone or on the same WiFi your both identities are already linked by them in one spot on data base 😂 LOL

[@szymonbaranowski8184]

​@@CatroiOzdid you see how mouse can listen to you? it's just incredible what hardware does while you aren't aware of

[@CatroiOz]

@@joemama8233 yes. If you ever get banned by Google (and by that I mean an actual ban from all their services) even if you take all the precautions to open a new account without it being traced back to you you'll still get banned in a few minutes just because they recognise your input pattern

[@sapphie132]

I primarily don't want to be a data point. I don't want by personal information to predict how X demographic will react to Y advertising. I also believe that privacy is one of the main pillars of democracy and freedom (mostly since you can influence voting behaviour if you have enough data about enough people).

[@breddie_is_rookie]

The last bit is scary and horrifying. Parties in India, Russia and US used demographic metadata to manipulate public opinions by information cherry picking. The scandal of Facebook selling data to political parties has gone silent for like 5 years. I am now genuinely scared how far this would end us up in...

[@ekki1993]

I think a big problem is that a lot of people believe that they should strive for "perfectly private, impossible to trace", so they dismiss anything that shows any flaws. Unfortunately, perfect privacy is impossible, and hoping to leave no trace back to your person is like trying to hide your face from CCTV when going grocery shopping. A lot of work for something ultimately useless. Kinda like that comic where a nerd is super proud of his encrypted PC but says the password when physically threatened. If someone big like the government wants to trace you, they will, and unless you already have no trace on the internet by that time (what you called "the ghost"), they will find you, and then there's not much a single person can do against being physically traced.

[@FractalParadox]

It's a mess. I use ghost level stuff one day, then watch KZbin videos on my phone 20 mins later. Convenience makes anyone wildly inconsistent I guess

[@slavic_commonwealth]

same

[@MrCmon113]

Google totally has me by the balls. They could rat me out over all kinds of stuff.

[@birdcrossing]

@@MrCmon113 i love google drive mostly, free loud storage i can access on anything with minimal effort is the best. same with social medias, anything else i could cut out

[@Fafr]

Pretty sure that there are open-source KZbin mirrors out there that let you watch videos without giving any of your data, aside of, of course, the searches you do. Sort of the same way Brave search works

[@Kincior]

A couple of days ago you could put me in the normie category but right now I fall perfectly into the "Privacy-Conscious" one, mostly thanks to your videos 😎

[@EricMurphyxyz]

Welcome! :)

[@totallymonke]

i fall into the extra paranoid section

[@blopat]

me too, now I use ungoogled chromium, brave search and proton mail (don't use signal but use all that stuff)

[@wasabithumbs6294]

@@totallymonke is that why ur on youtube with your gmail in bio lol

[@totallymonke]

@@wasabithumbs6294 dummy account

[@Tennouseijin]

One thing that I still find a little puzzling is, whether it makes much sense to try a 'hybrid' approach, where you have one public 'normie' identity and one or more anonymous identities. For example, on one hand having social media accounts, using 'normie' communicators, doing some innocent stuff using plain un-private internet. And then doing other stuff, say stuff related to finances (maybe not banks because they don't like it, but online shopping, crypto, investments etc.) or other information you would prefer to keep more secure, using more privacy-focused and anonymity tools. Or does it make more sense to make a complete switch and stop using internet like a normie. As far as I can tell, there is no obvious answer - both approaches have advantages and disadvantages. For some people, like those whose life is already in danger or who are wanted by the government, they may have to go into full hiding. For others, those who are simply privacy conscious and follow the 'better safe than sorry' mindset, but don't want to sacrifice too much convenience, a hybrid approach might perhaps make sense. You're not going to use Tor to watch youtube or download large files. Even a VPN can slow down your internet and introduce latency, so you might turn them off when playing an online multiplayer game. As long as you are careful to always crank up your security when doing more important stuff, intuitively you should be ok... Or are you? Well, I guess it depends. Even innocent information can be used against you so you might argue the less information others have about you, the better. Also, you might argue that someone malicious might try to attack you when you're more vulnerable, for example they may find it easier to install malware on your computer when you're doing 'normie' stuff, to then use that malware against you when you're trying to do anonymous stuff. The more I think about it, the more I realize one should probably have separate hardware for doing normie stuff and separate for doing high security stuff (luckily, there's a simple solution of having a liveUSB or such for your high security stuff, so you can theoretically use the same computer for both, but another option would be to find some old outdated, and thus cheap computer, and use that... you probably don't need a powerful gaming rig). That also reduces the risk of you ever forgetting to crank up your security after lowering it down for an online game. Another question is if it makes sense to try fooling others (big corporations, your internet provider, the government, any third parties) into thinking you're a normie. I guess it would be very, very hard. Most likely, they will figure out you are doing stuff to enhance your privacy, they may know you're using a VPN or Tor, they may know you use Linux, they may know you are tech savvy, and they may know a lot about you from the time before you started caring so much about privacy and anonymity. They may have limited access to all the details, but they still see the big picture. And they likely still have a lot of useful information about you (such as knowing when and how much data you download/upload, even if they don't know what it is or where it goes). So I guess doing the hybrid approach to fool them isn't going to work. You could try, doing the high security stuff from a different physical location e.g. using public WiFi instead of your home or mobile internet. But even then, they may still find it suspicious that you appear to be a tech savvy person, but act like a normie when using your home internet. So, in all likelihood, from their point of view you will remain a 'suspicious person, but innocent until proven guilty'. Though they are known to persecute even people who aren't proven guilty. And then there are third parties, such as black hat hackers and criminals, who should be considered separately from threats such as the government, because they likely have less information about you. In that case, while they may be easier to fool into thinking you're a normie, the benefits of doing so are also questionable. I suppose if they find out you're 'hybrid', they may assume you have something valuable to hide, and even if it is better secured, it might be worth targeting anyway? But AFAIK most black hats either target normies, or they target businesses. Attacking a poor nerd who, say, uses some privacy tools to hide his visits to the piratebay, might not be a valuable endeavor. So, I guess the main benefit of going hybrid is that it helps you maintain relations with normie friends and family. And has some convenience benefits. But it's probably less secure than going full anonymous. Even if the government still considers you a suspicious person either way.

[@Cyberian_Khatru]

Yeah, metadata is a hell of a tool. For example, even though whatsapp can't read your messages, metadata is way more useful for them anyway. They know who you're talking to, how often, how "deeply" (estimated msg length), in what contexts (time and place), what types of files you send, etc, and contrasting that against the rest of the userbase it turns into a real crisp picture of your life. Similarly, if you adopt a hybrid style, the moments of silence are very telling telegraphs. Reminds me of those memes about 1lll11l license plates. Yeah so clever. Or, like a teenager going for half an hour to the bathroom. On the other hand, well, it's still preferable to keep those activities out of sight even if everyone in the house 'knows', right? lol Maybe there's other methods of obfuscation like hiding in plain sight or having many online personas but that adds complexity so convenience is lost one way or the other.

[@nezu_cc]

There is one problem with this approach, you have to have insanely good hygiene to not cross-contaminate both your public and private environments. Don't try this if you actually have something to hide. If you look at all the cases of how tor users got de-anonymized you will soon realize that it's either a slip-up and they accidentally sent the wrong thing in the wrong environment, or it's metadata. Metadata can be especially dangerous because let's say that you use Tor when doing private stuff and something else for the rest. If somebody can correlate that there is tor activity on your IP when and only when some other event happens then congrats, you just got de-anonymized. The only good solution is either use it all the time or never.

[@Tennouseijin]

​@@nezu_cc as for metadata, I've been thinking about it, and I had a few ideas how it might be addressed - e.g. creating fake traffic 24/7, or having some sort of delayed proxy where your traffic waits a random time before it is sent further, or as I mentioned earlier only using tor on public internet access points or such. Though each of these has its own problems. I bet people who actually need this level of anonymity probably have thought of better solutions, and if I did some more research I could probably find some smarter ideas, as well as find other problems with my own ideas that I haven't considered ;) And as you said, it all requires extreme 'hygiene' to work, and definitely at that point you should have separate hardware for public and private stuff. Personally, I'm leaning towards hybrid simply because: a) As an IT guy, long time Linux user and overall a technology nerd, I'm aware of dozens of things I could be doing to improve my privacy and anonymity. Even if I don't "need" them, as in I don't think I'm on anyone's hitlist, it just feels wrong to neglect the issue. Especially considering all the people who 'had nothing to hide', but were still hit hard because someone used their data against them. And it's an extremely interesting topic, worth looking into just out of pure curiosity. b) I feel like some information is simply more confidential than other information. Some info I don't mind sharing publicly and under my real name, other info I consider 'for recipient eyes only'. Under normal circumstances (i.e. you're not a wanted criminal etc.), it makes sense to use tools that trade convenience for extra security in the latter case, but not the former. c) I'll admit, I don't trust governments, corporations, and similar entities. They all seem to try and push for totalitarianism, they all want full control over everything. Over time my views evolved from minarchism to full anarchism, and although for now it's just my views, I'm not acting upon them to any illegal extent, but hey, if I ever decide to cross the line, it's probably better to start preparing years in advance. It's not something you can safely do overnight with no preparation. By at least having the knowledge and practical experience in being anonymous, you leave yourself options for when you'll really need it. So in my situation, I'm thinking the best approach might be to do some sort of hybrid, although not necessarily going all the way to doing stuff 'the normie way'. My 'low security' might still include some common sense stuff like using more secure web browsers, de-googling my phone, and other stuff that improves my privacy without causing much if any inconvenience.

[@someuser369]

@@nezu_cc it all boils down to making sure you are 100% intent on keeping your privacy levels optimal (especially in the case of having something you need to hide) fear is a good motivator for this... makes you to overthink, insuring you go to all the lengths to make sure you dont cross contaminate. is it a good trade off to always be afraid/worried in order to maintain utmost privacy? i know im stating the obvious here, but it is defintely a fair trade off if youre doing something understandably illegal.

[@4thofjuly395]

Sometimes, you also don't have a choice.

[@happygofishing]

Full understanding of the TCP/IP stack must be taught in school.

[@vvvb7721]

😂

[@connivingkhajiit]

Networking is a fantastic thing to understand in the modern age

[@happygofishing]

im 100% serious, the internet is a fundamental part of society, imagine if adults didn't understand how post-codes worked? @@vvvb7721

[@JollyGiant19]

If it leads to people no longer freaking out about how “hard” IPv6 is, sure

[@colbyboucher6391]

​@@JollyGiant19...God I hate that, IPv6 would lead to a much less "hacky" internet overall, it's IPv4 making things hard at this point

[@sihamhamda47]

I'm surprised that "disable all cookie and javascript" is NOT a privacy option despite many many people suggesting it (but it is somewhat still effective to bypass exclusive article or read limit in some news websites)

[@mega_gamer93]

Disabling javascript and cookies is absolutely useful for privacy. Most fingerprinting is impossible without javascript (and not executing untrusted code from every website you visit is also a lot more secure)

[@mentecriptica3163]

@@mega_gamer93 Disabling javascript is a fingerprint in of itsel

[@abadenoughdude300]

While it's useful for disabling fingerprinting scripts, the more "non-standard" is your browsing setup the more you stick out from the general public and thus can be more easily fingerprinted. A bit of a catch 22, this.

[@lovesick4]

Hey again, it's me. I totally get you, and I don't think we're alone in this perspective. Your spectrum image is awesome. Super clear and easy to understand. If I had to pick where I stand, I'd go with The Activist. Privacy on the internet is a big deal to me. I use a mainly tor, tools like Mullvad and VPNs. I'm all about Linux, never using my real name, and I've got multiple fake accounts.

[@buckyyyb]

seeing as you fall under activist would you be able to give some pointers on good places to make email addresses? I want to get away from gmail completely if possible. And if I can’t, go about it in the “activist way”

[@zeunig]

@@buckyyyb i personally use skiff, emails are encrypted but you can only use their website for accessing your emails. (no 3rd party mail clients)

[@All_SportGG]

I know your real name

[@st.armanini9521]

I have a few thing to hide and a huge number of things to PROTECT.

[@TheSensationalMr.Science]

I think a better way to think of privacy is that it is *data discretion: I choose what data I share and with whom.* it is easier to explain, easier to get out of the all or nothing category, and not only more accurately describes peoples true intentions, it also removes the stigma of people thinking privacy is only for evil people. also it is a good idea to note that there are industry terms such as op-sec and threat models which is designed to make your behaviors less traceable and make you more data aware, not "completely private". [just noticed these two actually work with the idea of data discretion... huh... also lindunn threat modeling is a good first start into threat modeling] Hope you have a great day & Safe Travels!

[@abadenoughdude300]

It's rather sad that the common mentality has become "I have nothing to hide" when it should've been "you don't need to know this".

[@streettrialsandstuff]

Alphabet and Zuck needs to know this so they can serve me some ads so they can keep running social media apps that I enjoy so much. Consider this my payment for their services.

[@wolf-war-master]

That thumbnail, not the anime pic but like the statements counteracting each other is totally relatable - but you're very much right it's about the threat level focusing on what one is protecting their data from

[@JudoP_slinging]

I think you've hit the nail on the head there. When getting into this stuff it's easy to go down the rabbit hole and aim for *perfect* privacy and anonymity, and then subsequently give up when you realise that requires unfathomable commitment and technical knowledge (and even then you can never be sure). There's a huge gulf between: 1) my data is just channelling directly into the hands of corporations, and 2) my data could potentially be obtained by a motivated actor with resources and expertise. For most people the latter case is way beyond their threat model and basically isn't worth thinking about. In fact, its actually detrimental to think about, because it demotivates the smaller and easier changes which help with scenario 1). These would be basic privacy/security recommendations: good passwords with a password manager, 2fa, privacy respecting browser and search engine, sensible social media usage etc.

[@verumignis4778]

To answer your question about what the best email provider is for privacy, its yourself. Self hosting email means that only you can read your email, and nobody can start lawsuits to get your personal info. Its a pain to set up but ive done it and its 100% worth it.

[@userr1901]

how to you even do THAT?

[@edwolt]

There's an amount of privacy that's actually make your experience better. Like blocking trackers not only help your privacy, but doesn't waste your machine resources in something that isn't interesting for you. Linux, Firefox and duckduckgo has some features their competitors don't have.

[@spythere]

I think the biggest factor that made me privacy-conscious on the internet was Mr. Robot series which I heartfully recommend to anybody as much as I do with Signal (I think the series was also the reason why I started to use it). It got excellent 4-seasons plot and just amazing attention to detail when it comes to "hackers" and IT stuff, one of the most underrated TV series that ever came out.

[@svaira]

One thing that I can add upfront, is that I see too many people not differentiating between privacy and secrecy. To put it very simply, in the way I understand it: secret is something you need to keep from others, because otherwise, it might and will be spread (like criminal evidence); privacy is that, what you should not even have to keep secret from others, because even if it comes to someone, they should not spread it (like information about someone's intimate life etc). Basically, secrets should be treated, by the owner, as if everyone could potentially know them, but private information is such, that even those who know, should act as if they don't. And whereas secrets depend on the owner and their skill alone, private information is kept private by the instincts towards decency of a whole society. I know it's not that relevant to this technological discussion, but I would appreciate it being described to be about "secrecy" rather than about "privacy", given the importance of an attitude of privacy in society in general, as well as the overall societal destructiveness of the erasure of the difference between private and public life through social media, and it's tendency to treat everyone's private life with the same prying ruthlessness as once only those of celebrities were treated by certain "newspapers"

[@Alice_Fumo]

That is a meaningful distinction, I haven't thought to think about it in that way explicitly before, but it makes a lot of sense.

[@cartanfan-youtube]

Imo, privacy is important because I cannot trust corporations or really anyone with my information. Not even in a “I have something to hide” sense, more of a I literally don’t trust them to handle it securely with data breaches left and right and I don’t want to get identity frauded.

[@AnalyticMinded]

I identify as privacy-conscious, tending towards activist. Yet, I still use Outlook for my business e-mails, simply because it's tied up to so many things and people...I'm stuck. I got it way back in in the 2000's before I knew about all this privacy stuff. I use protonmail just to register to websites, almost never to write messages. By the way, it's funny that you brought up your own anonymity. I was wondering why you would opt to put your real name on your channel and show your face instead of being a vtuber.

[@tucatheman]

vtuber is a bit of a stretch, just don't use your real name and don't show your face in videos

[@EricMurphyxyz]

I understand, changing an email that I've had for years was tough for me too. Haha, I've gotten so many comments saying "but you show your FACE on KZbin!" The Vtuber life is not for me

[@szymonbaranowski8184]

I never used outlook ever in my life the way this shit activates on windows for every email by defaults nerved me always I think that was when I started thinking Microsoft is getting into my life without permission

[@chimagamer4157]

you could make a email forward to your proton, there is surly also an option to filter them into something like folder or make a separate email for it. But for security alone, it makes sense to split the things you do online into different emails. You can have all the different email in an email client like Thunderbird, so you can still use all of them without needing to log in to them individual to write a business email, or check them.

[@JollyGiant19]

⁠@@chimagamer4157Forwarding the email to Proton Mail gets you nothing. It still passes through Microsoft servers. They still “see” the email, if that’s the concern.

[@bettercalldelta]

While I am on the "Privacy-Conscious" point, there is that problem of my parents and friends being absolute normies and they upload everything to "the cloud", making my privacy way worse. And when I try to explain to them, I get told things like: - You're schizophrenic - Stop with the conspiracy theories - Do you think they really care about what you're doing - Go live in a cave - (from parents) When you buy your own house, you'll decide what you do ... etc It's seriously annoying and I'm wondering if you know the best way to talk with normies about such stuff.

[@slavic_commonwealth]

I agree with you

[@tovarishchfeixiao]

Dude, it shouldn't really matter what your friends and family does. And just for you information: the world is not want to hunt you down, so chill and do not go insane because of "privacy! privacy on any cost!" mentality.

[@sinnwalker]

Nothing really you can say. Tbh I'ma live in the middle of nowhere (when AI helps tech get to the level needed to do this easily) tho main reason being I just don't like ppl and don't wanna be a part of society.. But if you really care Abt privacy/anonymity you're gonna have to detach from society.

[@garrettrinquest1605]

It's a very slow process and you must be patient. Don't force them into anything. When you hear a super creepy story of data breaches or people's data getting leaked, share it. Maybe talk a bit about the easy to use things that make your life convenient, like ad/tracker blockers or that one thing that was super easy on Linux that would have been terrible on Windows (or whatever else those people use). After some exposure, things will very gradually start to shift. First it might be them making jokes about the spying Google does, then they might turn the location off on their phone when they aren't actively using navigation apps. In two years, I've managed to get multiple people from "Why would you care, that's not even happening." to "Why would you care, they have so much data already." Next is a subtle change from "all or nothing" to lessening data collection where you can.

[@Aircalibur]

@@tovarishchfeixiao I think the OP is pissed because his friends and family compromise his privacy when they don't care about their own, simply due to the relationship links. We're at a point in time when you can be tracked because of what someone else did, or through someone else's device. "The ghost" can't even talk to people face to face, not unless he trusts them completely. If the person they're talking with has a phone on them, he's compromised as well.

[@jensenthegreen6780]

i have come to that point in life where i just dont really care anymore, as long as im not dumb enough to do anything criminal related, or they're going to steal my bank account or raid my house even if i didnt...

[@aishascarlet3164]

(Mostly) Normie only recently shifting to privacy-conscious to activist. Shifting more towards the privacy part is kinda difficult for a lot of reasons (mainly technological inaptitude, ignorance and college and work-related reasons), and I don't even know if making the shift is going to be of any use. I just want to be safe from attacks from criminals (online and offline) and that's it. I already had some of the "privacy-conscious" traits, and the people around me constantly tell me "use (insert random service that collects your data)", "why are you suddenly so interested in Linux, Windows is way better", "why are you not on social media", ... It's only been a few days since I started on this, and I'm losing hope. I still have so many questions, and all the answers make me have even more questions.

[@staterbrosmilk]

hey might as well make the switch, just using linux, firefox with some adblock, and getting off social media puts you so much further ahead than most when it comes to digital privacy. Frankly most people really aren't invested in this stuff, in one way or another we are ruled by our own ignorance. The idea that data collection exists to manipulate and deceive is hard to grasp when one is actively ensnared. So long as you help yourself learn, you will help others learn as well. The rabbit hole is deep but it doesn't have to be dark.

[@MrCmon113]

I think it's a good first step to keep everything illegal to the dark web and to always have alternatives to proprietary software. Big companies can sometimes have preemptive obedience to the government and be after you for stuff that the government would let fly. To it's probably good to not 100% rely on google colab if they can cut you off for your edgy opinion on youtube or searches or sth.

[@BradenBest]

I would actually agree with the "all vpns are useless" take, to an extent. VPNs are useful if: * you want to get around a region lock * you want to connect to an off-site network as-if you were physically there (e.g. for a job) They are NOT useful if: * you want your network traffic to be more secure * you want your network traffic to be private * you want to protect yourself from "the hackers" For one, there is nothing secure about a VPN. Any security features or end-to-end encryption they provide are REQUIRED for a VPN to even function. Not to mention, network traffic is generally encrypted with TLS as a rule, e.g. HTTPS. VPNs are not private either. Not in the sense the ads make it out to be. The "private" in virtual private network means that it is a private network. Your home network is also a private network. The private means that nodes inside are not visible to nodes outside. You talk to the internet using the public-facing node of your network: your internet router. Being on a private network does not magically grant you privacy. Not to mention, the whole concept of having privacy when connecting to an external network relies on an assumption of trust. You are _assuming_ that the VPN you are connecting to is not logging and selling your data. It is impossible to know whether they are or aren't. You can only choose to trust them or not care. And VPNs offer zero protection from a malicious third party. Any "protection" you get is effectively security by obscurity. If someone really wants to break into your network, they'll find a way.

[@justins7796]

"cause on this channel we're all on the spectrum" made me lol

[@j100j]

I want better privacy because I think without it our society can't function. It is easy for people in positions of power to start using the lack of privacy in order to do less than good things. I don't want our society to go that way.

[@UberSpah]

On privacy-anonimity spectrum, you forgot that guy that agrees to every privacy policy and allows all cookies.

[@MrBelles104]

I'm so glad you linked the spectrum in the description. A very useful infographic!

[@StereoMadnessss]

I think that I’m most likely between The Normie and Privacy Conscious because I use Windows, unhardened Firefox and things like KZbin but still don’t want big companies to track me

[@chimagamer4157]

Hardening Firefox is very easy, you literally only have to flick on a few options in the security and privacy area of settings and maybe install an ad block on top of that. And for Google you can also disable most tracking and storing function and tell them to delete most of what they have, now if they do that is another question, but if you are in EU, and they don't you could sue them. In windows, you can also disable the different tracking functions.

[@MrCmon113]

If you have a youtube account and use google maps and the search engine, google already knows more about you than you yourself.

[@FlanGrande]

I do indeed fall somewhere along the spectrum

[@dyto2287]

My "Why?" of privacy is that I don't won't my data and credentials to end up public on the internet to find by anyone after some leak.

[@FatheredPuma81]

Funnily enough I fit fairly close to the Normie category in so many aspects, an online friend of mine sits somewhere between Privacy Conscious and The Activist, and an IRL friend of mine I'm pretty sure is off the spectrum to the left. He loves big companies a lot and actively supports them disabling shit on a whim.

[@user-p4bl04]

Thanks Eric! for another great vid, I've started learning Linux thanks to some of your vids, and using hardened Firefox. Great work in helping us normies in becoming safer out there in the wildwest that is the interwebs.

[@RedSntDK]

"On this channel we're all on the spectrum" 😂

[@ego-lay_atman-bay]

I actually fall into the normie - privacy-concious, and much closer to the privacy-concious side. I use brave to not have google tracking my everyday usage of the internet, I look for open source alternatives, I'm not afraid to do more work to become keep my privacy (I would love to get a custom android rom, and use micro g, but I can't unlock the oem on my phone yet (it's carrier locked)). Now, I do still have a couple google accounts, the one I'm using to write this comment, and a personal one (well, I'm using a brand channel, but it's connected to my second email, which uses my online username instead of my real name). Pf course I am using a modified youtube app to add things like, remove ads, sponserblock, return youtube dislike, hide shorts, and much more. Unfortunatally it doesn't have an option to stop google tracking. Overall, I try to use privacy centered programs and websotes, but sometimes I have to use google.

[@angelinacamacho8575]

When you are online there is no privacy. The only way to stay private online is to not use the internet for anything. It doesnt matter what program you use to hide your IP the minute you use any kind of search engine you risk your privacy being leaked.

[@Doodlinka]

True, but only if you're aiming for ghost level

[@kenos911]

Exactly. That’s why nobody normal actually cares anymore, they already have everything and most ppl don’t wanna be hermits

[@jack_grylls]

Use a live USB like TAILS which uses tor browser, unless you log into your personal accounts from it or start searching real world places that you live near, its pretty anonymous

[@MrCmon113]

Huh? No. I don't know what that even has to do with search engines. If you're using the darkweb in a responsible manner, that's way more private than doing things offline.

[@NxnjaSenpai]

I'm all over the place on this. I rarely use social media and if I do it's not with my real name. I use things like google pay wherever I can, but when it comes to verifying my identity for things like a loan or credit card, I don't exist. If you do know something about me and try to do a background check, you'll either get information that is outdated by over 10 years or completely inaccurate. I'm sure my online presence is hell for people trying to track me. I'm not a ghost, I am a mirage.

[@chimagamer4157]

same for me, you will find more for my username than the real name, even though it is quite unique.

[@FractalParadox]

"When it comes to penopticons, one is too many, but many is much better than one." ‐ Exurb1a

[@BB_Sebring]

Thank you for your honesty and being so down to earth. Many privacy focused KZbinrs *cough cough* Mental Outlaw *cough cough* can be extremely narcissistic and vindictive about their opinions and labeling anything out of line of their standards as "normie" or just straight up calls people stupid. I'm in the privacy focused category but may try to enhance my privacy with a custom Android ROM (though I've heard these often don't play well with banking apps) and maybe give Linux a second chance after finding too many inconveniences from using Linux Mint as a die-hard Windows user

[@BB_Sebring]

@@rft253 I mostly mention him since he was my first introduction into the Linux community proper

[@ghoorn4425]

Mental outlaw has some nice ducks

[@Carlos-ux7gv]

Levels of privacy also relates to what are you doing. Piracy is pretty much ok in my country, but questioning the government openly is best done with a fake account. Donations to opposition politicians are best done with cryptocurrency, but shopping online is ok.

[@aleksejs_kruks]

How do you check privacy? How do you check what's in CPU registers, CPU cache and RAM, what's in GPU RAM, what's in provider router cash, while you're looking at the monitor?

[@Carlos-ux7gv]

​@@aleksejs_kruks You don't. If you are really THAT exposed, you should be using off-line computers with volatile storage.

[@EricMurphyxyz]

True, some activities will need a higher privacy level than others. In a lot of countries criticizing the government will require you to be completely anonymous.

[@SnLeo-zx6qy]

Brazil?

[@Carlos-ux7gv]

@@SnLeo-zx6qy yes

[@aa-fi9ks]

Disable Javascript is the most renovating advise I had ever received

[@vladislavkaras491]

That an actually good "tier" list explaining how different people approach specific things! Thanks for the video!

[@hikaritsumi2123]

At first when I read up about privacy I'm getting more and more paranoid about privacy, fake name, fake email, never use google seach, tor browser, private DNS and the more I know about it I realize I cannot attain or maintain this kind of lifestyle and think back for a bit. I don't really NEED that much so I just fall back on the privacy-concious level, if they don't need it I ain't give it, if the Back require your Real info sure I do give, but chat message wants your camera access? F no.

[@Q_20]

For the entire system to be trustworthy, the foundational hardware must be inherently reliable and possess unquestionable integrity.

[@AbandonedVoid]

Going ghost requires resources and careful planning. You can achieve any of the other levels within a single day, but that level of privacy might require years of learning, building connections, and saving resources. It's doable, but it requires heavy sacrifices and a lot of hard work.

[@ovatsugrock420]

Recently been into online privacy, your videos helped me a lot, thank you. :)

[@Kadori328]

As a Software Developer I prioritize convenience over privacy, its many tools and resources that I simply cant give up as i gain nothing in return

[@finesseandstyle]

I'm more of a blend in with the crowd and be invisible. Someone's who's obsessive about privacy is more suspicious to bad actors than someone who looks like everyone else

[@CompuB1t]

well spoken, privacy is a subjective concept and with a spectrum you cover all cases.

[@Vespyr_]

There is no such thing as online privacy. I've given up on that a long time ago. Not unless you want to go through internet hell, or happen to have a nice stack of cash to host your own services. Even then you're still not guaranteed anything for all the effort. But I'm glad some of you haven't given up, it's nice to see people hold onto some semblance of hope. Futile in my opinion, but commendable.

[@YautjaElderWarrior]

Being blackpilled about it doesn't mean you are just going full normie or showing your chat history to strangers, does it? It's like saying, 'I have no hope that this neighborhood I have to pass through will get any safer, so I will just walk with my smartphone out and remain unaware of my surroundings, i also will leave my front door open and the keys to my car on the ignition.'

[@Noelciaaa]

Yea same. And even if I went through the trouble and investment of setting my own stuff up, too many ppl I'm close to happily share all their data, including photos with me etc, so there's no point. My policy is to simply not put anything I'd not want to be found out on any electronic device, period. Pen and paper are the safest thing these days.

[@anon_y_mousse]

I don't really fall into any one category, but I think privacy conscious would be most apt. For instance, I don't even use e-mail and I don't buy things online. If I have to buy something online I use someone else as an intermediary. However, I do use KZbin so it's not like I couldn't be found. The only way to achieve true anonymity would be to not use the internet or any connected services, and the only way to do that in today's society is to remove oneself from society. So if you're part of society, then to a certain degree you don't want privacy, and it's just a matter of how much. The government would certainly like that level of care to be zero, and they're working hard to indoctrinate everyone with that idea. I just hope that people realize the truth before it's too late.

[@ripwolf9012]

Can't wait for email providers tier list. Love your vids❤

[@rumplstiltztinkerstein]

It is so ironic to be recommended this video after talking to someone about privacy in whatsapp.

[@soirema]

This is great love your content, but I have few concerns. I know there is a lot of comments, but I dont think its possible to have privacy when you are looking for a job for example, all talk is made via gmail with interview on google meet, so you send your CV that way, which contains basically everything Also buying anything online, you have to input your real data so they match with your payment method (also adress)... Also as a youtuber you dont have privacy, youtrube and google are interconnected, you need adsense for this

[@Skyman12808]

That's Really Unfortunate For The Freedom to Our lives i wish we collaborate together and fight for ever lasting Privacy

[@richard343s]

My goal with online privacy is to as much as possible reduce my reliance on "big tech". And then I'm especially thinking of corporations that are involved with A.I. like Google, Facebook and Microsoft. Just by being privacy conscious you can prevent 90% of tracking. It's the last 10% that is the hard part.

[@ariathyf144]

I LOVE your content so far btw. You're filling the void for the Luke Smith absence.

[@rlryxn]

bro my grandfather is around in between the activist and the ghost. hes crazy about privacy

[@SIMULATAN]

Love these new videos, so well prepared and informative :)

[@EricMurphyxyz]

Thanks, appreciate it!

[@mnzznxplay9747]

I fall into normie category, but I feel uncomfortable exposing my personality online. I am okay with corporations stuff because they aren't interested in me as person, but only as part of some demographic, and so they can't effectively process all info about me. But I keep myself restrained from taking interest in some topics, don't interact with media posts, because these interactions can be seen by close people and I'm afraid of my opinion not being tolerated by them

[@Lorens4444]

I'll be honest, videos about privacy are interesting to watch. A lot of cool features to play around with as well. XD

[@guy_autordie]

The Cabin in the wood without internet is the best about the privacy and online privacy, ngl.

[@mjc0961]

Chrome just pushed some ad profile/tracking update that needs to be disabled in settings. Of course, not a great thing, shame on Google. But all over social media I'm seeing people shout "FIREFOX CARES ABOUT YOUR PRIVACY" with just a link to the download page and no further context. Not a single person wants to mention how badly Firefox violates your privacy unless you spend a lot of time in settings fixing it, and if you dare to point this out to help people who actually care about their privacy, you get attacked. Apparently people will just flock to anything that claims to offer privacy without taking even a second to look into it further. Okay, enjoy all your data collection on your unmodified iPhones and stock installs of Firefox I guess. 🙄 I find these kinds of people even more annoying than the "I have nothing to hide" people, honestly. These people don't care about privacy, they care about sounding cool on the internet by talking about what's trendy.

[@ZaphX796]

I'm between Normie and Privacy-Conscious (Reasonable Normie / Lazy Privacy-Conscious): - Uses Google services, but disables automatic images upload to any cloud services including Google Photos and Microsoft Photos - Uses Windows, but without telemetry, diagnostics and bloatware, with a local account and without backing up data on Onedrive - Uses unique strong alphanumeric passwords for each service, writes down the critical ones and saves the less important ones in password manager - Uses PassKey when available and if not, then uses 2FA when available - Careful use of the messaging app - Minimal and careful use of modded social media app/website (no feed, only minimal posting) - Treats every online conversation like a real life conversation (real life consequences) - blocks third party cookies - reject cookies only when it's fast and easy - shifts all accounts to a new Google account and deletes the old one every 5-ish year - "I make sure I have nothing to hide but stay away from my personal local multimedia"

[@crisdebug8675]

All I wanna say is: I do care about privacy, but I know I lost that battle years ago. And also another thing to notice: Some times something is cheap bc they get their money back by collecting and/or selling your data. And if you don't have a lot of money to begin with, you don't have much choice.

[@daniyara8879]

As a remote worker, I feel like a slave to the system.

[@EricMurphyxyz]

I feel you, some things are just unavoidable

[@Cyberian_Khatru]

Hey, great ideas and well put. Small critique, maybe the bullet points could've been offset horizontally to further reinforce the idea of it being a spectrum. Like, using ddg should be way more to the left than installing linux, for example. Overall though, great vid.

[@CyberMutoh]

When it comes to being private on the internet I tend to just create a persona of sorts and be that persona so that i keep myself as far from my actual identity as possible.

[@CyberMutoh]

@@zimmy1626 when the split personality takes over

[@KokoroAi]

Extremely surprising to see Sasame Yaya to be on the thumbnail for a video about..... internet privacy

[@not-quite-but-maybe]

I'm somewhere between normie and privacy-conscious, and the reasoning is mostly convenience (I use social media a lot but I don't use my real name, I use Windows/MacOS for different reasons (games+school/music production), will use Google if Brave search is being too slow/not showing what I searched for, use Gmail and feel guilty abt it?? and I would like to use a more private email but have a LOT of things I'd need to change first) but despite all that, I literally can't wrap my head around people not using Firefox or Librewolf or at the VERY least putting an adblocker/tracker blocker on their browser 😭 like the "default" experience is literally worse??? even if you don't care abt privacy, it's so easy to do and it's literally MORE convenient to not get ads shoved in your face 24/7 😭

[@Gr3nadgr3gory]

I just create so many alternate personalities online that even identity theives end up finding out that that person doesnt exist.

[@oakgnarl5021]

Surveillance of most people takes zero effort these days. So we must assume that 100% of their effort goes to spying on people taking the most effort to avoid it. The more "privacy conscious" you are, the more you would logically be flagged as someone to pay extra attention to. So there is certainly the possibility for any effort to remain private from the government, (meaning intelligence agencies), to be counter-productive. For instance, even if they can't see what you transmit over tor, they can see that you are someone using tor. Even if you are using it from a random location far from home, wearing a disguise etc., they still know that someone from that location used tor. If it's someone they can't identify, they can escalate the effort to find out, and I believe they are quite good at that, and very much dislike not knowing things.

[@tocraft573]

This spectrum is VERY black and white, the gray areas in-between are not very well depicted, however for a extremely over simplified model for people who are not at all in the know, it should suffice

[@aeebeecee3737]

The goal of privacy protection is stopping central monopoly regime, to reach free shared society that we can shared each other, we’ll play together

[@jackthatmonkey8994]

I lol'd when I read the "disable javascript" on your thumbnail

[@colbyboucher6391]

The way I see this: You're standing in a transparent shower on a public street. You ask someone for a curtain. They go "but, Iike, dude, someone can still walk in, why bother? Not worth bothering unless you shower in a locked safe." See how stupid that is?

[@that_one_salad9778]

You could put me in the Normie category because I value convenience. Doesn't necessarily imply that I'm blissfully ignorant though that is common. Putting me in an interesting situation where I advocate for awareness about surveillance, but do more or less nothing to protect mine.

[@CoasterMan13Official]

My mom: Normie Me: between Privacy-Concious and Activist Unabomber: Ghost

[@Xizax41325]

Tinfoil chad is best level. It's the easiest to explain to people and have them understand without sounding like you're figuring out who Pepe Silvia is.

[@TheAlison1456]

That moment when you're The Ghost (not me) and you realize you can't really be private, just obfuscate it. It's worth asking what's the motive. No one is private in public, you can't hide your face, what you do, where you go. Whoever wants to get you will get you. Info sec is important for organizations. That's about it. Everything else is degrees of larp.

[@nomadshiba]

tbh the word "corparations" makes it sound simple, like there are no people in the corparations there is always friend of a friend(or friend of a follower) in that corparation that can just expose you when ever they want. i think best thing is having different identities that are at different positions on the spectrum. for example this account is linked to my irl, but i might have an account that has no links to my other identities, never the same ip, never the same name, never the same "hobbies", never the same friends(the hardest one), never the same os/browser or same screen size, or device, never talk about weather, never tell you are sleeping, never tell time etc

[@MrOzzyWaldy]

My Privacy threat model is that, they shouldn't see through my camera, hear from my microphone, and lastly not know my location.

[@zadock6370]

I am inbetween the normie and privacy conscious, but slowly and gradually moving more towards the privacy conscious.

[@helloimatapir]

Great video Eric. Your channel is getting consistently better.

[@EricMurphyxyz]

Appreciate it!

[@aquaintsound]

Digital privacy being difficult isnt a coincidence - it's systemic. In the US especially, large corporations dont want you to be private to sell your data and the US police state have always liked surveillance. Especially digital surveillance, there are publically available government documents that show how much money the CIA spends on data brokers. I'm getting my graduate degree in library science - lots of us in this field WANT to make patron privacy secure, but it is hard to do by design. Getting government funding to create more digital security is an uphill battle just like we're fighting for copyright freedom and more open source software support. Doing anything is better than nothing. I have an abusive ex who would find and kill me. I watched a Black friend of mine get SWATTED by someone who wanted the police to kill him (damn nazi ass trolls). digital privacy is life or death for too many people.

[@HalfEclipsed]

At high school I used tor to get around the website filters because they block vpns but not tor lmao

[@venomshot2815]

Could you also cover software that sends fake data to companies to scramble the info they already have on you

[@krangighwan]

I have a question. Many apps and services (also cookies on websites) have privacy settings. Sadly, they are fairly well hidden and also set to collect your data by default, but you still can access and edit them. So how much does leaving only the strictly necessary of them on, and does it even matter? Not being overly pessimistic, just wouldn't be too surprised if it didn't.

[@cybersechs1368]

Session >> Signal. No metadata. adversaries including pigs and leo's will have to try extra hard to detect you

[@BigFatSeal10]

You guys are all looking at CP aren’t you 😢

[@kryane99]

​@@BigFatSeal10bro can u shut up you assume most people are looking at cp you're the one whos weird asf

[@cgreenwood95]

a cool thing about my laptop is that there is a switch that blocks/covers the webcam when you don't need to use it.