this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2025
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Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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[–] haagch@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

I recently bought a phone from Volla that ships with ubuntu touch. Somewhat painful, but entirely possible to use. I also backed the liberux indiegogo for a more modern proper mainline linux phone again.

I'm just not using any google play and ios exclusive apps and services anymore. Yea it's painful but if you want to see an ecosystem outside of google play and ios, you have to buy and use it. Just be prepared to be the 0.1% that literally nobody cares about. Like when traveling I can follow my ICE train schedule on the Deutsche Bahn website, but it will log me out and delete my entire state after 15 minutes or so of inactivity. Or a couple of years ago I saw that uber had a web app and at some point wanted to order one for a group. turns out when trying to finish the order (which you can't dry run), I got a generic error and someone with the app had to order. After uber sent me 125 marketing mails after that, telling me to order discounted food with uber eats, I think I finally unsubscribed (I only didn't earlier out of morbid curiosity).

Personally I live by just not using this stuff is better than being like "oh I need waydroid to run android in a container and use the reverse engineered reimplementation of google play, and also need to fake some stuff to pass integrity checks etc. to use an E-Scooter".

[–] serenissi@lemmy.world 39 points 6 days ago (2 children)

IMO the only reason tech world can be authoritarian is people's negligence. Otherwise even if all major brands produce unhackable locked down hardware, people could boycott those and buy the one obscure open device (like pine64) and market force will force big names to revert.

Corporations do not have power by themselves. People refusing to think and understand gives them power. Same applies to mainstream politics.

[–] drspawndisaster@sh.itjust.works 31 points 6 days ago (2 children)

So unless I can convince my mom to install Firefox we're fucked.

...we're fucked.

[–] serenissi@lemmy.world 11 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

yes. also your friends, not only mom.

(/s aside, most people of younger generations don't care as well, not only elderly less tech literate folks)

We are soooo fucked.

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Unless you can convince them to get out of the 'surveillance for free stuff' market then they're fucked, not everyone.

You can choose to use free and open source software and sped time learning and putting together a system that benefits you. Or you can just sign up for Google, let them do all of the work in exchange for spying on you with every device that you buy and put in your house.

Oh I'm gonna dodge corporate bullshit at every opportunity, but they're also allowed to gather data on me simply tracking my friends and family

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[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 days ago

They have money which means they advertise which influences peoples decisions. As much as some people might deny it ads work.

[–] beyond@linkage.ds8.zone 11 points 5 days ago

This might be a hot take but the best way to avoid or "bypass" onerous things like the "integrity API" is to opt out of the proprietary world as much as possible. Use exclusively free (Libre) software and technology where you can.

We should not be thinking in terms of how do we get proprietary crapware onto our free systems, because that defeats the purpose of a free system. The idea is to build an alternative to the proprietary world.

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 12 points 5 days ago (1 children)

GrapheneOS is already working on it:

We're going to add a secure way of working around this without breaking the app source security model. We'll be adding support for having the OS automatically verify the Play Store signing metadata and then inform Play services those apps were installed from the Play Store.

https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/114554622772349562

[–] zelnix@lemmy.ml 4 points 5 days ago

That's already released and only deals with recent changes. It doesn't fix apps using strong integrity challenges

[–] FireIced@lemmy.super.ynh.fr 17 points 6 days ago (2 children)

I sadly believe we’re fucked

[–] AnnaFrankfurter@lemmy.ml 15 points 6 days ago (5 children)

We were fucked a long time ago it's just the effects showing now. But I hope the rebels at Graphene OS and other custom ROMs will find a way.

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[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

We where fucked when the internet got consolidated into what five companies.

[–] FireIced@lemmy.super.ynh.fr 4 points 5 days ago

And them being in the USA as well

[–] pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip 10 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Do you think we can find a way to bypass these,

Yes. Direct physical access always wins. A device in my hands is my device.

or is the future of the digital world just authoritarian and dystopian?

Yes. Many people aren't going to explore the solutions, or be willing to give up the convenience that comes with not changing what they're doing.

[–] utopiah@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

A device in my hands is my device.

Could you then please help root the Meta Quest 3? So far I believe nobody managed.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 6 points 5 days ago (3 children)

We're a decade too early for open source vr.

That's not a VR headset, You bought an expensive Facebook paperweight.

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[–] m532@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 5 days ago

Google is banned in china so 1/6 of the world population can bypass it automatically. You need state power to deal with oppressive corpos.

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

It's a rat race. You can only win by not playing.

[–] FireIced@lemmy.super.ynh.fr 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (3 children)

But if you don’t play, your pay with convenience and your time. You lose the freedom of installing a lot of apps. You lose a lot :( - to the point where it would make most people give up

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago (2 children)

If you keep feeding the monster, you know what will happen.

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 1 points 5 days ago

The problem is I want to you know have a life with people. Don't want to be isolated all to myself.

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[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (3 children)

Imagine I said that I would come into your house and install a new TV and entertainment system, re-build your bathroom, fix your maintenance issues, clean your floors, wash your dishes, etc. That'd save you a lot of time.

Now, I'll even do it for free! But, you have to let me install a door that only I have a key to so you can't stop me from entering your house and also to install cameras and microphones covering every square foot of your house and you consent to being recorded.

That's the deal people are making with their digital lives.

Yeah, it was inconvenient to have to learn how to setup the software so I could have 'cloud storage' using my home server. It's annoying that I have to deal with IP Cameras and ZoneMinder. But, because I do the work myself, I don't have to let Google/Meta/FBI/Amazon have access to listening devices in my home (Oh, sorry Alexa, I didn't know you were listening), footage from my security system or the contents of my personal files.

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[–] oo1@lemmings.world 3 points 6 days ago (3 children)

As of now, I find very few apps beneficial, convenient or time savers - maybe I'm a weirdo luddite. Most apps seem to be for pastimes anyway so saving time seems odd - I prefer to take time to savour my pastimes. I think mp3 player app, and organic maps are the real ones that I actually find useful.

But refusing GPS/microG and therefore Microsoft Authenticate will become a problem for me quite soon I think. For now a phonecall still works, but I think it's only a matter of time. Once that goes I might have to quit my job, and will struggle to find one in my field that doesn't require it, so I guess I'll have to look for less skilled work or retrain, and I'm far too old for that shit. That's where it'll get constraining, when the tentacles of bundling enwrap and bind many other aspects of real society.

I really hope the EU keeps on at MS for bundling and other market power abuse, it seems so obvious that they've effectively ignored the fines from the old Internet Exploder case, and ramped up their misbehaviour regardless.

Of course the twats where I live are easily radicalised against EU regulations (or any regulations really) , so I'm probably still fucked. But at least someone needs to stand up for consumer rights and competition and keep kicking MS in the balls every time they pull their dick out to fuck consumers. Ideally kick them harder and harder too, 'punitive damages' are more than justified due to them being a repeat offender.

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