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.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
Don't promote proprietary software
Try to keep things on topic
If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
Be nice :)

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PSA Use your display name to help move others to privacy respecting replacements. (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by autonomoususer@lemmy.world to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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For example, on WhatsApp, use the whole 25 character limit for profile name. Examples:

Bob Moved To Signal.org

Alice MovedTo Signal.org

CharlieMovedTo Signal.org

Say Signal.org, not Signal, because they won't know it's an app.

Use your about section too. Same on Discord, Steam, Instagram, etc.

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[–] adespoton@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Some people realized when Signal removed SMS support on Android that Signal is a private org that can make changes as they see fit, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Other people get stuck on the fact that Signal requires a legitimate phone number in order to operate.

In both of these situations, the people up in arms usually don’t understand WHY the changes were privacy and security improvements and make Signal a better platform. But the argument about not being fully in control still stands.

So it could be argued that Signal may keep you safer than if you try to roll your own Matrix or SimpleX server, and it’s definitely a better platform for anyone who wouldn’t have a clue how to set up and secure their own server. But people have definitely had reasons for leaving it.

Personally, I use both Signal and Matrix, and push average people towards Signal.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Signal aint perfect and current leadership is sus... giving me 'em Mozilla vibes.

I foresee another migration in my feature but currently it is the gold standard for at least some keeping your msg content "private"

Meta data collection is still a huge issue with Signal and its architecture nearly built this feature into it.

[–] adespoton@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Signal is designed to collect meta-metadata. They don’t hold any information that can tie a person to their account, but they definitely know how those accounts interact via their servers.

[–] Orygin@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

They know my phone number. Which in Europe is tied to me. They absolutely hold info about who talks to who

[–] adespoton@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

How do they know your phone number? Only a cryptographic hash of it is sent to their servers.

[–] Orygin@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago

Not really. See the support page regarding this:

As a new default, your phone number will no longer be visible to everyone in Signal. You can opt to display your phone number. However, people who have your number saved in their phone’s contacts will still see your phone number, regardless of your settings, since they already know it.