Privacy Guides
In the digital age, protecting your personal information might seem like an impossible task. We’re here to help.
This is a community for sharing news about privacy, posting information about cool privacy tools and services, and getting advice about your privacy journey.
You can subscribe to this community from any Kbin or Lemmy instance:
Check out our website at privacyguides.org before asking your questions here. We've tried answering the common questions and recommendations there!
Want to get involved? The website is open-source on GitHub, and your help would be appreciated!
This community is the "official" Privacy Guides community on Lemmy, which can be verified here. Other "Privacy Guides" communities on other Lemmy servers are not moderated by this team or associated with the website.
Moderation Rules:
- We prefer posting about open-source software whenever possible.
- This is not the place for self-promotion if you are not listed on privacyguides.org. If you want to be listed, make a suggestion on our forum first.
- No soliciting engagement: Don't ask for upvotes, follows, etc.
- Surveys, Fundraising, and Petitions must be pre-approved by the mod team.
- Be civil, no violence, hate speech. Assume people here are posting in good faith.
- Don't repost topics which have already been covered here.
- News posts must be related to privacy and security, and your post title must match the article headline exactly. Do not editorialize titles, you can post your opinions in the post body or a comment.
- Memes/images/video posts that could be summarized as text explanations should not be posted. Infographics and conference talks from reputable sources are acceptable.
- No help vampires: This is not a tech support subreddit, don't abuse our community's willingness to help. Questions related to privacy, security or privacy/security related software and their configurations are acceptable.
- No misinformation: Extraordinary claims must be matched with evidence.
- Do not post about VPNs or cryptocurrencies which are not listed on privacyguides.org. See Rule 2 for info on adding new recommendations to the website.
- General guides or software lists are not permitted. Original sources and research about specific topics are allowed as long as they are high quality and factual. We are not providing a platform for poorly-vetted, out-of-date or conflicting recommendations.
Additional Resources:
- EFF: Surveillance Self-Defense
- Consumer Reports Security Planner
- Jonah Aragon (YouTube)
- r/Privacy
- Big Ass Data Broker Opt-Out List
view the rest of the comments
TL;DR "buy our VPN"
TL;DR: Don't buy Mesh WiFi, especially if offered at a low price/subscription by your ISP. Use old-fashioned routers and access points.
If you already have or really need Mesh WiFi, consider installing a VPN client on every single device that supports it. A VPN config on your router will not protect your data from the spying WiFi Mesh Pods.
I get why ISP provided routers and some brands of mesh router would collect and sell data but what is it about "mesh" that is particularly bad here? I have a cheap TP Link router that is apparently mesh compatible but it seems like a traditional router in all the other way. Should I be concerned?
Obviously, I can't tell you about the privacy implications of every internet routing device on the planet.
I was just trying to provide a more complete and longer TL;DR than the one I was responding to.
Sounds like you know what you are doing as well as anyone could, you don't need my TLDR
You state that mesh is much worse for privacy than traditional access points but refuse to elaborate
And got absolutely showered in upvotes. This community is trash.
Lol it's similar to like r/techsupport on Reddit where every reaponse is "you must have malware" when the OP clearly doesn't. People in these communities have absolutely no clue what they're talking about. They just parrot misinformation.
I'll elaborate for him/her: mesh devices sold by untrusted companies with a profit model will almost surely be collecting your data.
The problem is not "mesh", it is the companies using a new, cool, buzzword to sell their spyware that is the problem.
They are basically enhanced repeaters that don't require a seperate network access point.
If you get a device that is primarily marketed as basic hardware, like the Asus router, you are more likely to avoid the collection. Bonus points if you can flash FOSS software to it, also like Asus, so yiu know it is clean. Regardless, use a VPN for external communications.
My home is small enough that mesh is unnecessary, but I'd buy another Asus device for mesh if it were necessary.