how dial-up worked, and saw that it was still possible to set up in modern-day; so it got me wondering what the privacy implications would be if I hypothetically were to use it. I imagine it would be terrible!

Actually we would be way better if anyone was still using a 56k dial-up. Just think about it, with 56k websites couldn't store 2000 different cookies and run 30000 XHR requests to 3rd party analytics companies as it would take more time to get them than actually load the content. :)

Either way the fact that you're running on a dial-up doesn't mean your connection isn't secure, PPPoE can be used in the same way is used for FTTH links and it allows IP security features like authentication and encryption to be implemented.

so it got me wondering what the privacy implications would be if I hypothetically were to use it. I imagine it would be terrible!

I don't see why. Dial-Up just describes how the modem connects to a remote server, not what security protocols are possible once the connection is established

Sooo, dial up is slow. Very slow. But the data being transmitted over the physical cable is still using TCP/IP protocols to communicate with the broaderinternet.

Look up something called the OSI model.

The routers and switches downstream from you don’t care about the nature of your connection-fiber, copper, wireless, dial up, it’s all the same. Converted into frames which contain packets which contains bytes which contain bits, which are made up of 1s and 0s.

So from a security perspective? The line can be tapped, but that’s true of Ethernet and fiber as well. What’s amazing about information technology is that it’s built around protocols that exist independent of the physical equipment involved.

Honestly it would be about the same as now. ISP still log Netflow/Sflow data for billing and legal reasons.

To be clear, Ethernet cable has no bearing on whether a connection was/is dial-up. It just means that it's a wired connection instead of wireless (WiFi).

At that time WiFi wasn't super widespread, so it wouldn't be super surprising if a laptop didn't support it. Especially if the laptop itself was a few years old.

With enough speed for youtube, you probably had some form of DSL, coming into your house through a coaxial cable, into a coax modem, then back out through ethernet cables.

1mb would take around 6 minutes, since IIRC your speed would be closer to 28.8 than 56 (I seem to recall that 56k was in large part due to compression, and those file types are all compressed).

It would presumably be the same it was essentially just a connection to the ISP so it is the same kinds of attack vectors browsing the wider web (arguably less since you presumably could call from random numbers and/or change ip address easily). The only one big thing I could think or is that since plain old telephone lines (POTS) were often directly interconnected (party lines/multiple phones to one line), someone could more easily pickup/tap the line to eavesdrop compared to broadband. USB modems do exist I believe 56k is the fastest you can find (iirc there was some FCC regulation limiting to 53k to prevent telco issues going faster, I believe 56-64k was the technical limit), but if you have a 2G phone that supports Circuit Switch Data you can use that and try out the magic of WML cards (specially formated html pages to run on phones) making up a WML deck / WAP site (mobile version of the site). There is a list of WAP sites here that may still work http://pubquizhelp.com/mobile/bestwap.html

It wouldn't be significantly different from any other access method.

You could use Tor as it has a setting to play a dial up sound when you connect.