this post was submitted on 07 May 2025
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Privacy

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The Privacy Iceberg (lemmy.ml)
submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
369 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

The Privacy Iceberg

This is original content. AI was not used anywhere except for the bottom right image, simply because I could not find one similar enough to what I needed. This took around 6 hours to make.

Transcription (for the visually impaired)

(I tried my best)

The background is an iceberg with 6 levels, denoting 6 different levels of privacy.

The tip of the iceberg is titled "The Brainwashed" with a quote beside it that says "I have nothing to hide". The logos depicted in this section are:

The surface section of the iceberg is titled "As seen on TV" with a quote beside it that says "This video is sponsored by...". The logos depicted in this section are:

An underwater section of the iceberg is titled "The Beginner" with a quote beside it that says "I don't like hackers and spying". The logos depicted in this section are:

A lower section of the iceberg is titled "The Privacy Enthusiast" with a quote beside it that says "I have nothing I want to show". The logos depicted in this section are:

An even lower section of the iceberg is titled "The Privacy Activist" with a quote beside it that says "Privacy is a human right". The logos depicted in this section are:

The lowest portion of the iceberg is titled "The Ghost". There is a quote beside it that has been intentionally redacted. The images depicted in this section are:

  • A cancel sign over a mobile phone, symbolizing "no electronics"
  • An illustration of a log cabin, symbolizing "living in a log cabin in the woods"
  • A picture of gold bars, symbolizing "paying only in gold"
  • A picture of a death certificate, symbolizing "faking your own death"
  • An AI generated picture of a person wearing a black hoodie, a baseball cap, a face mask, and reflective sunglasses, symbolizing "hiding ones identity in public"

End of transcription.

(page 2) 50 comments
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[–] [email protected] 41 points 22 hours ago (3 children)

I don't like hackers and spying

brave

lol. lmao, even.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 21 hours ago

A beginner will choose what seems private, regardless of whether or not it actually is.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

The only thing stopping me from being 'the Activist Group' is that Mullvad requires payment. Sorry, but I'm running a little tight on budget.

At the same time, I can't use Proton VPN for torrenting.

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[–] [email protected] 58 points 1 day ago (2 children)

It's genuinely wild that Firefox and LibreWolf are nowhere on these

[–] [email protected] 16 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Matrix is also missing.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I was disapponted at that, I spooled up one of those instances a few months back and its federated and is magical. If only I could convince my family to move away from that old group text grumbles in person who cosplays as a sysadmin

[–] [email protected] 5 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

Same. It's so hard to get ppl to switche

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Probably because people above the waterline don't know Mozilla exists, and people below have seen how things have been going lately.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (1 children)

Firefox is really bad a portraying what they're actually doing, and the privacy concerns people have with them have been widely overblown. But on top of that librewolf is a privacy oriented fork not made by Mozilla

[–] [email protected] 1 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

For want of $100 /year Apple developer subscription , the libewolf team can't sign binaries for Silicon M series Macs.

I spent an hour and a half trying to get librewolf to work, and just gave up for Waterfox instead.

On my laptop I run Firefox for some things, Watefox for others, and fall back to Chrome only as absolutely necessary when Gecko can't get me there.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I tried waterfox and it was just too glitchy for me I had many more crashes than Firefox, and their claim to fame was that chrome extensions worked with it but I literally never got a single one working. Session buddy just saves your sessions locally, but that would not work AT ALL on waterfox.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

I didn't even know that they claim Chrome extensions will work, I simply use the Firefox extensions in Waterfox.

My browsing style is antiquated, my ADHD will only afford me about eight tabs per browser window and I usually have about four of those going at a time.

I aggressively kill tabs to save my own mental memory more than the machine's memory.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 23 hours ago

They do perhaps know, Firefox did have about 27%+ of the market at one point and people outside of the USA are more likely to know about it. Nevertheless, FF is currently about 3.25% of the total browser base. That is still about 160+ - 200+ million users.

[–] [email protected] 54 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

ExpressVPN is an arm of Israeli intelligence and should be on the tip of the iceberg: https://www.reuters.com/technology/expressvpn-employees-complain-about-ex-spys-top-role-company-2021-09-23/

All users should cancel their accounts immediately.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 day ago

"As seen on TV" does not imply privacy, it just implies a large advertising budget. These are software that market themselves as private (and are sometimes better than nothing at all) but may still be just as bad as software on the tip of the iceberg.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Enthusiast level. Not bad. Not bad. Also where would you put librewolf?

[–] [email protected] -2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

What does LibreWolf have to do with privacy?

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 day ago

Was going to say links or it never happened but you provided them! And categorized by level! Excelsior!

Thanks also to the comments giving more information.

So grateful for this platform. For the most part.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 19 hours ago (3 children)

Also, I am out of the loop? What’s up with firefox? I have used it on linux mint for maybe 6 years now with uBlock. Currently trying to use DuckDuckGo as default browser because that Google AI results thing is starting to annoy me.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 18 hours ago

It's fine. For legal reasons (particularly in the EU and California) they had to add a Terms of Use fit the browser, and the had to translate a bunch of broad, idealist, simple phrases into legalese so they wouldn't get killed by those governments.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 17 hours ago

Privacy policy changes are worrying. They also implemented Privacy Preserving Attribution, which sends anonymized data to advertisers, and enable it by default. I personally like LibreWolf.

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[–] [email protected] 95 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Funny how you need more and more technical knowledge to go deeper into privacy, until the last level, which is basically giving up on technology itself.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The last level is living in a cabin in the woods and writing manifestos about industrial society and the ills of technology O_o

[–] [email protected] 20 points 23 hours ago (3 children)

Brave 🤮🤮🤮

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 day ago

Apple: “Brainwashed”

iMessage: “Beginner”

Well which one is it?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

What’s open wrt for?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Open source router you install it on your personal router instead of the vendor firmware and gain 200% of the functionality.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 19 hours ago (3 children)

Could I request if you could ELi5 for me? Unfortunately, I didn’t understand a thing.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 18 hours ago

Its like (actually literally) installing Linux on your router instead of its little corporate steal-your-data software. It allows your old router to have all kinds of modern features and full-blown control. My netgear orbi system was dying. I don't know what the hell was happening to it, but everything was super slow and clunky and netgear quit supporting it a few years ago. I thought I was going to have to get a new expensive mesh router system. But instead the nerds here told me I could probably install OpenWRT on them and it turns out they were right. My router was one of an expansive list of routers that is compatible with it. It was tricky to install, but I used AI to guide me through it. And now my shit's super snappy, fast, uses the latest security protocols. Turns out I can crank my radios up higher than normal and get really, really good coverage and really high speed all the time. It's for real this one weird trick that tech companies don't want you to know about.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 18 hours ago

Without getting into the technical side of things.

Normal Windows home edition is to what ever firmware your ISP (Internet service provider) puts on your router to make it play nice with their network.

Open WRT is to cracks knuckles fuck it, ill configure it myself (think Arch linux, or any program/platform where the user is given a bundle of sticks and a phone book of a manual and told "try not to hurt yourself")

Its a community updated router firmware/software project that gives the user a bit too much control. This allowes people who know what they are doing to make some very secure, free, and complex networks, but also gives you the tools to piss off your ISP or break something.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

How the heck is TOR less secure than any of the vpns? Also nice vpn psyop/ad.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

How the heck is TOR less secure than any of the vpns?

This isn't a ranking of security. It is ranked based on the experience level at which people generally begin to start using certain software. They build on top of each other.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 day ago (7 children)

TAILS is missing :(

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 day ago

That's how amnesiac it is.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

I give workshops on privacy. I always tell them that if they get nothing else out of my presentation, its that they should use a password manager.

Honestly I think keepass should be beginner. That comes first before everything else.

Also I think Tor Browser should come before VPNs. Its free and easier to use than VPNs (for when you want to google something secret and don't want to be tracked. Most beginners are selective like that)

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[–] [email protected] 52 points 1 day ago (5 children)

I have no clue why telegram is often mentioned when it comes to "privacy focused messaging". They don't even have e2e encrypted group chats. Only 1:1 chats may be encrypted as an opt-in. Even WhatsApp is more secure than that, since they use signals encryption.

Also the "we don't give out even a byte of data to anyone" statements made by telegram have been thoroughly debunked as lies. When telegrams bottom line is in danger, they have and will give out your data.

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[–] [email protected] 266 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I think this is the first time I've seen an iceberg meme with sources and explanations for each item. Fantastic. Your work is appreciated.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Why is Incogni bad?

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 day ago

Thanks a ton OP for linking to all the tools and services in description, this is an awesome resource!

[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 day ago (22 children)

Tried the Privacy Activist and Enthusiast section. Was not really fun and you loose connection to most of your friends and family. Now I have a balanced setup with something out of each layer. Perfect balanced, as things should be

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