this post was submitted on 07 May 2025
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Privacy

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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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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 4) 50 comments
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[–] [email protected] 60 points 1 day ago (23 children)

Can you explain why you would think Steam is so bad? I would argue they're pretty fair, especially with the option to buy steam cards for cash to not disclose your personal data. Does the client do some unsavory shit?

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

It might be there because there is a lot of data associated with the steam account, especially the community part of it, e.g.:

  • Recorded playtimes
  • Times and dates when you are regularly logged in
  • Possession of games which are precisely tagged by genre/interests/etc.
  • On which time and date you spent how much money (participation in sales in the steam store)
  • Timestamped posts and comments in groups based on various interests etc.
  • Curators/devs/publishers you follow
  • Your game wishlist
  • Connection and interaction with other steam accounts (friends list, chat, trades, gifts)

All this can be used to create a very detailed behaviour profile and accurately deduce the social status of the real person who uses the account. Maybe the data isn't misused and it's just there so the features can actually exist.

Personally, I doubt Valve actually does this as expansive and invasive as other big tech companies. I'm pretty sure they at least aggregate anonymised data to measure how e.g. their sales perform, which game to promote on the store front page etc.

But we can't be sure because it's not public.

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[–] [email protected] 72 points 1 day ago (6 children)

TIL I'm a privacy activist--who can help me get to the ghost mode?
(Do I even want to get there or is that limited to journalists who have entire states trying to unalive them?)

[–] [email protected] 54 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Do I even want to get there

Only you can answer that.

or is that limited to journalists who have entire states trying to unalive them?

Pretty much, but if you want to give up all technology, work for yourself, and fake your death, then more power to you!

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago

Because of Lemmy: proton, GrapheneOS, pi hole, open wrt, nextcloud

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago (3 children)

@Charger8232
It's nice how firefox is just nowhere in there

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

I forgot to put it on there. I would put it probably in The Beginner. Chromium-based browsers aren't all bad, such as Vanadium or Trivalent, so people sometimes feel more comfortable sticking with what seems familiar (coming from Chrome).

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 day ago (8 children)

On browsers, as you put Chromium then also put Firefox or deMozillaed Firefox e.g. WaterFox.

I'd put Brave back to the 2nd layer due to relying on Chromium and being heavily marketed while gathering data for its crypto scheme. I'd also put Firefox on the 2nd or 3rd layer.

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 day ago
[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (21 children)

Sadly, using small niche VPNs that might be more trusted makes you stand out more. It's pretty unusual to have a Mullvad user on your server

They don't rotate IPs as well so a lot of them are blacklisted... and don't offer port forwarding anymore

I wish they could change IPs reguarly and add port forwarding back :-( - I would happily pay for their service again

Because 5€ for their current service is overpriced

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

Cash and Monero being on the same tier is very funny

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 day ago

Impressive, an academic grade meme.

You, sir/madam, are an artist and a scholar

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago (5 children)

This is a modern art masterpiece. I've starred at it for hours while installing Arch Linux on my brand new T480.

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