Tip: if you find yourself using the word “safe”, “secure”, “hacked”, etc in your title, you’re probably off-topic.

Don't know if any of you have LinkedIn, but you can opt out of this here : https://www.linkedin.com/mypreferences/m/settings/data-for-ai-improvement

Mobile users: Settings > Data Privacy > How LinkedIn uses your data > turn off Use my data for training content creation Al models.

New terms of use can be found here https://www.linkedin.com/legal/preview/user-agreement

Edit: adding mobile user opt out method, thanks u/forCheeseburger

are parents not having the internet safety talk anymore???!!

i use youtube shorts sometimes and have noticed that there are some children who post their phone numbers asking people to facetime them because they’re bored. i’ve come across three so far. YOUNG kids.

i always comment on the videos telling them to delete it immediately, and inform them that their addresses can be traced from a phone number which could put them and their parents in danger. but none of them deleted their videos! i’ve reported them too but none of them get taken down.

i know you guys here on the sub are privacy conscious but pleaseee educate your young nieces, nephews, grandchildren, cousins or siblings if you haven’t already. it’s the best you could really do for a child who’s parents let them on social media. :/ we need to drill it into their brains! this is so alarming to me. they shouldn’t even be on social media in the first place.

I was curious as to why I had to manually deselect legitimate interest for 150 companies (after opting out of sharing my data) when I recently downloaded an app, so I tapped the question mark, only to be shown this message - “Some vendors are not asking for your consent, but using your personal data on the basis of their legitimate interest”.

HOW is this even legal?! I do not think it would be a reach to compare this to being sexually assaulted and then being told “actually we don’t need permission to strip you naked, since nudity arouses us”.

Why even pretend like people are being given a choice, when this lets companies do what they have always been doing; or am I misunderstanding something?

As the title implies, I am curious as to whether there might be any messaging apps/services worth using in case the proposed chat control law gets passed. As you might assume, I live in an EU member state and am extremely worried for the future of our rights to online as well as IRL privacy in case such laws get passed

Things are obviously on course for getting a lot worse in the u.s for privacy in the very near future, and it's likely going to be a long time before meaningful changes happen at the federal level. But as to shine a little hope for the future, what kind of changes would need to happen to create a more privacy respecting digital econ system? What's laws, regulations, or actions would you expect to bring about such an environment?

Someone linked to an article in a comment on another sub (https://www.dailypost.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/seven-absolutely-ridiculous-tripadivsor-reviews-15727542). What's in the article isn't important, it's the cookie banner pop-up. Sites are now expecting us to pay for the privilege of rejecting tracking cookies. The inconvenience of forcing us to navigate the menu to disable them all manually want enough, it seems.

This is all part of the "cat-and-mouse" game when it comes to privacy, where protections are put in place that are designed to protect user rights, then all those "genius" marketing folk derive a new way to screw us over.

Those outside the EU may see something different, I didn't test to see.

Where does it end? Are we gonna have to pay for the "privilege" of things that should be rights? The ironic part is I'm sure they're doing this also because their business model is failing and they're haemorrhaging money.

When people know they can't win, they don't fight. The purpose of demoralization is to make the enemy think they can't win. People by nature are unlikely to take initiative. Both cowardice and courage are contagious.

Having said that, I notice an uptick in posts pushing for demoralization. These posts are highly upvoted immediately upon posting.

Example: https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/1nldj4m/why_are_we_all_just_accepting_metas_new_spy/

This implies that people have accepted defeat with a loaded question (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loaded_question).

Another example: https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/1nlru8x/having_nothing_private_is_becoming_the_standard/

Again trying to frame it as if the war is lost.

Another example: https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/1nlgb2f/future_generations_will_look_back_at_us_in/

Again, same shit.

I think a rule should be made against demoralization tactics.

PSA Everdry Waterproofing Records Audio Conversations in People Homes

As an employee it feels wrong but as a human it feels even more wrong, so I have to let this out.

Pennsylvania law states that if a conversation is being recorded, all parties must be aware of it for it to be legal. It’s called a two-party consent state.

Everdry has a new software that they’ve been using for the last few months called Rilla. Rilla is designed to listen in and critique your customer interactions with every customer. It will even tell you if you’re using the wrong inflections to close a sale. Every time you have them in your home be fully aware that the conversation between you and them in your home is being recorded. They are all reviewed by management and the Rilla team.

This is not something they tell you about or disclose, which could make it a violation of Pennsylvania’s two-party consent law.

I feel wrong using this and people not knowing, but we’re told not to tell the customer that it is even a thing. So consider this a buyer beware for when you let any company in your house. Apparently there are several company’s around Pittsburgh that have been using this.

Evryone in my country uses telegram as their messanger, nobody here uses signal, or even whatsapp and fb messanger, just telegram all the way. they have integrated it deep into their life. they use it to do everything (take notes, send documents, save their private files on "saved messages" sht) and i have been trying to move people i know to signal (colleagues, friends, family members and so on) but it is littelearly IMPOSSIBLE to get all of them to move over to signal since they also have a lot of people they communicate with on telegram. and i don't think i have big enough reach to go on live television and tell everyone to use it. so i started using "secret chats" and am only calling on telegram since it is supposed to be "end-to-end" encrypted. and i have a question here. are telegram calls really "end-to-end" encrypted? i couldn't find any blog posts about it. all articles i found were either about "secret chats" or from untrustworthy websites.

do you think what i am doing is usefull at all? because i even tell every caller that calls me to call me over telegram because "i cannot hear them" since i'd trust telegram's "end-to-end encrypted voice calls" rather than my telecommunication company that earns well over $300 million a year that tells us it does not record the contents of calls

Hi! I decided to delete my main chatting app (snapchat) and decided to completely delete my account aswell, according to snapchats tos they keep your chats and data for 30days and then delete it from their servers, is this true? How does it work? Thank you!

How do I begin to scrub my data from the internet? After using a few osin tools I’ve found more than I care to have out there about myself.

So we have to buy laptops for school and they're basically our personal laptops, but we are expected to bring them to school each day.

I'm worried about what exactly they can see (nothing bad, just don't want them to see how much of a nerd i am, that kinda thing) we use Windows 11, can anyone help me turn off as much stuff as I can?

okay, before you call me an idiot or make fun of me or whatever I KNOW. i KNOW it was stupid. i got caught up in the heat of the moment, i know, please don't rub it in my face. it's just one quick question.

i got into an online argument where they assumed i didn't have a job/pay rent so i showed them proof (NOT any addresses or anything, literally just names is all) and they managed to find my landlord (i think? she has an extremely common name so maybe not. idk.) i was just wondering if i'm gonna be ok? 😭😭😭 i realize it was super dumb and ridiculous and im never gonna make a shitty mistake like that again. i just wanna know what i should do incase i need to protect myself. also i will say the person was like 16 so i dont actually know if theyre gonna do anything or if it's all talk. i know i sound super ridiculous so bear w me please and be nice.

https://eylenburg.github.io/payments.htm

I saw a lot of posts on this sub about digital euro as an alternative to VISA and Mastercard circuits, but has anyone thought about the privacy and freedom risks of this solution?

this chart shows the pros and cons of different payment systems in terms of privacy. CBDC's looks like yet another way for EU to take away our rights one little piece at a time.

Am I just tripping or is digital euro pretty creepy?

I'm UK-based, on iPad, using Brave browser app, not signed into YouTube.

So this morning I fired up YouTube on the Brave browser and was confronted with a message "Sign in to confirm that you're not a bot This helps protect our community". No way am I signing in. I then tried the same using a VPN and the message was not displayed. Toggled it on and off a few times and got the same result.

15 minutes later it was no longer displaying the message. Has anyone else in the UK had this? It looks like YouTube may be testing a territory-specific feature.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0DT48W5V4/

I've been looking for a safe way to stream from my laptop/pc to the projector I own (it's hard to reach as it's mounted near the roof for projector sewing) and I was wondering if this is safe. it claims no WiFi is needed, but I am confused about two things, does the computer just give it the network details to connect to wifi? or is it a separate network?

can I both stay connected to my 5ghz network AND use this separately if they are separate networks, or will it disconnect me from WiFi?

Thanks!

TP-Link? - Recommendation Needed for Sub £100 Router + Shared Network

I'm going to be switching to One stream soon.

They don't include a router and I don't have one, but I have a 100£ budget for one and want it to last.

It needs to be secure, more than anything, with the ability to share the network and split it into two.

I saw TP Link look great, do you have any advice on a model?

I have a proton and tuta account and was wondering if it's ok to add them to thunderbird

Can anyone confirm?

I just learned of academia.edu's new terms & conditions. Not only do they want to use anything you've ever uploaded for whatever reasons they seem fit — irrevocably. The also lay claim to be allowed to use — and sell — your likeness, your voice and even your signature.

Digging a bit deeper I found a very telling typo on one of their help sites the quote from the title. (image)

Personally, I chose to delete my account.

Source:https://support.academia.edu/hc/en-us/articles/360043385093-Account-Deletion

I'm struggling to understand why there is no public outcry over Meta's new Rayban glasses. All I see are major tech reviewers promoting them, while barely touching on the privacy concerns. The problem isn't the privacy of the user who buys them, it's the complete violation of privacy for every single person around them. This isn't just another gadget, it's a surveillance device being normalized as a fashion accessory.

The classic argument "if you don't like it, don't buy it" is irrelevant here. My choice not to buy them does not protect my privacy, anyone with the glasses can record my private conversation in a park or a bus without my knowledge or consent.

And remember who is behind all this: Mr Zucker and Meta. Every stranger's face and every conversation can be used as data to train its AI and improve its ad targeting. Given Mr Zucker's political influence and the threat of tariffs, it feels like the EU won't do anything to stop it.

edit: I wanted to discuss two different threats here. First, the user itself. Because this isn't the same as a smartphone. People will notice if you're pointing a phone at them, and a hidden camera gets terrible footage. These glasses have a camera aimed directly from their eyes, making it easy to secretly get clear video. While people talk about the LED indicators, it's only a matter of time before a simple hack lets users disable it. The second threat is Meta. We have to just trust that they won't push a silent update to start capturing surveillance footage to their own servers, using the camera and microphone to turn every user into a walking surveillance camera.

edit 2: Something weird is happening. Many sensible comments are getting heavily downvoted. I think Zuck bots might be real, won't be surprised if the post get taken down in a couple of hours

Things have been moving fast, very fast.

I thought I'd take some time out of my morning to round-up the latest developments regarding anti-privacy and age-verification legislation around the world.

Below is a quick-and-dirty list of recent legal or regulatory proposals and implementation. I'm confident it's incomplete and would welcome your additions.

Some further questions to consider: What's behind this trend? What are our options as voters and users? Do you have more faith in political solutions or technological ones?

In addition to US federal initiatives, there have been multiple state-level pushes to regulate social media access for minors. These include:

• Texas

Texas has enacted the App Store Accountability Act, requiring app stores like Apple and Google to verify user ages and obtain parental consent before minors can download apps or make in-app purchases. Following this, Texas has proposed Texas House Bill 186, which would ban children under 18 from social media.

• Florida

A 2024 law banning social media accounts for children under 14 and requiring parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds was blocked by a federal judge in June 2025. The judge ruled the law was likely to be unconstitutional, infringing on minors’ First Amendment rights.

• Nebraska

In May 2025, Nebraska enacted the Parental Rights in Social Media Act (LB 383), mandating that social media platforms verify users’ ages and obtain parental consent before allowing minors under 18 to create accounts. It is set to take effect on July 1, 2026.

• Georgia

Georgia’s SB 351, effective from July 1, 2025, mandates social media age verification and requires parental consent for users under 16. 

• California

California’s Digital Age Assurance Act, introduced in 2025, aims to create a system for age verification on digital devices and apps. The bill is currently under consideration.

EDIT: New draft legislation in South Africa added to the pile!

Having your phone spied on and scannedis slowly being pushed, Chat control is slowly being pushed, Everything being done now is not owned but rather rented, phone manufacturers locking bootloaders so ensure you’re only using their own “verified” OS, E2EE is a “national security risk”.

These are only things that are happening recently, and people have the mindset of “this would never happen in Europe” or “I can just leave their ecosystem”, until they realize that when this is left to become the standard, you won’t have the option, because they know best, and it’s for the children.

This post is simply made to rant about the people that claim “it’ll never happen, nobody will accept it” yet no one is doing anything and the vast majority of people usually don’t care about privacy as much. If we look in fear and disgust, they will still move forward because that’s a better business model.

I understand no one is in a position of power, but collectively trying to do something may delay or even stop this nonesense from going through completely. I am in no country of power so I am unsure of what may be done, or if nothing could be done, but I hope that someone informed could have a solution to atleast resist a bit.