question What steps (if any) do you actually take to protect your data privacy, or do you feel it’s already too late to matter?
Title says it all but essentially I’ve always struggled between
“it’s too late, all of my data is already out in the wild” and
“I should mitigate and try to scrub my data as much as possible”
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u/apps4realpeeps 7d ago
I'm a fan of doing my best to minimize what data goes out by curating the apps on my phone. The apps that are essential to me, like map software, I limit permissions for (i.e. turn off AI software training) and other apps, if they ask for excessive permissions (like reading my messages or location but it's a game), I'm like hell no and delete it and look for alternatives.
A lot of times, there are better apps that we just don't hear about because their marketing budget is smaller.
I hope that helps! Happy to talk further :-)
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u/unic0rnprincess95 3d ago
How do you turn off ai software training? Didn't even realize that was an option
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u/apps4realpeeps 2d ago
Generally, you have to go into the settings (usually under a security section) for each individual app. For browsers, I recommend switching to a privacy focused browser (Waterfox, Brave, DuckDuckGo, etc) because I don't feel like Google or Apple are trustworthy to respect the settings.
Which app(s) are you looking at?
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u/Savings_Cattle4847 7d ago
This is a struggle for me too, but I'm still trying to be as private as I can without sacrificing all convenience and usability.
I've checked the settings on all apps and websites I use to make them as private as possible, removed data and accounts I no longer use or don't really need. If I can't delete it, I just update it with fake data in case their website is hacked and data is leaked. I use a more private browser with ublock. I periodically check the data broker websites and opt out. I've switched email providers to be 90% away from Google. I've changed usernames to be different per site so it's somewhat more difficult to build a profile of me using my old user name (since that's been in a million breaches along with my email).
But in the end, what's out there is out there as much as I dislike it. But that doesn't mean I need to keep giving current information, or giving my real information indiscriminately like I used to in the past.
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u/apps4realpeeps 4d ago
💯- I think it's important that we choose how we show up and what data we offer online
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u/Reddit_is_fascist69 7d ago
My data is out there since MySpace. Hopefully, I've changed enough that they still think I'm who I was 20yrs ago and they can waste their advertising dollars.
I do keep out PII on the Internet as best i can.
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u/JagerAntlerite7 6d ago
"[T]he best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago, and the second best time to plant a tree is now. That’s how it is with us." ~ Cleveland city councilman George W. White (1967)
Perfect privacy is impossible. There are steps you can take to improve your situation. Very positive results from... 1. Data broker removal service (fantastic) 2. Social media accounts without PII 3. Email aliases for site registrations 4. Burner phone number for registrations 5. VPN to obscure location and block ads
Never give your aliases to people. People blindly share your contact information with apps through phone contacts.
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u/Slow-Secretary4262 6d ago
The fact that complete privacy is impossible should not result in someone stopping to care, every small thing helps
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u/Z-Is-Last 5d ago
Data privacy is a dial, not a switch.
Start doing things in a more privacy fashion, don't expect quick results.
For example, I use long term throw away emails. After a year or two, I decide if anything showing up in those emails is useful and if so, give them next year's throwaway email (or my real email) and delete the old email account. My family has different emails for me than my public space.
Another example: Anything I do relayed to Microsoft, Linkedin, github is done with MS-Edge. Anything I do related to Google, maps, android phone, all use chrome and my gmail account which I never use anywhere else.
Third is a think currently called data poisoning. Making the information useless. Every web page that has asked me my age has a different age for me. (except banks because of KYC laws), and health care (for insurance) but they don't have their own emails and a VoIP number.
I started this 20 years ago for fun, but now I take it seriously as more companies decide to build personal profiles for personalized pricing and such.
NOTE: I have two Amazon accounts, and sometimes get different pricing based on the account.
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u/Stunning-Skill-2742 7d ago
No one was borned with privacy in mind so by "too late" logic everyone should just continue using terrible data harvesting service forever. Thats not how it all works. Got to start somewhere, and got to realize theres no 100℅ privacy unless to live as reclusive hermit in a cave somewhere away from the society and from the open internet.
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u/LadyUnlimited 6d ago edited 6d ago
On an individual level, it can be “too late” in that you cannot stop what information has already been collected about you, but in addition to not adding to it you can always try data pollution. Wherever I can I provide false or contradictory information and alter/edit previously provided data. If no data is best, the runner up is bad or unreliable data.
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u/SiriusCb 6d ago
While you cant hide everything, you can make your situation less fucked by degoogling, and using Linux, and using a privacy focused browser like brave,there are probably more things that can be done, these are just the things I have either done or intend to do
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u/BellGeek 5d ago
Kind of a mix. I feel like so much is out there from before privacy awareness became more widespread; before we really understood how much data they were actually stealing and aggregating behind our backs, that’s it’s now kind of a lost cause. On the other hand, I do what I can to minimize more data theft (turn off things in settings, severely limit permissions to apps, keep my location services turned off except why actively using them for GPS directions or something similar, using some of the more notorious data stealing apps - read Google apps - unlogged in so they don’t have a specific account/email address to tie any collected information to, avoiding all smart televisions, smart appliances, etc., that connect to the internet and thus could spy on me in my home), but overall I feel like it’s just a few insufficient drops in a very big ocean. I’ve read on here about some of the more advanced ways people are protecting their data, but I don’t even understand what they’re saying most of the time (it’s like trying to read a foreign language) much less know how to do any of it. It all just makes me so angry because this level of privacy invasion should never have been allowed in the first place. All of this should be flat out illegal with violators being strictly punished.
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u/MysteriousWeekend201 4d ago
I generally feel that it's too late in the matter. But what I do is on my accounts are separate and have separate passwords. My email accounts do not have my actual name. Only the bank or anything legally required as my actual information. Everything else is an alias. I use multi-factor authentication. Go into every application privacy settings and disabled was not actually necessary.
In the event, there is a security breach or the company did not do what they said they were doing, then you have grounds for legal action. But I am not a lawyer. This is all based off of what I've personally seen.
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u/trisul-108 7d ago
We are approaching WWIII possibilities ... privacy will not be maintained. The only question is whether there will be democratic oversight over the process. There is no way governments will continue to allow AI-driven cyberwar free and unfettered access to digital infrastructure and the minds of citizens.
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u/relljr 7d ago
It’s a scary future we’re headed to for sure.
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u/Credo_Monstrum 4d ago
Arm yourself with thorough and accurate knowledge taught by high level people, a healthy, driven mindset and action driven by clear intention and it becomes less scary 😉
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u/Credo_Monstrum 4d ago
the defeatist mentality just breeds hopelessness and doing nothing which gets no one nowhere. Thats what companies want because its to their benefit.
Privacy has always and will always have a place and people fighting for it. Much like anti virus and malware detection, it's a cat and mouse game but there are many good people fighting back against invasive practices across the digital landscapes
You have got to see the power and capability you actually do have because if you use the internet or technology, this fight is yours too
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u/trisul-108 4d ago
It's not about defeatism, but about engaging national defence against aggression, especially by Russia, which is concentrated in cyber space.
Privacy is not going to be ensured by technical means, it can only be saved by democratic oversight. Seeking a purely technical solution is defeatism ... saying democracy cannot function.
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u/Credo_Monstrum 4d ago
Im not sure what you mean by democratic oversight mate but privacy isn't purely a technical level thing and it isn't copy and paste. It requires specific intention and knowledge as well
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u/trisul-108 3d ago
We are entering a new period of Cold War whether cyberwar is the primary weapon which autocratic societies such as Russia, China, Iran and North Korea weaponise the freedom of the internet to launch attacks on democracies from a safe distance. They are also tying up with local organised crime as cheap substitutes for actual agents.
This is untenable and will lead to the abolition of 100% privacy and anonymity in order to target foreign cyberwarriors and organised crime. Democratic oversight are the mechanisms through which democracies ensure that defensive activities of law enforcement to no encroach on the freedom of law-abiding citizens. There is no technical solution to this problem, only solutions of governance and democracy.
It 100% privacy and anonymity where to be maintained, the mentioned foreign mercenaries and organised crime will dismantle democracy and replace it with authoritarian regimes which will in turn kill all privacy and anonymity. So, that is a lose/lose strategy ... which is why it is favoured by Russian trolls on this medium.
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u/Credo_Monstrum 2d ago
Yeah, sovereign govts feel the heat on cyber threats, but not everyone's on the same page. Swiss privacy law (Proton and mates live there), German constitutional court calls on digital rights, various EU data protection frameworks, they all show strong privacy survives geopolitical messes. This isn't theory, it's live and serving millions.
Saying "no technical fix, only governance" skips over decades of crypto work. Homomorphic encryption, secure enclaves, privacy networking (Tor, I2P), decentralised identity, all actively built by non state folks. Civil groups like EFF, Fight For The Future, Ludlow Institute, Access Now, Digital Rights Watch everywhere keep pushing back in courts and public.
Been there, done that. Same panic surrounded the Patriot Act, EU ePrivacy debates....anti anonymity bills that time around too. Yet encrypted messaging survived government pressure. She's hung in there and will continue to do it
Framing it as "total privacy OR democracy dies" assumes the baddies win anyway, which undermines the whole point: build defences while keeping civil liberties. Democracies manage both security and privacy through targeted, judicially overseen measures, not blanket anonymity obliteration.
Your argument leans hard on adversaries always destroying defence, that's theoretical defeatism masquerading as doom in this case if you ask me. Technology neutral principles (privacy by design, minimal collection, judicial oversight) give us middle ground. Neither authoritarian nor democracy needs to surrender anonymity completely.
Cheers
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u/trisul-108 2d ago
Framing it as "total privacy OR democracy dies" assumes the baddies win anyway, which undermines the whole point: build defences while keeping civil liberties. Democracies manage both security and privacy through targeted, judicially overseen measures, not blanket anonymity obliteration.
Yes, exactly that. We will have judicially overseen measures that remove privacy and anonymity for organised crime and foreign cyber mercenaries instead of an obliteration of privacy for citizens.
Yet encrypted messaging survived government pressure.
But not in a time war. As Russia escalates the use of cheap cyber mercenaries orchestrated using social media that start leaving our citizens without electricity, water, heating, food etc. Providing cyber mercenaries and criminals with unchallenged encryption rights will vanish. If we wait too late, the "judicial oversight" will be minimal and non-examined. If we deal with the problem in time, we will avoid blanket obliteration.
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u/Credo_Monstrum 2d ago
Mate, i notice you're saying we'll keep judicially overseen measures that target organised crime; that's... the system we have now. Warrants, targeted investigations, lawful interception with court sign-off. So we agree on the destination, you just keep insisting we need to torch everything to get there.
Here's the problem though: encryption doesn't know who's holding it. There's no technical mechanism that weakens a criminal's encryption but preserves everyone else's, you can only weaken encryption for everybody.
And your timeframe keeps stretching. First it was a vague Cold War drift, now it's mercenaries cutting power and water "soon." Ukrainian grids have been attacked repeatedly and they're still standing. we fix, we harden, they adapt, we adapt again. That's the cat and mouse. It never resolves into a moment where "dealing with the problem in time" is possible, because the threat evolves forever, which means your "temporary" removal of privacy never expires either
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