Privacy

32784 readers

1015 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

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.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
Don't promote proprietary software
Try to keep things on topic
If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
Be nice :)

Related communities

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

What are some privacy mistakes you've made? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 2 days ago by Charger8232@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

31 comments fedilink hide all child comments

All of us have made privacy mistakes at some point in our privacy journeys. In an effort to help those earlier on in that journey, please share some of the mistakes you've made, and how you could have prevented it.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] monovergent@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 day ago

It's been quite a journey:

Posting accurate personal info to my Google+ account when I first signed up
Signing in to Google on my phone and browser
Using an Android phone from eBay of dubious origin
Sending confidential info via email
Using the same gmail address for everything
Signing up for things with my real info when it wasn't necessary
Handing out my phone number to loyalty programs
Running hacked game APKs without checking for malware
Using the User Agent Switcher extension on MS Edge, which was subsequently updated to include an infostealer
Using browser extensions of unknown provenance

How to avoid:

Ironically, Windows 10 started me on my privacy journey. Microsoft was in my face enough with privacy offenses that I began moving to Linux and investing time into my privacy.
Don't post unnecessary info to social media.
Never email confidential info.
Use a password manager, or at least some organized text file if you have an encrypted disk.
FOSS software is more available and user-friendly than ever, always look for a FOSS alternative.