how seriously do you take your data privacy?

title. are you one of those people who does everything they can to avoid the prying eyes of the likes of Google, Microsoft, etc? or do you feel resigned to the fact that you're being kept track of no matter what?

Pretty much the latter. You really cannot go online without someone seeing your data in some way/shape/form. Even with a VPN, your data is being sent somewhere, with someone to see.

I'm fully aware that my data is being used somehow, but I still make an active effort to mitigate the degree to which it's being harvested.

I have create a sandboxed email accounts if I need access to platforms that are known for data harvesting. This way, they aren't tied to any personal accounts, so I don't have to worry about targeted ads or anything of the like.

while i do say that i take my privacy somewhat seriously, i also consciously use Windows and use Google services, so.... eh. i guess part of me likes the convenience factor more.

I guess it's because I have always been a person of transparency, it's probably why I couldn't care less about which data of mine is collected. It's not like I have anything to hide, either.

Tsutarja said:

I guess it's because I have always been a person of transparency, it's probably why I couldn't care less about which data of mine is collected. It's not like I have anything to hide, either.

Click to expand...

I have nothing to hide as well sans my access to email accounts. Had a few accounts stolen over the year. This was while using proper password creation and still being privacy minded.

I've had my bank account hacked before as well. My wife's desk/table in our office was not purchased by us. The hacker forgot to change the shopping address, so it just showed up one day. I was able to cancel all other transactions, but this one I couldn't.

I've basically resigned to the fact that somewhere, my data is being sent to someone. I don't really do much of anything anyone would want my data for, anyway. Especially since, apart from I guess e-mail addresses, I rarely input any sensitive data into my computer. There really isn't much that can be done to prevent it.

I do suppose, at the very least, some companies/websites give you the option to say no to having your data shared with them? I know that Pokemon Home (weird example on this particular thread, maybe) gives you an option to say no to having your data sent to their server, and you can still use the app normally.

i've played around with wanting to use a vpn before and using email providers that offer end to end encryption, but everytime i floated the idea around to myself i wondered what the ultimate end goal would be. nothing in my life would fundamentally change, and it's not like any site i visit is super sensitive anyway to use a vpn for.

i might get use one anyway because i feel it's better to have one, but i can't see myself using it that much.

I wonder how many people actually know what the true purpose of a VPN is. But I guess if you have all these youtubers telling you how totally and absolutely they're using x as their VPN service, which of couse is in no way whatsoever scripted and as such provided by the respective advertising company, then its easy to believe that VPNs main focus is privacy.

Instead of giving Google and co the data who then sell it to advertisers and who knows who, you're just sending it to another company. Sure, some may not sell. But even if they don't: the more popular these services become the more lucrative it is to leak that data. It's not a surefire way to protect privacy, it's the hope that they keep their promise.

/rant

Am I trying to avoid data leaks as much as possible? I care more about what I receive than what I send. Getting your email leaked and then flooded with spam? Possible, but it needs to get through my spam mail filter first. Getting advertisements in regards to my browsing history? Most likely, but it matters not if I don't see them. Getting personal information leaked? Well, even if I try to keep my information as few as possible, it is kinda hard to enforce this on friends, family and basically any person I meet. Anyone can randomly reveal something about me. And that something may be enough to infer something about me.

Seliph said:

I wonder how many people actually know what the true purpose of a VPN is. But I guess if you have all these youtubers telling you how totally and absolutely they're using x as their VPN service, which of couse is in no way whatsoever scripted and as such provided by the respective advertising company, then its easy to believe that VPNs main focus is privacy.

Click to expand...

you can enlighten us instead of being vague =P

colours said:

you can enlighten us instead of being vague =P

Click to expand...

But that would be no fun. Explore! Dx

It allows you access to private networks (that's what the "P" in VPN stands for). Let's assume you work for a company that's licensing a certain type of software. They bought a couple licenses and in order to keep track of how many are in use they set up a licensing server inside their private network. You leave the area with your laptop but still need access to the software. Therefore you VPN inside your companies network which then gives you access to the licensing server. When you start your app it can then ask for one of the free licenses and then you're able to use the program.

But even for the normal PC user a VPN can be useful. What you can do is set up a NAS server inside your own network. A NAS server is a place where you can put pretty much anything you want to put for storage purposes (e.g. videos or picture). Since it's inside your network it's not accessible from the outside. However, you can still VPN inside your own network and then get access to everything you've stored.

Yeah. I have to VPN into my university department's network when I need access to my data on their servers. Really helpful when working from home.

From what I can tell, the new common "privacy" use for VPNs seems to be masking the user's IP address. Not entirely certain if that's the goal though. It's basically using a side effect of the technology as a selling point.

They can have my data, it's not that interesting, and it won't do jack shit for anyone.

I have some unused emails, and i don't use email for much anyway.

God help anyone who hacks my PC or social media and finds all the the anime stuff.

companies using our data one way or another is unescapable (which is why i still use some parts of google) but i use to be a huge google boy, used everything. Now i just use google play music, play store, gmail, and youtube. switching to firefox and duckduckgo was one of the best decisions i ever made privacy wise. While they might not be perfect, its still more secure than using everything from google imo. Im not a big time privacy person, if you access the internet at all you are plainly giving away your privacy to any extent. OH and my daily driving email service is ProtonMail (ty zeta for showing me about it) much better privacy wise also, but i cant escape gmail all together sadly.

IDC when it comes to websites tracks which for ads. Actually it's a good thing lol I get ads I want. But when it comes to personal data or leaking... screw it. I would hate my personalities and datas will be leaked publicly, it's cuz I like to be anonymous.

I'm definitely trying to fight it, we've got several extensions on our browser to block of throw off data collection. I wish there wasn't this like learned helplessness surrounding data collection, it's really messed up that companies do that and can get away with it.

Ummmmm a mix
I know that I can't hide from Google, Microsoft, etc. I use a VPN sometimes, I use an alt email sometimes... Pokémon go thinks I'm over 100 years old (it doesn't really change anything but ... Eh.)

Seliph said:

I wonder how many people actually know what the true purpose of a VPN is. But I guess if you have all these youtubers telling you how totally and absolutely they're using x as their VPN service, which of couse is in no way whatsoever scripted and as such provided by the respective advertising company, then its easy to believe that VPNs main focus is privacy.

Instead of giving Google and co the data who then sell it to advertisers and who knows who, you're just sending it to another company. Sure, some may not sell. But even if they don't: the more popular these services become the more lucrative it is to leak that data. It's not a surefire way to protect privacy, it's the hope that they keep their promise.

Click to expand...

I agree with you, it's better to use TOR than VPN if you want to just protect your privacy.

I take data privacy seriously and you should do the same. Here's few tips:
- Use Firefox instead of Chrome, Chrome is Google's spyware browser.
- Block third-party cookies and install NoScript extension to Firefox.
- If you're using Windows 10, consider switching to Linux because Windows 10 is the spyware OS, it doesn't matter what browser you use as long as the OS isn't safe.
- Boycott Facebook, it uses a tracking cookie to follow what you do online.

To those who say that they have nothing to hide:

I first became fully aware (or at least more than just 'what's posted in the internet stays in the internet') of the extent by which we are tracked from watching a DuckDuckGo ad. So I installed it. But then I watched Social Dilemma (though not the whole thing) but it was enlightening to see the effect this tracking has. So I installed DuckDuckGo and try to use it more, even on my cellphone.

For people saying it doesn't affect you, just saying but it goes beyond what you post. And it's not just about your personal information or bank account. It's about your profile, your likes and dislikes, the music you listen, vids you watch, people you talk to. Maybe even places you visit. I don't know, but personally I'd rather not have that information sold to the highest bidder and be influenced by whatever reasons that info is sold if I can help it.

I just don't want personalized ads towards me is all. I care enough to use Firefox and fill it up with those anti tracking add ons. I also use duckduckgo as my search engine on my phone, and try to use Hermit instead of the native social apps as much as possible. I know it's doing little to mitigate the amount of data they collect on me, but I just wanna feel like I'm at least doing something to make sure they don't get everything.