this post was submitted on 01 Aug 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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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/34006757

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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 126 points 1 week ago (11 children)

Stop using the Internet. Seriously.

I already only used open source products for decades now, and the Internet is just a network, you can use different networks, different protocols if you want, even embedded on current Internet protocols, or maybe use even something that completely sidesteps the Internet

Either way, the Internet has mostly been a failure

[–] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 25 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I dont mind if its implemented like it has been in germany for a while with eID. With an open source desktop or mobile app that uses NFC to talk to your ID and can be used to verify your age online to a 3rd party without leaking your birthday or any other personal info to them.

I dont know why there is so much screaming about age verification going on when these cryptographically provable anonymous systems already exist. Remember that "stop killing games" EU campaign with a million signatures? That also used exactly this system.

I would prefer not having any verification, but as that is not gonna happen at this point, i think its more important to focus on HOW to implement it. I dont understand why these companies like discord arent being forced to use these existing verification systems. Those arent legally provable at all so why arent they being sued for this?

[–] Dr_Vindaloo@lemmy.ml 20 points 1 week ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

It's very unlikely that most states will use a truly open source solution, especially when big tech makes it so easy not to. Case in point: https://github.com/eu-digital-identity-wallet/av-doc-technical-specification/discussions/19

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 days ago

If they don't they will make it very attractive for people to just ignore those age checked sites and build their own protocols that do work

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[–] dan1101@lemmy.world 87 points 1 week ago

Stop using any sites that require ID.

[–] eager_eagle@lemmy.world 75 points 1 week ago

the internet won't ask shit, specific websites will, which can and should be avoided

[–] LemmyThinkAboutThat@lemmy.myserv.one 59 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (16 children)

Stop using any sites that require ID.

Ditto. Also:

  • Try to use Memoji to make fake ID
  • Go to the mall =O
  • Go to the library
  • Go to the brick and mortar places I used to visit before getting everything online (eg. bank, fam owned businesses)
  • Talk to people instead of AI (going to practice that this weekend)
  • Go for a walk outside instead of updating the firmware on treadmill
  • Buy stamps! (and stationery, no more ecards or evites)
  • Learn to plant food in addition to flowers
  • Use iPhone to make phone calls
  • Maybe buy a newspaper… maybe
  • Use my cookbooks more (after I dust them off)
  • Think of a new name/alias(es) for myself and start acting the part

…just to name a few.

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[–] gravitywell@sh.itjust.works 48 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (5 children)

I'll continue to not ask for ID and run my own services open to anyone and everyone.

[–] Aetherion@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

Cool project! :D

[–] Aetherion@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

wow this is a really cool project

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Hope that this will completely kill the corporate Internet and switch to exclusively using FOSS federated or decentralized services for everything.

[–] segfault11@hexbear.net 46 points 1 week ago (3 children)
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[–] asudox@lemmy.asudox.dev 40 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I will leave the internet and seek alternatives.

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[–] SaneMartigan@aussie.zone 36 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

I'll avoid the ID demanding sites. Feels similar to how I never got into iPods because I didn't like iTunes, mp3 players still happened.

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[–] Hotzilla@sopuli.xyz 32 points 1 week ago
[–] appropriateghost@lemmy.ml 32 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I've gone long years without using any social media associated to my identity, as many others do, and i'll eat my cooked shirt if I start thinking, "hey sure why not let me into this shitty internet".

I'll be fine without using the internet if it comes down to it, at that point it'd be a liability. Dinosaurs think they can control the internet which is a hilarious proposition in the first place.

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[–] TheGuyTM3@lemmy.ml 29 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

If you need your id to access internet: not use it anymore, selfhosting go brrr

If you need your id for all content-sharing websites like social media or microblogging: return back to good ol webrings and static websites. Can't kill the web on its core principles. No algorithms, pure passion and creativity.

[–] Metz@lemmy.world 27 points 1 week ago (2 children)

We should really start concentrating more on decentralization.

Take Freifunk as example and similar projects.

What we need is a user-run private alternative to the internet. Wireless mesh networks are a very interesting step in that direction.

As long the infrastructure is owned by the government and companies, we will never be really free.

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[–] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 25 points 1 week ago

I guess I'll start pirating things like local news, weather forecasts, and garbage pickup schedules.

In the meantime, I'll continue to self-host what I can, de-couple from online services, and find alternatives to get information from.

[–] JTskulk@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week ago

Continue to not give it, what do you mean?

[–] MTK@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Honestly, back off. The more tech literate I get, the less tech I want in my life.

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[–] Jason2357@lemmy.ca 22 points 1 week ago

Not much changes. This will affect the commercial web, but I consider that the commercial web’s polish to be not really worth the privacy invasion before this. All the small web/fediverse/indie web/open source/Free/gemini/gopher/irc/ whatever alternative stuff is plenty to keep me happy, despite always being clunkier. It’s good enough.

[–] Widdershins@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago

I'll start by disabling Javascript and see how far that gets me

[–] utopiah@lemmy.ml 21 points 1 week ago (4 children)
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[–] Rom@hexbear.net 20 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I am going to go on the internet and tell lies about my identity

[–] InternetLefty@hexbear.net 20 points 1 week ago

I will just work around it. Unless they overhaul some very low level networking stuff, it will be hard to keep us from sites like hexbear

[–] Luci@lemmy.ca 19 points 1 week ago

I've been planing on going outside, this might just be the kick I need

I lived great before the Internet, I'll live just as great after it's gone.

[–] Cevilia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 points 1 week ago

As online spaces start to demand I dox myself, I will remove myself from those online spaces (see: Reddit). If that means I ultimately leave the internet as a whole, then so be it.

[–] Mike_Hunt@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)
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[–] Resistai@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Pixel phone running Calyx, VPN, physical maps, second name, second phone number, leaving most platforms, trying to take my people with me

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[–] banazir@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I would like to think I would just stop using the Internet, or at least adopt a protocol like Gemini. How that would work exactly is hard to say, since the Internet is almost mandatory these days. Still, you have to be willing to inconvenience yourself to maintain at least some control on privacy and security online.

[–] Aetherion@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

You opened me up to a whole new world with Gemini. I think we need to spread the word about this more. Thanks so much. <3

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[–] mvirts@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago

Pretend it's 1995 before I had Internet access

[–] AnnaFrankfurter@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 week ago (4 children)
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[–] 9tr6gyp3@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago

Tor Network.
I2P.
Autonomi.

[–] yonderbarn@lazysoci.al 14 points 1 week ago

As of now I only visit a handful of privacy respecting sites on a regular basis. For all others I use web archive links rather than actually visiting the site.

[–] it_depends_man@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago

Hard to say.

Sounds like the alternatives are to suck it up, leave the country for somewhere that isn't the case yet, stop using the internet...

There definitely is a line where requiring nonsense is more effort than it is worth. That line has already definitely been crossed by "news media". The quality of articles and interviews is so abysmal, that any hear say you get over three rebounds over social media is still somehow equal to the original bad source.

Social media is on the edge. I don't expect to have a serious discussion on facebook or twitter, that's why I don't go there. If it's easier to hang out in a bar near a library to hope someone worth talking to walks in or something like that. That will be the thing to do.

And also, that line will probably just never be actually crossed for internet platforms like amazon or alibaba. Shipping and ordering things online is absurdly convenient compared to go to physical locations and them needing to have the thing stocked, etc..

Most of (open source) software is already built in a way that could be taken offline completely. Internet is just a fast and easy delivery mechanism, but carrying USB sticks is extremely viable for getting code from A to B

And for entertainment, I can honestly just go back to reading books. It's not the total information super highway, but it would be something.

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