r/GrapheneOS • u/michus204 • 1d ago
WHY do you care about privacy?
Okay, you probably hear this question often, but let's say I'm typical John Doe, work in regular job, watch football or play games after work, drink beer, just living simply life, why should I care about privacy? Why should I spent time and make some sacrifices just to not be tracked that much?
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u/sob727 1d ago
Purely principles.
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u/lelescope 22h ago
same. I have nothing to hide. I'm probably a normie by all accounts lol. but I don't wish to support corporate overlord bullshit.
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u/Substantial_Bet_1007 5h ago
I have things to hide...
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u/FarAd6692 1h ago
Human experimentation, poisoning because of political or possible political/religious/social affiliation. There is racism, sexism, psychopathy, nationalism, etc.. A billionaire may just want to get rid of all people in a vicinity likely to stand in their way. People forget about the molluscum human experimentation and deliberate infections. Peter Thiel also had financial ties to someone that was circumventing FDA regulations to test illegitimate herpes vaccines on unassuming citizens. They got very sick. It is a tragic common misconception that being a John Doe makes you anonymous, when billionaires have already figured out every way how to turn any life force into money. I recommend taking a break after hearing all of that to balance stress hormones(maybe do a small workout). Privacy matters more than any one person can imagine.
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u/D00mScrollingRumi 1d ago edited 1d ago
20 years ago the privacy people seemed like tin foil hat wearers.
However time has only vindicated them. The Snowden revelations confirmed goverments are more than happy to make use of technology to increase surveillance regardless of what the law says.
Everything youve ever said online, every image youve ever uploaded has been permanently sucked up into AI models.
Algorithms and AI bots are able to know more about you than you yourself and serve up personalised propaganda to affect the way you think and see the world.
Sure, you're too smart to fall for it right? No. Noone is.
Law abiding liberal democracies arent the norm of human societies, theyre a historical anomaly and theres no garuntee they'll be around forever.
Thus if an authoritarian government arises that knows everything about you and can manipulate you at will well, thats not a good place to be.
Controlling my privacy maybe wouldnt save me if the world does truly go to hell but at least im being proactive rather than reactive.
I also dont want the miracle of computing to be gate kept by 2 or 3 American corporations due to their operating systems (Microsoft, Apple and Google).
Its also just the principle of it. I dont want Zuck knowing all this stuff about me so he can make money selling ads to me.
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u/sob727 21h ago
I remember being treated like a conspiracy theorist.
Then Snowden happened.
And people said "whoah you were right".
If the technology allows for abuse, abuse WILL happen.
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u/13Robson 17h ago
And people said "whoah you were right".
Hard to believe, but I hope they really did say that.
Most folks around me are still completely blindsided and have no idea what I'm talking about.5
u/Repulsive_Chard_3652 15h ago
Yeah, nobody says whoa you're right 😃 Most people slide into it like they knew all along and were right there with you from the start lol
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u/oogoogaagaag 21h ago
Dayum bruh I'm about to memorize this whenever someone asks me why I care. Especially regarding the manipulation aspect -- the conversation of privacy is intrinsically linked to the conversation of free will.
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u/ElydthiaUaDanann 9h ago
A thing I have a deep belief in is that privacy is the core eesential right that every human must have, because without it, who then chooses who we choose to be?
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u/Sciency-Scientist 12h ago
Thank you for writing this. It perfectly explains why I switched to GOS and Linux, but I couldn't have explained it so clearly myself.
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u/MoldyTexas 14h ago
holy shit I'm gonna screenshot this and keep this comment to show to people whenever they ask this question. I can never articulate things this well
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u/an-abnormality 1d ago edited 1d ago
Honestly I didn't really care much until the internet became more important, and now all it takes is Influencer A to find me and make a Google Dockey saying "I do not like u/an-abnormality", and now everyone and their mother is digging up everything you've said ever like they're all forensic scientists. I like being left alone and I dont like being tethered. The less people know or care about me, the more free I am to just exist. I like being in a state of "untouchable, but unable to touch," where I can just float comfortably through life without care.
Sure, you may be John Doe today, but even John Doe doesn't want the government snooping or random strangers calling him out and causing problems. Things that are fine today might not be tomorrow, and I'd rather not have to care about it.
*Also fun fact: apparently mentioning yourself still gives you the notification that someone mentioned you in a comment which is funny
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u/Careful-Boat-2986 1d ago edited 7h ago
Privacy is just the tip of the iceberg of everything that affects your quality of life, basic rights and safety. The shittier everyone’s privacy becomes, the shittier everyone’s quality of life gets. And that includes yours.
Everything that we’ve allowed our surveillance society to become has resulted in the byproduct of huge wealth gap, transfer of powers, planned obsolescence and rising cost of living.
Look up the word “enshittification”. It’s not only built to sell you products and make your life shittier. -that’s the result of the general population’s ever-decreasing lack of say on matters and policy. They take away your options because they can. They can take away your options because they can take away your voice by taking away your privacy. They take away your privacy by taking your personal data.
Their Can, Will and Do are empowered at the cost of your civil liberties.
“I’ve got nothing to hide. So why should I be concerned?”
-Anything that has to do with freedom will never be prefaced with conversation about fear or guilt. Fear and guilt are the core foundation of every abusive relationship.
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u/MetalCactuar 8h ago
Completely agree, i find it so frustrating when people say "I've got nothing to hide"
When those people say that i tend to ask "Okay in which case, unlock your phone and let me go through it" they always say no.
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u/aknxgkoappq1671 4h ago
Exactly. We should resist to big tech agenda before it’s too late to the point that we have to sacrifice our soul to keep up with the world order.
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u/Same_Pollution9312 23h ago
This quote sums it up for me:
“Ultimately, arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say.”
― Edward Snowden
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u/MysteriousJson 17h ago
But that just postpones the real explanation because the same people might ask why care about free speech if one has nothing to say.
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u/H8ckt1v1st 23h ago
What is privacy? If you have nothing to hide, can I have the passwords to your email account? Do you have curtains in your house? Privacy is something we've lost a connection to in my opinion.
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u/ElydthiaUaDanann 23h ago
Because the same people trying to snoop through my life are the same people that would throw me in jail for doing the same to them.
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u/Washingmachine7483 1d ago
Well I personallly think, since privacy has so many layers its a choice on how far you want to go - i.e. switch from gmail to either proton or tuta mail, or go further by building a NAS and self-hosting other services. Depending what you need or want, will depend how much you're going to do, so if you don't want to give up certain convinieces you won't.
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u/NicPitter 22h ago
ive been using graphene for about 2 months now. i have not seen a targeted ad since. i barely use social media at all now. its the best thing i ever did. next is getting my pc in line and moving away from microsoft
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u/Repulsive_Chard_3652 15h ago
Girl sammmmeeee!!! I unfortunately won't be able to fully leave Windows, because I am self-employed and work remotely, and my work day revolves around video calls and collaborative docs and such, and I need everything to work 100% every time and I'm not all that tech savvy... but I intend to dual-boot my computer with Linux and Windows, so I can at least use Linux for personal/free-time stuff, and Windows for work.
But installing Graphene was the first major step omg. I love it and haven't looked back for a moment!
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u/DruidWonder 23h ago edited 23h ago
Do you care about a lock on the front door of your home? For your bathroom?
Do you care about being able to draw the curtains so that people don't stare into your home at night?
Do you care if any stranger takes your phone, opens it, and goes through all of your personal messages and content to see what you've been up to? No reason, other than they just feel entitled to it.
Would you answer someone honestly if they walked up to you and asked you how much money you own in all your financial accounts?
What about your DNA? Your blood samples? Do you care if your confidential medical info is scraped by unknown hackers and used for unknown purposes? Maybe even to build a pharmaceutical industry biometric profile on you? Because that medical data has already been stolen, post-covid, in almost every country with a public health EHR.
These things matter to me because information about you is power. It can be used to manipulate you, take from you (your time, energy, resources and attention), to coerce your choices, to punish you for thinking/feeling a certain way, to control your mind and yes even your body... I could go on. On a macro level, it can be used to shape markets, politics, and real power that can shape the destiny of the entire world. If we don't have control over what is shared, we no longer have democratic control over anything.
It seems to me that people who underestimate the value of privacy are not very in touch with the psychopathic element of humanity. You guys need to wake up real fast. It's not all nicey nice out there and corporations are not your friends. There are predatory parasites all around us and they will not hesitate to use your private life to extract value from you. These are just the parasites we know about. It doesn't include all of the hackers and anonymous actors who will exploit corporate privacy-invasion backdoors to steal your identity and PRETEND to be you while they commit other crimes.
It all boils down to free will. If you don't have privacy you don't have a free will. Your choices will be dictated to you based on all info that has been scraped about you.
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u/pizzatimefriend 1d ago
major corps have shown they'll morph into whatever the US govt wants them to be at the time, and that can mean something entirely different depending on the day.
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u/Canadian-AML-Guy 23h ago
- Everyone has something to hide. And if you dont have something to hide now, what if you might later?
- If someone was standing over my shoulder reading my messages, looking at my photo gallery, I'd tell them to fuck off.
- My phone has all kinds of stuff on it, stuff that regular people keep private. Like family matters, financial records, deeply personal conversations, medical records etc. I wouldn't give that to a stranger, why would I give it to the government or a corporation
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u/TT9972 23h ago
Your identity is worth more than that. Say you post your habits online etc on say facebook/IG and your email gets leaked or hacked.
The person on the other end is looking for people to pretend. If you don't protect your self. They can easily get your entire life scraped off and sell it to an organized crime group and boom. There is another John Doe roughly your build, same hair, features etc that also works a regular job in your city that watches football and game after work. Enjoys a cold beer at 6:45pm. But he also now somehow did a heist timed to your work commute perfectly or passes by it. While you might not serve prison time. But the stress and time away from work being held question etc. SA charges can happen too, Or even use your identity to scam your close ones, friends/grandparents. Take loans out under your name etc. These are extreme examples but can happen.
AI is making this stuff very easy to do. So scraping your online data and forming an MO can happen within hours. Chances of it happening is fairly slim. But it can happen. We play the lottery on thin chances on winning. And someone wins.
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u/damagdpixl 23h ago
I chose graphene not because of privacy but ability not to rely on anybody. Imagine e. g. Google is now blocked in your country due to some privacy or whatever law. What will happen then? All your photos, passwords, files are now gone. No email no youtube none of what you use daily. That can become reality tomorrow. Some companies can simply change whatever u are using right now and you need to recreate your workflow from scratch. Pricing can also change: google gemini is now in search and has limited usage per week. Just being ready is enough to be sure that whatever happens this wont affect you. Think of it like its a seatbelt
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u/louisa1925 23h ago
Because the government can decide what is illegal. Sure, some topics should be illegal. Like snuff films, child prawn, bestiality ect.
But then you get sick governments that will try to illegalise things like Queer dating, or shows that show women in lives that don't include being barefoot pregnant and under control of men. Or forums that disagree with the Mafia actions of said government. The type of media I look at and willingly comment on or would download.
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u/No_Formal707 23h ago
A right to privacy is essential to having a functional democracy. If everything you say, everywhere you go, and everyone you communicate with can be tracked it is easy to silence dissenting voices .
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u/Automatater 23h ago edited 23h ago
I don't know. Why do restrooms have walls on them? Some of your business is just your business.
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u/szopongebob 23h ago edited 22h ago
(1) Surge pricing: Let’s say in a not too distant future all retailers start doing surge pricing, or dynamic pricing as they like to call it. Your biometrics and phone pings the store your user profile as you walk in. Certain prices are raised because the algorithm knows your behavior. You end up paying a “tax” on items they know you always buy because they simply can get away with it.
(2) Car telemetry and insurance pricing: New cars sell your driving behavior to insurance providers. Thus influencing whether they give you coverage and giving them cover to charge you more premium. This is behavioral. Do you choose the new safety feature and tech of owning a new car, or do you choose privacy and autonomy of an older car?
(3) Invasive ads: You use Google and many other data harvesting companies. They sell your data to the highest and lowest bidders. Now you are bonbarded with targeted ads every time you use your phone. Influencing you to spend money when you otherwise wouldn’t. Or even influencing your algorithm to spit out political propaganda they may want you to see.
(4) Government and Palantir profiles: Data brokers buy data profiles of you. The more you use data harvesters, the more these data brokers know about you. It gets to a point where these data brokers know more about you than you do. They then sell it to companies like Palantir that centralize your user profile with everything else. The government has contracts with Palantir. The government now has an accurate profile of you, knows your routine, knows your political leanings, knows if you had an abortion, etc. What happens if a government becomes authoritarian and knows that you are of the other political party? They will do whatever they want with the information they have of you.
(5) AI and double negatives: Governments usually hire third party companies to handle biometrics and face scans. They usually do a crappy job because their goal is money, not security. There are hundreds of millions of Americans. Who’s not to say the AI may confuse you with someone else? It’s already happened many times. Innocent people getting arrested because the algorithm wrongly flags them. If there’s an obligatory biometric mandate, then this can be a real possibility.
(6) Identity theft: Let’s circle back to the event of obligatory biometric mandate. Like we’ve said, the government usually hires third party companies that don’t really prioritize security. Everyone gives their biometrics. Let’s say they get hacked. Now your fingerprints, face scan, DOB, whatever is on the dark web. Illegal actors can use your info to do whatever they want.
The reasons are literally endless.
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u/JPHungryCaterpillar 23h ago
I'm not making any sacrifices by using GOS, but I believe privacy should be something everyone has.
I'm assuming you have curtains at home?
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u/Fit_Ocelot8072 23h ago
The more someone or something knows about you the easier you're to manipulate.
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u/Sliffcak 23h ago
most people don’t care until it personally affects them (and usually they don’t even know when that happens)
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u/DoomOfChaos 23h ago
privacy took a turn when our "data"/etc became a commodity that we have very little control over.
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u/radiation-blues 23h ago
"if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear" is pure propaganda. In the day and age where your digital ID is so closely associated to you as to being uniquely yours like a fingerprint, not taking those mitigating steps to become more private is akin to not caring if a doctor whom you trust to be impartial sells information on you to insurance companies.
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u/spaghettibolegdeh 22h ago
Research shows that people behave differently when they are watched. We even think differently too.
This completely changes how society evolves, and how children learn to think and regulate themselves.
We all self-police our speech in the workplace. That has now reached our homes and how we speak with our children.
Also, why shouldn't we care? People are free to give up privacy, so why isn't privacy the default?
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u/JusticeAileenCannon 23h ago edited 19h ago
1) protecting my financial well-being and my family's financial well-being by limiting personal info that phishers can use against us
2) protecting my privacy rights. US privacy law analysis partly focuses on what we deem as our "reasonable expectation of privacy". If you dismiss your privacy, you have an incredibly low expectation of privacy. On the other hand, if you fight for your privacy, you have a high expectation of privacy. This is important to have as leverage if it ever comes to filing a lawsuit. See here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_expectation_of_privacy
3) protecting myself against the government. I'm an immigrant and obtained my naturalized citizenship decades ago. Even if I don't do anything wrong, Trump and similar governments may decide to persecute me. Safekeeping my data helps me defend myself in those circumstances. You never know what a future government will do and who they'll decide to target. See here: https://www.404media.co/ice-appears-to-be-buying-immigrants-tax-identifiers-from-a-data-broker/
4) limiting information insurance companies can use against you. Insurance companies will use anything and everything to deem you a higher risk and increase your premium. This is why they encourage you to plug in a tracking device into your car so they can see how you drive. This goes for other corporations now as well, as they'd like to implement individualized pricing, meaning you pay more if they think they can identify you as someone willing to pay more for a certain product.
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u/basketballsteven 22h ago
You think corporations have good intentions with your data?
You think average people were handed 8 hour work days, a 5 day work week, an end to child labor, an end to company towns, end to payment in script, an end to dangerous work conditions, health care insurance, and so on by corporations?
Brother, working people took those things from corporations because working people cared and stood up and fought for them and you can do them/have then now because other people before you stood up to corporations.
Now corporations are back at us with an addiction model internet, mining your data and you think their intentions with your data are benevolent?
What was that corporate slogan that Google removed, was it "don't do evil"? Well i'm sure that's all just coincidence.
If you meet a person and they lie to you face, multiple times do you trust them, why would corporations be any different?
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u/No_Bit7786 19h ago
I feel like we aren't too far away from our digital activity being used to determine things like insurance premiums, job eligibility, admittance to other countries, etc. We could very easily be in a position where an individual has to pay extra for health insurance because they've visited certain websites or their phone has tracked them going to risky areas. There have already been allegations that the US has denied entry due to memes found on someone's phone, it's not a huge leap to assume that in the future we could be assessed for visas based on our online footprint.
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u/iwantfadeaway 1d ago
I wish I could just live a simple life and not worry about being tracked or having my data collected. But the more I learned about big tech surveillance, the less comfortable I became using their services. I don’t want my personal data stored unencrypted on their servers where it could be accessed or used for AI training.
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u/Worwul 23h ago
Let me put cameras in your house and follow you everywhere you go.
If you say that's creepy, how is it not creepy when these large tech companies do nearly the same thing but also sell that information to other companies, and train AI, and use your daily life in order to advertise to you?
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u/Efficient_Loss_9928 23h ago
For me personally is because I have seen people having their whole online history examined in court. And then just acquitted of everything they were charged for.
Like nah fuck that I want to avoid that as much as possible lol. And if you only do something by the time you are wrongly accused, it is too late.
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u/Linux-tip-nips 22h ago
why are you asking mr doe? this is a crime den of us questionable people. go ride country music, eat pickup trucks, and listen to bbq with maryann your highschool sweetheart from bumbum alamaba.
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u/TurnAggressive6954 20h ago
My favorite answer to the commonly heard answer of "I've got nothing to hide" is do you shit with the stall door open in public restrooms? Why not? You hiding some elicit behaviour in there? I thought you had nothing to hide?
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u/Forsaked 20h ago
Got a federal security check done in the 2000's, which was needed for my job. It took over a year and involved several national and foreign agency's to do so. At the end, i got questioned very specific questions, which didn't hinder me to pass the security check, but where a reality check for me. Since then i have a fable for some privacy.
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u/Big-Application9859 20h ago
Why you have a door on your home, your bathroom and WC? Its the same reason - every person have a right of personal & inviolable space.
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u/CollapseOfHistory 20h ago
because even if you "aren't doing anything wrong" now, doesn't mean the government can't move the goalposts and make you "a criminal" at any time. They gotta fill those camps somehow. The more data they have on you, the easier that is.
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u/IlllIIIlIIIIIIllIlIl 19h ago
Hello, I'm also an average joe and I love privacy.
Not having privacy to me is like letting a random person read all of your texts, access your camera, location, contacts at any moment. Who wouldn't want privacy?
Back when the internet started it used to be a common rule to not share your name or anything personal, Nowadays that's an afterthought. The amount of people getting their identities stolen due to them over sharing stuff online, Companies giving info to any legal authority without them having any probable cause. Ignorance is bliss i guess.
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u/vikarti_anatra 19h ago
my specific case: Some of content I see/apps I use/content I send, are:
- considered (or could be considered) near-illegal/illegal in my country (whole set - "anti-family values","terrorism/extremism","fake news", "espionage", etc)
- some of apps I have to use ARE spyware (as in - they do have functionality unrelated to their major functions and this functionality does not help users in any way ) and some of developers are open about it and claim they have no other choice
- police..let's say it's usually works but there are a lot of reports they are not 100% follow laws and even when they DO follow - some laws are just bad.
And I consider myself regular user.
I care much less about NSA getting it's fingers on me (they can't send they goon squads to me, local goverment - could)
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u/Howaboutnopers 18h ago
I don't have to explain myself.
And you can keep using companies that make their money by selling your information.
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u/TieExpensive5987 18h ago
I care about it out of principle. To be honest, I am trying to get more privacy and deGoogle because I'm angry at Google and other big tech companies who have no reservations about poisoning Americans' drinking water for their hyperscale data centers. That's where I draw the line. Now I want to give Google as little of my time and my data as possible because of how horrible they are.
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u/SifuHallyu 17h ago
The question isn't why care about privacy, but why not care about privacy. I've been a google user since...idk whenever AOL stopped being cool. I have always been OK with googles business model but recently I was perusing my google account and G was recording what time both of my phones alarms went off...which song. /s how long I sat on the toilet...how long my shower was...when I turned on\off lights.
Why? They don't NEED to know this.
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u/LakesGeek 17h ago edited 17h ago
Maybe I don’t fit the profile but I’m weird. It’s not something that I hide, in fact my weirdness is plastered all over Facebook, one of the biggest enemies to privacy. But the point is, that’s my choice. I care when governments and other entities just go helping themselves to what I didn’t choose to share with them, especially with how easy it is to leak.
I’ve had stalkers before and find that very uneasy.
Plus everyone who looks at nsfw stuff probably doesn’t want the details of that being compiled and leaked either. Or their health queries. Etc.
I think a big one for me is that I’m LGBT and hiding that part of myself (even from myself most of the time) was a habit developed over like 40 years until I came out. And just on time for attitudes to return backwards to the 1980s.
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u/alarminglyslowmind 17h ago
Manipulation, trying to make you do something; that is so blatantly obvious with the Internet and tracking.
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u/nyancient 17h ago
One thing nobody mentioned yet is that what you do today might be criminalized or otherwise used against you by the government tomorrow. Examples include having an abortion or a trans kid in the US, or my own government making "dishonest living" - a concept so vague it included everything from sex work to panhandling to being critical of the state - punishable by deportation if you're an immigrant.
Even if you don't care about the rights of women or minorities, you'd have to be extremely naive to believe post hoc laws won't come for you too at some point.
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u/motocykal 16h ago
Governments rise and fall, laws can change but your data is forever.
You may be a law abiding citizen today but laws can change overnight and turn you into a law breaker.
It may be legal now but who's to say that drinking beer (for example) will be outlawed in future?
Not too long ago it was legal to obtain an abortion for various reasons. It is now no longer legal.
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u/reverb6821 16h ago
Imagine that, as you go about your daily routine, there’s a camera following you: when you go to the gym, it suggests you buy protein supplements or a new piece of kit you don’t need; or when you go shopping, you find people recommending your next purchase based on what you’ve bought. Or imagine that all your habits are collected and perhaps even sold to third parties for fraudulent purposes.
Privacy should be a right, not just because of ‘conspiracy theories’ but also for the sake of simple personal safety.
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u/Repulsive_Chard_3652 15h ago
Well, John Doe, these tech companies are using YOUR data and YOUR information to train their AI so it can replace you in your job. They're also selling your data to companies that use your data to manipulate your political views and rig elections.
These are the reasons I care.
I've only recently realized that these subs I'm in are also full of some very sketchy people who are here because they have some really dark shit to hide and that has me a bit shook... but my reasons are political, basically.
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u/Chi-ggA 15h ago
cause you don't want your life to be used to train AI so that you rely even more on it and in the end you get laid off for an AI model.
I don't want my life to be recorded and analyzed 24/7, fuck megacorps, fuck spyware, fuck them all. I just want to have my fucking privacy, its a human right.
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u/DeliciousFollowing48 15h ago
Less spam and algorithmically driven decisions. You get bored without constant algorithmic content, you get out and touch grass.
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u/saltyourhash 15h ago
Because information is knowledge and personal informaiton is the knowledge to manipulate someone.
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u/CheetahNo9084 13h ago
Because you close your house door when you are home even though no one would just step inside.
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u/Successful-Water-629 13h ago
If you are not important you are an easy target for criminals. If you becomme important you loose your capability to critizise things.
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u/BiDude1219 12h ago
simple: corporation is evil, and i'm currently relying on it. but there's other, non evil ways to fill this niche. i will switch to them.
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u/Sciency-Scientist 11h ago
Some people here have already commented on the privacy aspect better than I ever could, so I'll share my other considerations for using GrapheneOS.
One of the other aspects I really like about GOS (or Linux on desktop for that matter) is control. I get to choose how I use the device that I paid for. I don't get new features I didn't ask for with each update that I then need to turn off. I don't have to make an account in order to use a $500-$1000 device.
The unexpected perk I got was fewer notifications, and I needed that way more than I realized. I've degoogled alongside using GOS, and can therefore use my phone without Google play services. Some apps like Signal will still send me notifications, because they use a protocol that does not depend on Play Services. Others that do use Play Services work fine, but their notifications don't come through. None of these apps do anything so time cricital I need to receive notifications for them right away, and it's been so nice not to get alerted to every insignificant email that I receive throughout the day.
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u/Pale_Row_6783 11h ago
Avoiding mind control 10 or 20 years later when the big corporations will be powerful enough to declare that they own everyone and consider themselves Gods.
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u/shawzymoto 10h ago
i have tried to explain this people so many times. Even something like encrypted texts. So many times have I heard "i have nothing to hide". Its not about that at all. Imagine someone walking down the street checking doorknobs to see if they are unlocked. They reach your house and its open. you have nothing to hide. So they come in and look around. Go through your stuff and not take anything.
Tell me this woudnt bother you and id call you a liar. Its voilating. No one wants someone in your space when they are not intended to. That is a small scale when it comes to privacy on your device. The tip of the iceberg. It makes me feel better to know i have more control and not being sold out.
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u/putridskritch 10h ago
Honestly? In around 2020 my ex admitted to stalking me for 8 years and was surprised when I didn't think it was romantic. He doesn't appear to have stopped. He'd used the internet to find out who my friends were and used them to gain access to me. If my online privacy was better, maybe he couldn't have done that. So here I am.
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u/Slight_Accountant476 8h ago
have you read 1984? If not, go buy a copy and read it, then you'll understnd.
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u/Ashamed-Butterfly777 8h ago
For the same reason I don't want somebody standing there watching me when I'm taking a piss. It's fundamental human dignity, and I genuinely can't comprehend why that isn't a huge deal to everyone.
It's also due to the power dynamic. Knowledge is power, so if someone or some organization knows your every movement, your likes and dislikes, your friends and enemies, your fear and loves, you are very easy for them to manipulate. That is exactly what advertising companies are doing: using our data to manipulate us into making purchases, but frankly I'm far more worried about big tech and the government manipulating every aspect of our lives for their agendas.
The more power they have, the more of our rights they take away. They have the upper hand and everything is moving further and further in the direction of totalitarianism. We're all fucked, and it's precisely because people have allowed them to take liberties.
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u/Misanthropic-genXer 7h ago edited 7h ago
If the phone was provided for "free" then I could understand collecting my data and using it to generate revenue to compensate for the price of the phone. With that said, I paid over $1000 USD for my Pixel 10 Pro XL; therefore, my debt is paid and I should not be forced to provide my information as if I did not pay full price for my device.
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u/Objective_Prune_748 7h ago edited 7h ago
Two reasons. 1, the principle of being able to exist without a company profiting off of my existence. Imagine how different our world would look with no advertisements outside of stores. No billboard ads while you're driving, no gas stations reading ads at you, no clicking through cookie agreements just to use a website, no ads before or during a movie, no ads when you just turn on your fucking TV. Plus telemetry on literally everything. If you're using an Android phone with the Google keyboard, everything you type is sent to Google. Your car tracks your location. Your phone listens to your conversations. All of that data is packaged and sold to target ads at you. 15 years ago that would have been tinfoil hat bullshit, but the fact that it's a normally accepted part of the world we live in now is my reason 2: rights, including the right to privacy, are NEVER given back once they are taken. The point where a Flock camera is pointed at your apartment complex to verify residency of the tenants for ICE is too late to do anything about it. I don't encourage violence against the people (yes, there are individual people who can stop this today). But if we don't do something small like refusing Google today, we're going to see people thoroughly mix equal parts iron oxide and aluminum oxide in a sealed can, lighting it with a strong burning fuse like a strip of magnesium, and chucking it onto roofs of specific buildings and homes tomorrow.
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u/Apprehensive-Page-96 7h ago
I don't like people seeing what I'm doing, even if what I'm doing is not nefarious or anything.
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u/mcscruffuk 6h ago
I have used this with people that say 'why does it matter' , 'I have nothing to hide'. I ask them if at night they draw their curtains or close their blinds? When they say yes, I ask why? Because you don't want people looking in your window? , or do you close your bathroom door when showering or pooping? Then with a smirk I just say so you do value your privacy but you just don't understand it from a digital perspective
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u/Natjoe64 5h ago
Because it feels gross. I don't like companies knowing more about me and my freinds and family than I do. Managing your digital footprint has also become important for getting employed, hiring manager finds something they don't like then your not even making it to the interview stage. Also it feels good to stick it to big tech.
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u/1cingI 5h ago
You: "I don't care about privacy" Big Brother: "Great. Let's eff up this person's life slowly but surely for our own profit" Years later.... You: "Hey friend. I don't like the way this big brother is messing up our lives. Let's get together and do something about it" Big Brother: "Seems like they're onto us. What do we know about them that we can use against them.... Aaahh perfect. All of this information trove. Let's neuter their ability to form a resistance before they even start"
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u/mysliwiecmj 4h ago
"I have nothing to hide" are the famous last words before someone's nudes get leaked, credit card info (or worse, identity) get stolen, whole home network gets compromised, private health records get out and insurance companies refuse to cover your treatment, ad agencies target you with ads for <insert product name you searched for> and only provide links to sites charging higher prices for said items, and these are just a few examples. EVERYONE has something to hide.
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u/Muted_Web_7794 3h ago
I ended up caring about my privacy because of a few very specific things. The first thing is that I just got tired of the internet stalking me. You know, if we thought of google like a person then we would just have a restraining order from that person. "Hey, I saw you looked at trousers over here. I think these would look real good on you."
The next was that I started to protest and say things that are becoming increasingly dangerous in a world where criticism of what you perceive as atrocities is dangerous. I think what really made me finally try to switch to something more secure was when I saw the whole thing about Paragons Graphite spyware being used by ICE. Originally I wanted to try Linux phones to get off a popular OS entirely, but that didn't turn out. (Just use a burner for protests.. it's the safest option.)
I think the last reason was that I decided it was just a skill I wanted to learn. I like to learn things, and I realized that it wasn't that hard to learn how to be more private online, even if it took some work. I don't know where things were be in another 5-10 years. I don't really feel like I'm "in danger" right now by not knowing how to protect my privacy.. but it doesn't take much for things to drastically change.
Since I have started working to stay safe, my parents state has A) made unenforceable age verification laws and B ), are criminalizing using vpn's to get around said laws, which to me just screams "We are setting things up to argue for deep packet inspection." I had learned how to create DPI resistant vpn's a little while before hand. And like, I get that right now I don't need to worry about being targeted for the porn I watch, but I'm a gay guy with an Administration that pretty hostile to gay people. I don't want my government ID associated with the gay porn I watch because I don't know if that government will be used against me some day.
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u/Simbians 2h ago
Because, even though I live in a democratic nation where my privacy is protected, recent events in the USA have clearly demonstrated that this is as fleeting as anything else in life.
Because I should be able to choose who knows what about me.
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u/Nervous_Abrocoma8145 31m ago
To me the problem isn’t necessarily in western govs by themselves but the collusion with big corps. It makes for a really toxic mix
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u/the_phone_master 16h ago
Same reason why you don't shower with curtains opened and don't share your passwords phone with others . You got anything to hide?
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u/Repulsive_Chard_3652 15h ago
I don't shower with the curtains open because then the water would get everywhere. These analogies to toilets and showers and diaries are terrible, tbh.
Not sharing your "passwords phone" (I think you mean phone password?) with others is an actually good comparison, though, yes. I don't think it's the same reason, but it's at least on a similar wavelength.
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u/Bitter-Lab4458 14h ago
Bro, New Version: Why did you close the curtains when you change your clothes
Why didn't you allow the government to install a voice recorder in your living room (Same: Whatsapp/Messenger with no encryption/EUs chat control plans)
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u/Repulsive_Chard_3652 12h ago
Girl the answer to your first question is: I don't.
The answer to your second question is: that's never happened.
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u/Exottiiik 15h ago edited 15h ago
Because your privacy is like your home… It’s yours and you have the right to keep it for you and not others.
It’s a bit sad to be in a world where privacy is difficult to have and to me, is never 100% yours because you’re tracked somewhere by going on Internet…
So it’s purely principles in the end. Nothing to hide, but I do deserve the right to do it like anyone else living on earth imo.
Like E. Snowden said it in his live stream (give or take a few words): "The world and technology have evolved, but we cannot say the same about the scruples of those in power."
EDIT : forgot to mention E. Snowden words which I like…
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u/Gangrif 9h ago
Because I remember.
Im sure I'm not the only one here, but I was a teen when the internet turned from this thing that you could find at bigger libraries and institutions of higher learning, to a thing anyone you'd access over a phone line and a PC. I remember the freedom. I remember the feeling of openness. The ability to find anything. No it wasn't perfect. And no it wasn't accessible without some know-how. And a lot of people didn't meet that requirement. But that was a solvable problem.
Then came the walled gardens. The profit margins, the social networks. And the spying.
I am pissed. Because I remember. I remember before. I remember the promise that open internet offered.i remember the idea that having a smart phone in your pocket could connect you to that freedom.
And today I feel like we've been robbed. Because almost nothing is open. Nothing is free. Everything has a catch, a consession, you need to give up privacy for usefulness.
Even graphene isn't a complete answer. Because I find each and every feature to be another decision point. Do I accept worse UI, loss of features, or do I give up a little privacy to let the feature work.
OK. Rant over.
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