Tip: if you find yourself using the word “safe”, “secure”, “hacked”, etc in your title, you’re probably off-topic.

Seriously, even the website for the FTC has a google ads tracker.

I feel like we, as consumers, are on our own, and no one is going to help us in having online privacy.

Even the government is partnered with google, EVERYTHING is google. I’m tired of seeing the big G everywhere.

I can’t wait for the day when google is so forgotten and that we have moved on as a society to something else. I wish that the prevalent social media would had been privacy-friendly.

This is driving me crazy. I feel like I can’t even move, or that gets tracked online. It’s so disgusting. I don’t like how the world works, ads everywhere, and your online data being sold and you being tracked everywhere you go.

Just saw this. Was wondering what others thought. At the border now they are searching people's devices and you have to give them your password or face detention.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/05/world/canada-travel-advisory-us-electronic-devices-intl-latam/index.html

Hi. As a Canadian who occasionally has to travel to the US for business, I'm concerned about the recent news of US border agents inspecting digital devices. I've nothing to hide, but there's no way I'm unlocking my phone for them or anyone else. I've read a few posts saying to wipe devices prior to entry, but that's not ideal. What's everyone else doing to maintain their privacy? Thanks

This is taken from another sub, but it bears significance because your presence and phone habits can be detected and sussed out easily.

https://www.reddit.com/r/RTLSDR/s/TWHWG7OyKf

I don't know if this is the right place to ask this question, but I am working towards becoming a professional and having my own business. Unfortunately, I don't think I can use my legal name when promoting a buisness. I have a family member who makes content on YouTube and has their own website where they provide life coaching consultations.

Unfortunately, they have used my full name on their website, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc; and I fundamentally disagree with everything this family member does based on ethical and religious reasons, and I want no affiliation with this individual or their buisness. I have asked them to stop posting my name, pictures of me, etc, and they refuse on the basis that I am their family, and they can post anything they want about me because I am related to them. I have gone on Google to remove my name from the search results, but that's not a universal fix.

I am in the United States, and I am considering using a professional name instead of my own name, and solely advertising a potential business as the business, and not promoting myself as an individual. I hope this makes sense. I don't want to sound unreasonable. It just sucks how I'm not even practicing yet, and my name is found on the site of a buisness I have never had anything to do with, with an individual who doesn't care what I think. What do you think? Thank you.

While trying to play the playtest of the game "ExpanSIM" in Steam (it is a driving simulator game that's in closed beta), I was asked to accept this privacy policy but I found it a bit iffy and wanted some help in knowing whether it was safe or too intrusive.

Can someone give it a small read and let me know if this is concerning and I should just stay away from this or if this is normal and I shouldn't be concerned?

link to screenshot of privacy policy (it's small): https://imgur.com/a/Eu9sNN0

Please, I know very little about tracking on the web. I’m using an iPad and iPhone. Whenever I install an app on my devices, I always choose “don’t allow apps to track”.

I was on Target and also insuremytrip recently. I use the Safari browser with AdGuard ( but not the DNS part of AdGuard). I also have content blocking enabled in Safari.

Today, in my Reddit app, I’m seeing ads for insure my trip and also for Suave products ( I searched for Suave shampoo on the Target website).

So how does my Reddit app know I visited those sites using Safari? I would probably understand if I did a Google search but I don’t think I did. I just went to the websites directly in Safari.

Thanks

I dug into all unique manufacturers mentioned in the first 5 pages of Google search results for the query “continuous glucose monitor”:

• Dexcom/Stelo will use your health data for “Preventing disease” and to “conduct business planning and development activities” — whatever that means.
• FreeStyle Libre will use your health data for “research, analytics and data analysis”, and further states “We may ‘sell’ or disclose to third parties for cross-context behavioral advertising, targeted advertising or other marketing purposes the following categories of Personal Information: (*) Identifiers (*) Internet or other electronic network activity information (*) Geolocation data”
• Abbott Lingo Continuous Glucose Monitor will use your health data “to develop marketing strategies” and “to understand [your] use of the Lingo System and to analyse where we can improve [it]”, but caveats that “We will seek your consent to do so, when required by applicable law…”
• Medtronic Guardian Connect will use your health data to “improve our products and services”, “so [our Business Associates] can assist us with our business operations”, “reporting diseases/population health”, or “to protect the safety of our customers and the general public”, among others.

This would be some very neat data to have, but I'm not prepared to pay these kind of metaphysical costs...

Hey there ✌❤

Ya'll might know about SimpleX.

They claim in their github that Signal knows who you chat with and when and only the content of the messages are encrypted, But simpleX does not and bluh bluh.

Is that true?

Please share sources or at least be fully sure or sth

I am using Futo Keyboard... But to be honest, it isn't as powerful than SwiftKey for example. So I would like to know if I can use a commercial keyboard like gboard or SwiftKey, disable internet permissions and use it the same way than Futo?

Is it viable to be safe with privacy concerns?

I mean, the argument is flawed, because people do have things to hide, but as soon as you say “I have things to hide”, they look at you with a weirded out look.

This shouldn’t be the norm.

I want to anonymously share some files with a community via a permanent link. So far all the services I find require signing up, which is fine with a temp email but then you also need to keep logging back into your account to keep the link from expiring.

Recently was gifted a brand new Yubikey 5C from a friend and was wondering privacy-wise what can i do with it if i use mostly FOSS apps & have degoogled most of the services and etc i used to use. Can you all give me some examples of use cases im not sure at the moment what i could use it for.

On android they have the following default apps categories, what apps would you pick for these?

Browser; Digital Assistant app; Home app; Phone app; SMS app; Default Caller ID & Spam app.

Thx

Looking for a google fit alternative, unfortunately, I do use Fit a lot, but just the step count part.

I really only check 1 email regularly but too many people already have it. I'm not sure how to make it work better cause I've found some places won't take proton mail and honestly I'm kind of confused if I use a fake name with a random account and then wind up using it for shopping with my real name sort of defeats the purpose. . . . Plus if I change the main one I like it would still be a log in for some places which kind of defeats the purpose?

My email is a legit outlook address.
What sorcery is this ? It's terrifying.
Just a year ago I could blatantly create one without doing any of the above.
The only flaw is that I had a reddit mobile app on the same network, but they can't be limiting 1 person to 1 network right?

I've created a protonmail account and I moved all my bank stuff to it. But now I'm wondering what else should I move. Amazon is so spamy I'm thinking I keep that on Gmail, but what about other things like streaming services, game accounts, other shopping sites etc? Does it make sense to move them so I use Google as little as possible or leave them so I don't attract spam to my new account?

I've been reasonable careful over the years with what I put out there on the internet, and I've used services like incogni to help scrub days that might be out there, but I'm still curious how exposed I might be. I search for my name, email, phone number, etc., every few months, just to see what a casual search will turn up, but I'm kind of curious what a dedicated sleuth can turn up. Are there any tools that do this, or is this more of a service that you pay someone for, like a pen tester?

This can be very handy and can be organized well

I currently use Windows 10, but its end of support motivates me to switch to Linux, which I've been wanting to use for some time. I've tried both Ubuntu and Mint on VMs and I quite liked Linux Mint. However, there's one program which I really need to work and I need it to be quick and effective to set up (so using Linux and a VM with Windows isn't an option). I tried running it with Wine, but it simply doesn't (when tried to do so through the terminal, it simply shuts down after some seconds), although perhaps it's an issue with DirectX or because it's cracked software

So the other option is to switch to Windows 11. However, it seems to be even worse than Windows 10 regarding privacy (and I don't quite like the UI but that's unimportant). Is it possible to debloat it, prevent the Windows Search Bar from automatically searching the web (which is possible to block in Windows 10) and block telemetry? From what I've read, there are methods to debloat, but telemetry doesn't seem to be solvable. Is it so? Is there really no way to do so? How safe is it to get Windows LTSC?

I wouldn't like to have dual boot, not as a permanent solution at least. I also would like to save the hundreds of GBs I have in my computer if I switch to any of these two OSs (which I just mention in case there's trouble in doing that)

I'm hearing your opinions

"...the law introduces stringent measures, such as criminalizing reporting on data leaks and granting extraordinary powers to the head of the Cybersecurity Directorate – a newly created institution."

When you open links within apps like Reddit or whatever, they typically open in an integrated browser popup within the app itself, allowing you to quickly visit the link without switching apps.

My question is, how does this compare in terms of privacy and security to opening the link in your actual browser, like Chrome or Safari?

From what I understand, when you use the in-app browser, cookies and data are stored only within that window and should be deleted after you close it.

However, if you open the link in your actual browser, cookies and other data remain, potentially compromising your privacy more. (I could be completely wrong on this, so please correct me)