At it's basis, 'nothing to hide' is yet another shinning example of the American propaganda machine. When it comes to propaganda, America has no equals. In a lot of 'closed' countries, their citizens are usually aware that their government is full of shit and oppressive. They just duck their heads and try not to raise suspicion. The American public eats it up and regurgitates ad nauseam.

However, when you start relating their everyday actions to privacy, anonymity, they do realize that yes, they do demand privacy in their daily lives. It's just that there is a disconnect between real life and digital life, in people's minds and it takes a total rethink for them to realize, in this time line we are in, there really isn't/shouldn't be a difference between the two.

I find that people who say 'I've nothing to hide' haven't really thought it through. Mainly because, in most of the general public's mind, there is a disconnect between their daily lives and their online lives. Instead of being condescending to them, run through a couple of obvious scenarios with them:

• You have keys and locks they go to. Maybe they go to your car, front or back door, or tool shed. Why? Keys and locks prevent unauthorized access. They do not portend guilt in any way.
• You have window blinds and even black out curtains covering them. Why? What would be your reaction to a law that made window blinds and curtains illegal because the authorities having jurisdiction can't see what you are doing in your house?
• Would you be ok if a live feed of your bathroom or bedroom be broadcast to the internet for all to see? Why not?

Usually, running through daily things people do and contrasting them with privacy, security, and anonymity, I can get them to realize that yes, they too enjoy, nay, demand privacy, security, and anonymity in their daily lives, and that their online presence should not be any different.

The average Joe citizen really has no idea what goes on behind all those pretty pictures on their screen, and they could almost be forgiven for that. I've had a computer in front of me since the mid 70s and I openly admit, computers and networking are complex beasts. Even I have not plumbed the depths. Someone here made a comment once that if their knowledge was a 25' tape measure, they might know an inch, and I think that is applicable.

We, as the stewards of the secret knowledge, should not brow beat those who may be unenlightened. They are not sheep, they are not normies, they are not idiots. They just have no clue, so it behooves us to educate and assist those who do not understand, without making them feel like they're stupid. The more educated the populace, the further our privacy, security, and anonymity mission is spread.

I just use reddit as reference anymore, usually through redlib. Reddit became a seething cauldron of festering carcasses a long time ago, and I have no desire to jump through all their hoops just to use their servers, much like YT and a growing number of other sites. I just don't have the patience to reconfigure my network just so I can use those outlets. Sad tho. It used to be a decent social media platform until it wasn't. C'est la vie. Such is the way of the internet.

I’m very paranoid. I do a lot of risky and dangerous shit on the internet.

I don't want to know what you do, however, if it's causing this much paranoia, perhaps you should not do risky and dangerous shit on the internet. I know that sounds overly simplified, but if it's that risky and dangerous, what's the roi? Sooner than later, risky and dangerous activities get noticed. When I constructed my threat model, it included a lot of potential adversaries. However, I do this because I am a rather private individual, not because I want to do risky and dangerous shit on the internet.

~~Ted Cruz blocks bill that would extend privacy protections to all Americans~~

Real Headline: The American government is corrupt and compromised, top to bottom, side to side. No one gets a pass. Not from the current admin or any previous admin. You do not go into US politics on a mere government salary and exit politics a multi millionaire.

Honest question: I see a lot of people here use their mobile phones as a computer platform. I have a general uneasiness about doing so. Not throwing any shade whatsoever, I just feel there is too much out of my control on a mobile phone, for me to trust it more than I do. My general policy is not to use my phone as a mobile computing platform even tho I have a VPN installed and use Firefox as a browser.

My local network for instance. There is one pipe in and out. I can easily see what is coming in and what's going out and I can control that with the granularity of a gnat's ass. I know what my software is doing or not doing. I can allow or disallow anything I want. On a mobile phone, I feel that the control I have on my PC is not equal to the control I have on my phone.

How have you come to terms with what you can't control on your mobile phone?

I've been biting my tongue hard these past few months in a concerted effort not to be offensive. I'm not trying to be intentionally offensive, however, I feel there is an element in this situation that is being disregarded in favor of someone else doing your work. When I say 'You', Your', etc, I mean it in the royal sense. So, warm up the downvote finger and man the flame throwers.

If it's genuinely for the children, then when are we going to require parents to be parents? Look, you brought this service into your home voluntarily. You might say 'Well I need it for work' or 'I need it for school'. Tons of people use hundreds of thousands of hotspots daily to do their thing on the internet. This service you voluntarily brought into your house, has both the ability to be highly beneficial and highly detrimental all in the same breath. Technology always, always, always wields a double edged sword.

And what do the majority of parents do with such power? They give it to their vulnerable, under aged, highly curious, children, un-monitored, uncensored, and uninhibited. Are you insane? So when little Johnny is caught surfing porn hub, the parents freak and cry out to their government 'We need to ban porn!' No! What we need is for parents to be parents.

There are literally hundreds of services, and ways to lock down your internet. I hear parents say 'I'm not technologically inclined.' Get there. The safety and well being of your children hang in the balance. Take a class at your local Tech College. I'd be willing to bet that when little Johnny's mom was pregnant, she most likely did some reading on the topic. Some even take a class on childbirth. The internet should be no different. Access one or two of the billions of tuts out on the internet.

Now, will locking down your internet like a multi-billion dollar enterprise with a Brinks Kit keep little Johnny from seeing some skin? No! Why? Because it's natural for humans to want to see what other humans look like naked. Children are naturally inquisitive. The prime directive of all life is to replicate. So, have frank, open, direct, and yes, awkward conversations with your children. Let them know in no uncertain terms what is acceptable on your network. Tell them why these things are not appropriate for their age group. This relationship with your children starts at Day 1.

You have 18 years of boot camp to equip your children with all the tools necessary to make wise, prudent decisions in life. You probably taught them how to ride a bicycle, or drive a car, or any number of teaching opportunities parents have with their children. The internet should be no different. We live in a technological time line that is ever changing, so it behooves parents to know exactly what is going on with their technology and how their children are using it. Get with it.

Being a parent takes work. Being a network administrator also takes work. Anyone who is a seasoned veteran of this chan knows, to secure a network in order to be as private, secure, and anonymous as possible on the internet, takes work. I find, a large portion of parents are unwilling to do the work and would rather fob off their responsibilities as a parent, to the government having jurisdiction. I'm not painting all parents with this brush. Kudos to parents who are very involved in their children's lives. There are enough of them tho, that are not, and this is a big issue. It gives governments the justification they desire to surveil their citizenry.

Let the roast begin.

I had a similar incident with a cheap, 360, cam I bought off of Aliexpress. It was not going to be a security cam, just a cam to keep an eye on some seedlings in a grow box. I set it all up and would review the video of the seedlings sprouting. Then I noticed an weird behavior. At 5:00 AM it would automatically pan and stop, then repeat.

At the time we were experiencing some heavy electrical storms in our area and I have a Woody doll that sits up on a shelf in my lab. When we get electrical storms in this area, my Woody doll will introduce himself all on his own. 'Hey howdy hey! My name's Woody!' It'll freak you out if you didn't know it does that. The Woody doll has a pull string voicebox and I haven't pulled the string in years. I attribute the phenomenon to static charges in the air that activate the voicebox somehow.

So the panning I attributed to this static electrical charge during electrical storms. However, it started becoming a schedule. At 5:00 AM~ it would begin panning. So I got into the guts of the cam and the software. Turns out, no matter what DNS you used, one was already hard coded (1.2.4.8) along with other network settings, into the firmware and seemed to bypass any setting you punched in. The cam operated as a normal cam would and for what I was using it for, it did the job, except for the early morning panning.

So, great, I've allowed a nefarious actor into my network. I removed the cam off the wifi, and destroyed it. Combed through the network for any signs of exfiltration or other angles of attack and found nothing, except that I had pretty much set up a cheap, Trojan horse on my network.

I believe we are reading two different Hitchhiker's Guide.

OP, I'm not going to castigate you for your Google usage. I am going to assume that you are aware of the privacy concerns when dealing with Google since you are posting here in a Privacy chan. Sometimes, people are required to use Google services and there is no way around that. If that were my situation, I'd use a sandbox, VPN, 7 diff proxies, and a hazmat suit. If this Google usage is not required by say an employer, I'd find something more private.

Google does have some pretty cool technology. Unfortunately most of it, if not all, is built off of data theft.

(mostly illegal sports streaming sites)

This doesn't accomplish what the legislature intends. It never does. For instance, in the US, Texas in all their wisdom that can't keep an electrical grid running smooth without duct tape and bailing wire, has decided to 'ban' PornHub. It makes all the christofascist's dicks hard because in their mind, they have rooted out evil and destroyed it. (See Satanic Panic in the 80s) However, their weak, little minds cannot comprehend the fact that for every technology, there exists an equal, yet undoing technology.

Do it for the children I hear them say, and I would agree in this example, that children should not be viewing porn. A better solution would be to make parents actually parent. You brought a service into your home that can be both highly detrimental and highly beneficial, and then you turn around give it all, including a cel phone, to a very inquisitive mind uninhibited, unmonitored, and uncontrolled in any manner. You're the problem, not porn.

/end soapbox

Pi-Hole always tops my list as a cool project that has definite benefits and will still be in service after the new wears off. It's been quite a while ago, but I built an Alexa with an RPI. That was kind of cool. Home Assistant on an RPI is pretty cool. In fact, there is a whole list of cool stuff to do with an RPI: https://pimylifeup.com/category/projects/ . There's also an Awesome list for the RPI: https://github.com/thibmaek/awesome-raspberry-pi.