I sometimes wonder if NordVPN has done more for the privacy cause than anything else, purely for the sheer amount of advertising.
But most of their claims are false. And how does it do anything for privacy.
It certainly make me feel safer against big tech snooping. Is obscuring your IP address not useful? I genuinely want to hear the arguments for and against VPNs. And if they're not effective what are better ways we can protect ourselves?
VPNs hide your IP from your ISP and anyone they share that information with. Here in the UK ISPs keep a record of every internet connection you make and pass it on to the government and perhaps others. Using a VPN here means that instead of them knowing every single website you visit they just know you are using a VPN (or Tor, or a proxy etc if that's what you're using). All they can tell from that data is what time you're active online and how much data you upload/download, not which websites you're visiting.
The websites that you connect to at the other end can still determine who you are by means other than your IP address, like information that your machine presents to them which is unique. VPNs don't protect against this.
A VPN is like a private courier. What the recipient does with the delivered message (and what you've put in it) is out of the courier's hands.
Just the fact that NordVPN claims to protect your privacy means that the average person hears about privacy a lot
@Paddy66@lemmy.ml
Another wall of text no one will ever read does nothing. Do this: https://lemmy.world/post/21620691 https://lemmy.world/post/20950542
I emailed you, but wanted to reply here that I love this! I don't have much to add as I'm having the same problem with my own project trying to make privacy easier for people like, say, my friends and family. They have to really WANT it to go through all those inconvenient steps of changing to alternative products. Even getting people invested in changing their app settings is hard enough!
I think the below commenter is right that people will start to care more when they see what's going to happen with their data under the new administration (in the U.S., at least). We all thought it was a good trade-off for free and cheap products, and soon we may be faced with our data being used to target us personally.
The only thing I can think of is, have you tried sending info about your sites to relevant news outlets, newsletters, etc.? I got a little traction from being mentioned in two newsletters: Cory Doctorow's newsletter and the DeleteMe newsletter Incognito. I'm planning on mailing out print press copies of my free book later in May...I have a PR friend who will be helping me with that.
OMG your book is amazing! You actually sent me a summary version before, and I've just downloaded the full one. I'll add it to my Calibre library and share with others!
I love that foreword about the town square - "Are we in paradise yet?"
We should work together - you're right your book covers a lot of the same ground as my website, but just better written and better researched lol
Thank you! I got your email, will reply soon.
I can use an sdr to read your water meter and determine how often you go to the bathroom, shower, wash your clothes, and when you're home and it's not illegal. I'm allowed to follow you around and take your picture as much as I want to. I can print off as many pictures of you as I want in public and wallpaper my whole house with your face and body, there's nothing you can do about it. I can do an 8 hour video essay about you and share this with everyone. As long as the info is publicly available (or not in most U.S. states), it's legal.
Damn. that is creepy. Similar to the comment someone else left about stalking....
Maybe I'll so a series of case studies via the blog - thank you for sharing this!
for the site see if you can reissue the cert or try certbot if u already used certbot try manyally downloading the cert an pointibng to it
The site is hosting by a hosting company - and they assure me that the cert is fine.
If I was self hosting I'd expect these problems, but not with a hosting company.
The only difference with this company is that they do not use any big tech infrastructure - they have their own servers. I wonder if big tech has something they don't.....?
idk for me it doesnt say a error just cannot complete request and https even though connections not secure its quite odd and i can use http for it an it works
really? It works with just http? that is weird.
It suggests to me that the web hosting company we are using don't know what they're doing. We're going to change.
I've noticed many people tend to look for alternatives when their mainstream apps are either temporarily down or become greedy.
I remember a few years ago Meta servers were down which resulted in my whole family and some friends at least partially moving over to Signal. Now it's important that the alternative has at least the basic features people want. Most people are not ubernerds like us willing to sacrafice GIFs, emoji's or whatever and would switch back once they realize it's missing features.
For instance, I've noticed people becoming increasingly frustrated with Windows but won't switch to Linux due to missing program or game support.
So ultimately I think the focus should be for privacy-respecting apps to be feature-complete. It's much easier to convince someone to switch if there's a reason to stay.
This probably means sacrificing on security features but I don't think the goal should be for everyone to be on Qubes OS and SimpleX. Rather having at least basic online privacy and the ability to remove data on demand.
Anyone want to join my privacy team? I'm trying out for the 2026 Olympics.
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.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)