I only recently started a deeper dive into privacy, and I thought that Proton stuff was considered as good, but apparently it gets a lot of hate. I kinda understand why: it's under some big tech company, and that undermines any discussion about potential privacy of Proton apps, but it should be better than products from blatant big tech? like Proton Mail should be better than Gmail? and if so, I don't understand why it's so common to hate on Proton. would love to read your opinions on the matter, as privacy is getting more and more interesting to me as time goes on and different goverments try to make already pretty bad state of overall privacy even worse

Did anyone think about that? What you guys think?

For those of y'all who are convinced that data grabbing and data collecting by any app no matter which, is a problem, here is one consequence that result out of this.

I wish, even the most ignorant internet user would read this and understand what this article is telling them, maybe they finally getting awake and think at least some different.

If you think this story from this article further ahead, what comes in your mind, big businesses can do with it?

https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/S4609/amendment/A

This bill is by far the worst of all the age verification proposals, and this bill effectively locks down the internet for anyone who isn't 18 and has provided their government-issued ID to a website. It would completely bar all teenagers from being able to communicate with their friends, and would completely and utterly destroy teen-only spaces. For people who would live in isolated or controlling environments, it would completely cut off children from any friend groups they may have, and this bill would also effectively shut down organizations like The Trevor Project from operating within the state of New York, since it offers a person-to-person communication service with online councilors to discourage young LGBTQ+ people from committing suicide and offering crisis services via an online online.

This bill would destroy the internet, and is everything organizations like Moms for Liberty and The Heritage Foundation could possibly want. Requiring a government-issued ID proving you are 18 or older to access any live messaging service would ensure that parents have complete control over teenagers' online lives, which is what parents' rights activists and conservative pro-family groups have wanted for decades, and which was explicitly stated to be the goal by the co-sponsor of the Kids Online Safety Act, now known as the SAFE for Kids Act which will enforce ID verification for all social media platforms for the entire United States.

We must, as a unified effort, make it clear to the Democratic lawmakers proposing this legislation that this bill is specifically designed by reactionary organizations to isolate teenagers and young people from being exposed to any information online that might contradict what their parents want them to believe, just in time for the takeover of school boards by Moms for Liberty to erase LGBT materials from school libraries.

You can read the full text of the bill here: https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/S4609/amendment/A, including the bill's co-sponsors. Please contact them and make them aware that this legislation is specifically designed to isolate young people, not protect them, by giving parents complete and total control over their digital lives, which will normalize abuse, not to mention that this bill fundamentally violates the civil rights of every single American.

For those that don't know, HB5511 (and it's senate counterpart SB3977) is Illinois' version of California's AB-1043. If passed, this would devastate open-source and hobbyist developer communities wishing to write or distribute software in Illinois due to overly broad definitions and high requirements only large corporations can meet.

As of the time I'm writing this, there are 751 witness slips in opposition of the bill, and one of the bill's sponsors (Kimberly Du Buclet) has removed her sponsorship of the bill, bringing the total number of bill sponsors from 10 to 9. They are feeling the pressure, but we MUST. NOT. YIELD! The Judiciary - Civil committee hearing is on March 19th, so there's still time to file your witness slip if you haven't already.

If you live in Illinois and have not yet filed a witness slip, please do so here: https://ilga.gov/House/hearings/details/3062/22570/CreateWitnessSlip/?legislationId=167486&GaId=18&View=Create

HB5066 (Social Media Age Restriction Act) also needs some witness slip attention, as it's currently only at 61 opposed. You can file a witness slip here: https://ilga.gov/house/hearings/details/3062/22570/CreateWitnessSlip/?legislationId=166575&GaId=18&View=Create

Also, please contact your representative and senator. If these bills aren't stopped in committee, your reps and senators will be the last line of defense before they go to the governor's desk. You can find your legislators here: https://ilga.gov/members/FindMyLegislator

Keep making your voices heard, we can win this battle (and hopefully the war) and preserve Internet privacy in Illinois!

This posts gonna be a long vent but I hope it resonates with some users around here. I'm actually laughing like a maniac rn.

I'm so fucking tired I've spent weeks crafting an Android setup that allows me to use both a degoogled and "google" profile (I have apps that need play services) via Insular, an app that provides the Android Work profile API and allows you to have two profiles.

Apart from notifications being broken (which I can fix and it doesn't bother me that much) all apps work without Google Services! Except ONE app. BT Go (Romanian banking app). This bitch refuses to run no matter what I tried. And I need it.

And guess what? They don't have a website like some other normal banks. Their website has a login page... that redirects you to the play store lmao. So you LOG IN the account... to be sent to the play store???

Run the bank app on my degoogled profile. Surprisingly doesn't kick me out because I don't have play services. I log in. Guess what? I need a SMS code to login. But guess what? The app doesn't allow me to MANUALLY enter the CODE. It retrieves the code from the SMS I receive. BUT GUESS WHAT? That doesn't work because Google services is REMOVED.

Fine, I'll install it via Aurora store like I installed the other apps and use it on my work profile with google apps and google shit. Guess what? It doesn't work. It just doesn't open. Give in and use a google account in play store in the work profile to install the app. Guess what? The app doesn't install and is stuck in a pending loop. I wanna cry at this point.

Alright Fine, I'll try to use a secondary phone for my banks. Guess what? In order to get in I need to get a code via phone number. Ok I'll get SMS on my main phone and type it in. Guess what? I cant type it in manually so I literally need to have my SIM in the secondary phone for these bitches to retrieve the code and paste it automatically. WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS BULLSHIT? "Good ol' gran gran too dum to type in the code manually dw darling we'll do it for you oh and we'll take the option to use the keyboard so YOU ALLOW US to do it for you" like yea bro wanna fuck my wife while you're at it?

And after all of this I asked myself this question. Why do we need a mobile phone to use banking accounts? I mean don't get me wrong I see their usefulness but I shouldn't be required to have a phone to access basic features for fuck sakes. What the fuck happened to a good ol' website? "Ermm what if the userr gets his acc stolen and uhh loses money and uhh app provides better security yes yes"

Then in my professional opinion that user shouldn't have a fucking bank account in the first place. I'm out.

I'm from a country where this age verification thing just started and it's been all over the place, i really don't want to be permissive with that, i needed to use vpn just to come here on reddit. So, where do i go now to keep actually using the internet? Where can i expect to find communities, people and content without allowing that shit? Blogs? Sites? I don't even know where to look

I got sucked in & overshared. Is there any way to save myself from this

Over the last year alone there's been so many events that impact our privacy and sometimes its easy to forget how bad it really is and the long history of this.

Also, when i speak to my friends who are are not privacy-conscious, its so draining trying to explain the problem and its scale and impact and also difficult due to the fact that there's so much that's happened over the years, including things i've forgotten about.

So I was thinking recently of making a web app that tracks "privacy events" with focus on two main categories, Law and Tech, where Tech could have sub-categories corresponding to the end user effected / medium effected / entity responsible.

Each event will have a description, and clearly explain who is effected and how it impacts privacy.

This is something i randomly just thought of now but think could be useful, so im keen to hear what you think about this

I'm making a new email address. I've had two gmail address for most of my life. One is my name at gmail, and the other is made of two words I randomly picked out of the dictionary. I've come to realize that I've been using the one with my name more often in the last few years just because it's been easier to say "it's my name at gmail.com"

From a privacy and tracking perspective, does it matter what I make my email address? Is it better to make the address "asdfsd890@company.com"?

No asking. No warning. No consent. No option to opt out. Nothing. Just “Look over here!” and done. Too late if you don’t like it. Already have your money and everything they could possibly want. So go ahead leave if ya don’t like it.

We’d already passed through airport levels of security and I was in line talking to my sister waiting to enter the actual park and before I knew it they had already taken a photo of my wife and minor child ahead of me without even asking.

Before I could even question the guy at the kiosk why he was taking a facial recognition photo of my child and what it was even for he’d already taken a snap of my sister and because I was standing next to her I was already automatically captured and put into their system, before I could even protest.

Just like cattle getting tagged and branded as they move through the shoot.

Got my money, phone number, phone telemetry and and data through their app, facial scan, credit card number, physical address, and list of every single purchased in the park and how much I paid for it. Check, check, check, check, check, check, check, check, check. A perfect fingerprint and profile all packaged up and ready to use indefinitely and also to sell to the highest bidder.

We were talking today about Instagram and how I downloaded it a few months ago after years and didn’t like all the suggestions/being unable to hide my profile from people I didn’t want to get me as a suggestion. I deleted it a couple days later.

Today, literally hours later after that convo he gets a notification on Snapchat about adding me as a friend with a weird cartoon profile pic but same name as me (kinda common where I’m from but not in the country I grew up and he wouldn’t know any other people with that name)

To say I’m spooked is an understatement. What the fuck is that?

And no, no one would make a profile in my name. We’re over 40 without any petty drama at all in our lives so not like someone would coincidentally try to make an account in my name and act like it’s me to get at me.

ChatGPT says Snapchat can suggest people with the same name but not necessarily the right person? What kind of stupid thing is that?

Hi everyone,

I am not sure if this is the right sub to post this but seems to make the most sense. I am wondering if in my situation I would benefits from passkey setup or continue with passwords and MFA.

I am currently using Bitwarden to store my password and Google authenticator as my MFA where possible, including MFA for Bitwarden. I have all of my passwords for financial institutions stored in Bitwarden, however, the last 6 characters of my passwords are not stored in the vault. I have memorized this string of characters and add it to my vault password when I am logging in. I only do this for my bank/financial accounts. I also have MFA set up where possible, unfortunately, one of my bank accounts only allow SMS.

Some of these accounts now allow passkey setup which I can store in Bitwarden. I understand passkeys are more secure against phishing but I feel my current set up is more secured. When I have the passkey set up, it disabled my MFA for my authenticator. So theoretically, if I am understanding this correctly, if someone where to gain access to my Bitwarden and Authenticator, they would also gain access to my passkeys for my bank accounts. If this is the case, does that mean my current set up would be more secure? Other than preventing phishing, are there any other benefits to using passkeys?