Ask him for his passwords, and when he says no, ask him to explain why. He’ll surely have things he doesn’t want you to access. Then explain that other people he doesn’t even know have that access right now, because he keeps thoughtlessly giving away digital access using apps and linked accounts.

If he gives you his passwords, log into his stuff and print his browser history or something. Stick it to his fridge.

easy: “why do you wear clothes?”

I remember a discussion with a friend of mine while I was probably droning about privacy, surveillance capitalism, etc.

She politely listened then said she didn’t really mind or care.

I feel quite strongly about this and as I know she is pretty smart was somehow surprised by her reaction so I tried to illustrate my point more directly. We were in a bar so it went a bit like this :

• A: so, can I ask you how much you earn?
• B: yes, sure
• A: can I tell others here in the bar
• B: I guess
• A: can I instead sell others that information so that they can try to sell you goods and services?
• B: no

So my point was that she associated a problem with privacy with a friend who might be a bit curious. When she started to see it as a systematic commercial endeavor that was unfair to her, she did change her mind.

Maybe a short thought experiment like this could help your brother see what’s troubling to you?

Privecy & security go hand in hand.

It depends on the kind of risks you have in mind.

Are you worried about someone hacking an account, stealing passwords and committing identity theft? If so, the stakes are pretty high, but the probability is low as long as your brother takes care of updates and passwords. Also, avoiding shady software and sites helps too. I prefer to call this category security, but it certainly has privacy aspects too. IMO online security should be a high priority.

However, if you’re mainly concerned about Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Google and other companies collecting data about you, the situation is very different. I call this thing privacy, and the risks are smaller, but the probability is very high.

When it comes to security, you just need to show what has happened to other people who screwed up and made themselves an easy target. However, privacy is a bit trickier. Appreciation of privacy is a more philosophical matter, since the practical side of it isn’t as tangible. If your brother doesn’t have certain values, principles or philosophy, it’s going to be difficult to convince him that privacy matters.

If your brother already takes good care of online security, but ignores privacy, you could talk about the way companies use your data. Focus on the ethical side of these practices. If not, forget about privacy and focus on security instead, since that should always be the higher priority.

Of course he keeps his credit card number and such private. So he cares about privacy.

What you are talking about is related to privacy, but about others’ actions. How can companies and governments abuse us by spying on us? That is where we see interesting things. If I wanna fix my car with a $50 part but it’s off brand so I gotta pay $500 instead, that’s not cool. If McDonald’s charges me more for a Big Mac right after pay day, that’s messed up. If the grocery store charges more for a box of eggs because their ID system knows the customer is poor, that’s messed up. And this is the present and future. These examples are all about privacy, control, and equality.

Start doing browser research like this:

Most poison substances

How to fake a suicide letter

Cain was right killing Abel

Parents reaction to the death of a son

ecc…

At the very least next time he spy on you he will freak out 💁‍♂️

In my experience, /most/ people don’t care and further, they don’t want to care.

Even those that do care have to exist on a sliding scale of compromise in order to function.

You don’t

Privacy is something that is fairly personal and different for each person. Trying to force it one someone is going to end badly and will not help at all.

Tell him to pull down his pants and start wanking in front of you

tie him to a chair and make him watch this

https://yewtu.be/watch?v=MBBOjf7fLrc

(I’m joking about tiying him to a chair ofcorse)

I think, when you explain things to people (i.e. in instances where it’s not an absence of knowledge that’s the problem), the vast majority of people know we’re correct, but are held back by convenience. They’re embedded into the Google ecosystem or whatever, and it is a pain in the ass to migrate. There are many popular services for which there isn’t a 1:1 private alternative. I can openly and confidently say that I sacrifice some convenience for privacy, and to me it is worth it. But other people, while they agree that they don’t like being spied on, are used to being spied on and therefore have a “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” attitude. They’re already using spyware and it’s not had an immediately obvious acute consequence for them, so there’s not really any turning point at which they would go “this is enough” and change.

I think so long as they’re aware, if they do value privacy, over time they should slowly replace the things they use. Also, some of my friends get Signal just to speak to me since I’m not really on anything else (unless they want to email me lol), so that kind of effect may push them in the right direction.

If your brother doesn’t care though, he just doesn’t care. Privacy is actually very straightforward: it’s creepy for someone to be spying on me and watching my every move, therefore I take precautions to make that difficult for people wanting to spy on me. You don’t need to convince people that being spied on is creepy. They know that, and are stopped by inertia, which they can only overcome on their own. I don’t think it’s worth nagging them about it when they already know what is to be known.

Post his social security number online, next to a scan of his photo ID. He’ll realize the importance of privacy in a few months.

Most people aren’t ready to accept the message of privacy importance. I would say that’s the vast majority actually. Many in my family throw all sorts of personal information into “online contests and signups”.

Privacy now is like climate change was 20 years ago…incredibly important, but hasn’t come to the forefront for most people, governments, etc. Say your message politely and only when welcomed, and otherwise leave people to make their decisions.

If you’re actually interested in changing people’s minds, it is an incredibly difficult and complex process, but you can start learning about it. Here’s an author whose podcast I follow and he’s doing really good work on the subject:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jun/09/how-minds-change-by-david-mcraney-review

A lot of other comments talk about hitting him with some bullshit " gatcha" or some variation of scolding…which is all bullshit and counterproductive.

Show him camera footage of him masturbating.