Ah… But there is another. The all mighty creator (app developer of voyager) whose name is in purple!

I’m guessing you are using Voyager app. It’s because I’m your instance (sopuli) admin :)

I’m not going to push anyone who uses a secure decentralized FOSS chat already to signal, but someone who uses telegram/viber/whatsapp is easier to get gradually on signal, which is super low effort compared to the ones you mentioned.

I’ve tried. I’m happy that I got friends and family to move from SMS and WhatsApp to Signal. Some I got to move to e.g. matrix but that’s only a few.

Just my two cents since you asked. I agree with you but I don’t want perfect to be the enemy of good.

That sounds like a nice stack! And true, self hosting is really nice. Just wanted to give options if you don’t feel like getting into self hosting.

Nevertheless, good luck on your privacy journey! I’m working on it too!

I had not heard of ubicloud, that’s pretty cool! Thanks for the tip!

And sure:

I don’t self host it, I got managed owncloud space from a domain and web host provider.

I manage my own VPS that I got from them but the cloudspace came extra with buying the domain + email services (I’ve managed email server at my job and no way in hell will I do that for myself, too much headache).

So basically, in short, I have a managed email + owncloud space (just 5gb, don’t honestly need more) from a commercial provider and just use owncloud app on my phone and PC to sync folders on both. I keep my encrypted joplin notes and (encrypted by default) keepass database on this cloud. Owncloud takes care of syncing and I just use Joplin and KeePass on both devices and set them to use the files in owncloud folder. Never had an issue in 2 years with anything.

Technically my provider could scan my stuff, but they won’t get anything out of joplin notes or keepass.

Your idea for a setup sounds way more private, but i think for my usecase I’ve been happy since it’s so low effort and still does what I want it to do.

I have seen on lemmy people recommend syncthing (https://syncthing.net/) for keepass, which directly synchronizes a folder between devices without a middleman if you wanr. But everytime you want to sync you need to have both devices on for that as there is no automatic middleman that is always available. Maybe that could be done with a raspberry pi?

Anyway: you can easily set this up with proton if you already have proton cloud no?

Didn’t see this comment but: I trust enough my cloud provider + the database file is encrypted with the masterpassword you set for your keepass.

I also use this cloud to host my Joplin notes, which are also E2EE (joplin supports it) so even if my cloud provider would take a peek it’s all encrypted.

Nice tip, thanks! still haven’t given simpleX a try. Mostly because it was hard enough to get family and friends to move to signal :)

You can of course. I think the selling point is that you control it and it’s a single file that you can decide where you’ll keep it, how you access it, and what app you use to interact with it.

I can copy, delete, move it all without needing a service for it. Can modify it offline and everything!

I don’t host the file on a password manager dedicated cloud, it’s my own cloud space with other files I have there as well. So the file is just in my cloud space, with other files, and i have a synced folder on my phone + pc and just access that cloud folder with the file from keepassXC on my PC and keepassDX on my phone :)

For me keepass offered a single databae file that I can decide where and how I keep it. Also works offline because the cloud syncs folders and even without internet a version exists on my phones cloud folder (until it gets synced again with internet).

Oh shit… Damn. sorry that happened to you :(

I do back it up with the rest of my stuff to an external hard drive, but that’s… Like once in a year so could be better.

I have my keepass database file in my cloud that i use to sync it between phone and PC. I create a backup of all of my files on my PC + cloud folder once a year to an external hard drive. Better than nothing but probably would be better to do this more frequently 😄

I also empty my phone from time to time and move everything I want to keep to my PC (like photos).

For me that has lately been always

KeePassDX, nice choice! I really wish I could have DX or XC on both phone and desktop. Love both but would prefer to donate to one. Wallet is unhappy but I really try to donate to all FOSS apps I use…

Yeah no I’m not complaining about their decision. Quite happy about it! I just comment this in every “github alternative” comment section when codeberg is brought up for the sake of codeberg too because we don’t want to flood them with people who would also set up private repos that break their ToS.

I have an account and contribute on Codeberg but keep my private, non FOSS/not-sure-of-license-yet repos somewhere else (currently gitlab).

There are terms and conditions for private people too regarding this (read next two sections): https://docs.codeberg.org/getting-started/faq/#before-i-start-using-codeberg

I love codeberg but can’t move my private, non-foss repos there. FOSS repos for sure though.

I’m not going to say it’s not a me-problem, but disregarding the fact that if it was that simple it would be more widespread amongst people is making it seem as if we don’t try seriously and downplays the effort many like myself put in.

I care about privacy and about my close ones (as many here do) and I explain the issue to them in a nice way so to not come across as a pushy salesman, and they readily admit that they don’t want to put the effort in (effort as in learning something new, upkeeping with multiple apps, etc).

It’s not that I don’t know why they don’t switch immidiately - I know why. It’s simply that they don’t. It’s okay not to switch as long as you know the risks and I’ve explained the risks and they seem to understand it, but it’s not enough to get everyone to switch.

If life was that simple with everyone (I know some switch without hesitation) the world would be completely different.

You can explain to a decent normal person the imminent doom we are facing with climate change and they may understand it very well, but they still wont give up on using their car and switch to public transport immidiately, because it is an inconvenience.

Yup and months of premium instant 24/7 tech support to ensure the slightest thing doesn’t return them to default apps in the beginning !

100% agree with you and I do the same.

You can still download the APK from their repository, install it, and use signals built in censoring-evasion setting as far as I know.

They are even working on self updating app feature IIRC.

This is why I donate to signal. I know there are decentralized alternatives but I can barely get my family and friends to use Signal.

Yeah the comment looked like any other post that account made and as you said, LLM generated crap. Full of mid sentence emojis, hashtags, and structured like a summary.

I was going to let the comment pass thinking its probably from Mastodon or something because of the hashtags and style. But no, the user is from a lemmy instance.

This happened in Finland, but I didn’t want to specify it to spark a universal conversation, which succeeded!

I know people from all around the globe deal with privacy issues and hoped that others would share their experiences.

This is another great idea. Similar to having extra email for spam.

That’s the advice I’ve gotten here pretty much, and will probably deal with it in that way from now on!

It is sad that we have to do that, but don’t think this will change any time soon.

Haven’t looked into VOIP phone numbers before, thanks for the tip!

Could have been that too. I was polite and didn’t fuss about it thankfully!

100% would never want to make their day tougher than it already probably is.

This hermit politely declined, paid, thanked, and left. The anger I felt was towards the retail company and the clerk doesn’t need to witness that.

Very true, this is nothing new and just wanted to stop for a moment and rant about my mundane experience and love the the discussion this sparked here!

Holy shit, now that is smart thinking! I can’t believe he already made 300 pounds from listening to marketing calls!

Yeah, I’m a bit sad that even offline shopping is showing clear signs of dark patterns, but guess it is just so.

Nothing against someone just doing their job though. Can’t always choose where you get your living from.

That’s probably exactly what I’ll be doing from now on. Was hoping for the simple “would you like to join?” but guess that’s out of style.

I did politely decline and didn’t want to make a fuss about it - the title is bit exaggerated and from outside perspective it probably wasn’t that dramatic.

I know that the cashier is just doing their job and I didn’t want to make their day any harder than it probably already was. I smiled, thanked and left right after paying.

Hope I don’t sound like a karen, just wanted to share my mundane experience in this community since I really love the discussion that is going on in this thread. I do hope that all of us in this community still remember the human when interacting with people in the real world.

That could also work, if their system allows more digits than the standard digit length of their own phone numbers.

I’ve bumped into this issue myself when trying to fill my second phone number into input fields which require me to pass a number I actually use at the moment into systems where I do want to give them my phone number…

Very good point, it seems to be the most popular advice in this thread and will try this next time!

Yeah the title is a bit of an exaggeration of my feelings and as you mentioned, I was a bit anxious too since I have been abroad for quite a long time (and encountered something I did not expect in what I thought was an environment that could not surprise me).

Agreed, it could very well be that I was the first customer to question since the cashier started working there.

Thanks for the uplifting comment!

Thanks for the input! This kinda answered a question that popped into my mind: do the employees get bonuses for registrations.

And exactly, it felt too intentional to leave out the question, didn’t feel “natural” the way the phone number topic came up.

I know we are constantly being harvested for every little bit of data online, but it creeps me out when I encounter information “harvesting” by just talking to a store clerk.

Nice of them to atleast offer an alternative!

Appreciate people like you!

You made me question myself now, was I being unreasonable?

Didn’t even think that the clerk might have been just trying to help me out, I felt like this was a smart sales & marketing psychological trick to give up and go the way of least resistance to get me to sign up (obviously not by the clerk directly, but as part of their training on how to deal with customers).

But either way, thankfully I was polite and nice about it. I might have become too cynical about everything regarding my private info in the last few years.

Sadly enough that several stores in this country started doing the same until enough privacy aware people noticed and made a fuss about it.

Yeah at no point was I mad at the clerk and didn’t show it at all that I was boiling inside, because its just their job and they have no say in it.

Haven’t tried to say I don’t have a number or come up with a fake number, but read this in the thread earlier and will probably give it a try next time!

When I was younger and lived at home we had “family accounts”. When I went to a store I picked up the “family card” and used that. So similar experience!

Now I know! I was positively surprised when they didn’t ask the follow-up question, but I see now they have been trained to not ask it at all.