I’m pretty sure I mindlessly checked out just as often. I cringe thinking about how I just used to watch TV ads without batting an eye. Imagine being numb to that.

Ok this is a fair point. But saying an app is bad because it doesn’t respect its users should cause no hard feelings between friends.

This us silliness based around false notions about people who value privacy. It’s one step from saying “you have nothing to worry about if you’re nor doing anything wrong,” which is an absurd idea, especially now when we’ve seen firsthand the effects of social media disclosing information that leads to the prosecution of people who have abortions and the non-consensual outing of LGBT+ people.

Personally, I feel like there are more eyebrow-raising aspects about continuing to use apps like Facebook and Instagram when we know how hostile and intrusive they are to our personal data.

Moreover, it’s not just harmful groups that need privacy. Safe communication tools are also important for groups that seek positive change, such as BLM, LGBTQIA groups, and anti-fascists.

We are in a privacy community, or am I mistaken? All this is just privacy 101.

As someone who did poorly in math and science classes because I spent all my free time reading Stephen King novels, binging horror movies on VHS, playing the original Final Fantasy, and walking around town aimlessly with my friends, I assure you we were there, and I knew people with even less motivation than myself.

Does Signal work with other chat services? I know they dropped SMS support at one point.

You think you’d lose friends over saying a social media app is cancer?

Battery optimization in Android 13 is such dogshit. They should have had it as its own setting category to give users full control over which apps we want optimized.

Instead, they just optimize everything and put apps to sleep if you need them infrequently, all so they can brag about the battery life of their devices.

I’m always one step from going full third-party OS.

Why do you raise an eyebrow for Signal? As far as I know, it’s much better than Discord, from a privacy perspective.

“I told you I don’t want to hang out with you.”

“I’m sorry, but I’ll need that rejection mailed to me by post in a hand-signed letter.”

Sorry, I see in another comment you were looking for a more technical explanation. I feel like I didn’t contribute to that at all.

Sir, that is not an employee. That is a pig.

Yes

No, you had no reason to suspect it. It’s just one of those things.

BTW I’ve heard that Twitch won’t serve you ads if you connect to Serbia, but I don’t use Twitch enough to check it, and when I do I’m just watching buddies stream

Could it possibly be the country you’re connecting to via your VPN?

I’m on the Fennec fork of Firefox, but yeah. It should be the same.

I’m not sure why I’m so invested in this because I never even visit Instagram lol

I’ve triple-checked now that all my annoyance lists are updated, and I still get the popover unless I enable the custom filter I just created. Weird.

Also, I noticed you said you’re using a VPN. I had to disable my VPN, or the page wouldn’t load at all.

Glitch in the Matrix.

Oh, just copy/paste the text, sorry. Lemmy auto-generated the hotlinks.

The date is today’s date because that’s the date I created the filter. I think you can put whatever text you want in that line to help you remember what the filter is for.

It’s odd that it didn’t work for me. I had to create my own filter to remove the overlay.

I did update all my lists first, too.

I don’t think they’re trolling. They didn’t fully check if it was working.

Here, try adding this into your “my filters” list, and see if it works:

! 2023-08-15 https://www.instagram.com

www.instagram.com##.xippug5.x1n2onr6.xg6iff7.xdt5ytf.x78zum5

I just tried it because I was curious, and it doesn’t work for me either. Once I scroll down even a little bit, the popup appears with all annoyances checked and updated in uBO.

And their “reason” is that not using Google Play Services to deliver notifications drains the battery too much. Just absolutely tone deaf development decisions.

I better stop or I’m going to talk myself into unsubscribing from their premium lol

I do use Proton’s VPN, email client, and calendar. In fact, I’m a paid subscriber.

To me, it’s ridiculous that their mail and calendar apps are Google Play exclusives. There’s really no excuse for that.

Amen. I see that argument a lot in relation to Tor. People don’t understand that for every one bad actor, there are a myriad more who live in places where they are unable or find it unsafe to communicate online.

My state (South Dakota) is super bad for trans people right now. I’ve been trying to be an outspoken ally. I worry especially about the kids.

You just reminded me of a song I had long forgotten, by Elvis Costello

As a gay man, there are some frightening trends even right here in the US. The more I see and experience, the more thankful I am for the people who value and preserve our privacy, and the more I value it myself. Even if things were 100% safe now, I think it’s a mistake when we take that for granted.

Society can go sideways quite rapidly.

The sponsors of these bills truly have no shame, using children as pawns and the moral panic about drugs to encroach on our privacy.

I guarantee the legislators who support these bills also oppose legislation that could actually help children.

My nieces and nephews convinced me to get Snapchat, and it was fun entertaining them with the funny filters for about a week, but I noped out of that feature first thing. I ended up deleting the app after the novelty wore off for them because it also sent a ton of promotions, and even though I don’t think it could see my contacts with the settings I had, it seemed like the type of app that would abruptly opt me into things without warning.

Also, even with just basic notifications enabled, it managed to send me ads and promotions every week.

I really dislike Snapchat lol

I’ve never been convinced by the “Why worry about privacy if you have nothing to hide?” argument. It seems to me privacy is a virtue worth protecting in and of itself. I always think about the bathroom door argument. I want to shit in peace. No, I can’t explain to you exactly why, but on some level the ability to do that has value in and of itself. I don’t need someone breaking down the door and then demanding I explain myself, and telling me things like “it’s not an issue” or “it’s not like somebody wants to steal from your home.”

Example: I love my husband, but I don’t need to take out my phone and check if he’s on his way home, or had to take the long way around because of roadwork, or had a bad day and has stopped by the dispensary. There’s no way that’s not creepy to me, sorry. Conversely, he doesn’t need to know that I’ve been struggling with money lately, so I stopped by Walmart for those pretty flowers.

Also consider that by sharing your location data, you are sharing your data with a nefarious third party who is using that data for things like targeted advertising, and likely with state agencies that may not have your best interests in mind.

While I’m aware there is no way to be truly private online, I do believe this community is about people who are concerned about this and are not just rolling over while the attacks on our privacy advance. I am especially invested in privacy as a LGBT+ person whose country is rapidly descending into fascism. I am invested as a feminist who cares about women’s rights to their own bodily autonomy and healthcare. I am invested as a transgender ally who wants trans kids and adults to receive the acceptance and care that they need. Even if I didn’t personally feel invested in matters of privacy (I do), I would hope that I’d pursue the trend nevertheless for the well-being of others.

Is this accurate? I don’t know any young people in my family who wouldn’t find it creepy to be cyberstalked