Cyberlyra

New Year, New Digital You! I'm leading a 21-day CYBER-CLEANSE to teach you and your friends how to clean up your digital footprint.

Looking to change your habits online in 2025? Follow along and by January 21, you'll be in a far better place!

https://www.optoutproject.net/the-cyber-cleanse-take-back-your-digital-footprint/

Please forward, boost, and re-post!
#cybercleanse #optout #toxictech

The Cyber-Cleanse: Take Back Your Digital Footprint - The Opt Out Project

New Year, New Digital You! New Years are an opportunity for committing to resolutions, starting new habits, discarding what no…

Jan 2, 2025 at 4:09amWeb
Show threadMichael EkstrandJan 2, 2025
@cyberlyra In case you want to know… I tried the feed to NetNewsWire by just copying the page URL and subscribing, which usually works, but it found the feed.json instead of feed.xml and then couldn't load any content from it. Manually adding the Atom feed URL worked.
Show threadMy camera shoots fascistsJan 3, 2025

@cyberlyra

This is great! I love that it is clearly written for average people. I spend a lot of time trying to nudge people into better data privacy practices and push back against privacy nihilism, but sometimes it's hard to know where to start and then where to stop without overloading people.

Show threadLed By Gilded FoolsJan 3, 2025
@Mikal @cyberlyra IDK what's on the syllabus, but I'm hoping this addresses the clutter in my password manager, where i have accounts old enough to drink that haven't been accessed in voting age years.
Show threadObsolescentSapienJan 4, 2025
@Mikal I’ve had the same struggle for years. I managed to get a few dozen people on Signal the last 8 years, and a few to switch to privacy-respecting email, but I also know those bastards are cheating on me on this or that shitty Meta or Google product. But hey, I still appreciate that they’ll keep Signal installed for my dumb ass. I’m fucked if Signal disappears and I have to try and sell them all on Session, Simplex, Matrix, Olvid, etc. At that point I’ll just move into a cave.
Show threadMy camera shoots fascistsJan 4, 2025

@obsolescentsapien

What's funny is you go to the trouble of getting people on Signal and then you log into Facebook and FB shows that person in their PYMK because they added you to their address book which they keep allowing FB to scrape. *big fat facepalm*
At least that part is now solved with Signal usernames.

See, if I were the super cool kid who everyone wanted to hang out with, I'd just say, "Signal or pound sand, bro".

Alas...

Show threadObsolescentSapienJan 4, 2025
@Mikal I’ve thought about this sort of thing for years, that all these people have me in their Contacts on their phones are feeding that data to countless lousy corps and data brokers. I use an anonymous sim for Signal I bought with cash, and I don’t use social media other than Mastodon, but what my friends and family do with my limited personal info is beyond my control, which is why I use disappearing messages on all my chats. Email is mostly dead to me beyond banking, etc.
Show threadMy camera shoots fascistsJan 4, 2025

@obsolescentsapien

I want a phone number version of Signal's usernames, so you can give it to someone without giving up your actual number or name in case they do something stupid like give these services access to their contacts.

Show threadObsolescentSapienJan 4, 2025
@Mikal If you go into your Settings and click on your profile, there is a URL or a QR code that can be shared with prospective contacts, which is how I share my Signal info without giving up my phone number or username. Now, if only everyone used Signal or at least something that wasn’t WhatsApp.
Show threadMy camera shoots fascistsJan 4, 2025

@obsolescentsapien

I know, but I'm talking about a phone number version of that for regular phone calls when people aren't on Signal.

Show threadObsolescentSapienJan 4, 2025
@cyberlyra I love this project. Thanks so much for doing this. I wish everyone would follow along for three weeks; it would make the internet such a better place. I’m looking forward to it.
Show threadDemianJan 8, 2025
@cyberlyra your https://www.optoutproject.net/ site is a great resource.
The Opt Out Project

Show threadShaun ChamberlinJan 14, 2025

@cyberlyra
Janet, this is FANTASTIC!!

I have just been through it and will be pointing so many people at this, starting today.

The only quibble I would submit for your consideration is that Ghostery is no longer recommended by those I trust.

In case helpful, here's their brief explanation as to why and what they recommend instead:
https://help.riseup.net/en/better-web-browsing

And thank you! 😍

Better Web Browsing - riseup.net

Show threadBill SeitzFeb 7, 2025
@cyberlyra how many email aliases do you have, for how many saved accounts/passwords?
Because my dump is 800+ accounts.
And how many of yours did you leave your real Name in?
http://webseitz.fluxent.com/wiki/2025-01-01-OptOutProjectDigitalCleanse
(2025-01-01) Opt Out Project Digital Cleanse

(2025-01-01) Opt Out Project Digital Cleanse

WebSeitz
Show threadmaradoFeb 18, 2025

@cyberlyra Interesting challenge!

A 'hint' for day 1, wouldn't it be better *not* to suggest #Amazon as a got-to shopping place? Shouldn't Amazon be one of the 'services' we ought to be opting out of?

Show thread(stateofresearch) HAS MOVEDSep 11, 2025
@cyberlyra have you found any good video meeting platforms that you recommend.
Show threadPatrick LeavySep 29, 2025

@cyberlyra this is an amazing idea - and we (the Rebel Tech Alliance) are promoting something similar to finish up the year:

#BigTechWalkout2025 😀 Celebrate NYE2025 in style with freedom from the algorithms!

Details here: (the steps we link to are super easy but people can go further!) https://www.rebeltechalliance.org/collectiveaction.html

We'd be grateful if you could boost this 😄

Rebel Tech Alliance

Show threadMarion GrauJan 5
@cyberlyra bummer, this was last year. any new efforts?
Show threadRenato ZechettoJan 31
@cyberlyra I'm very interested, and I thank you for the useful links and your work about it all!
Show threadKevin GaminFeb 15
@cyberlyra Bookmarking this as I want and need to do this.
Show threadmillennial fulcrumMar 12
@cyberlyra ooh clean
Show threadArielMar 12
@falcennial how much extra for the full digital enema?
Show threadArielMar 12
@falcennial ...I think I might have worms
Show threadmillennial fulcrumMar 12

@arichtman jokes aside did you check it out though? this is a very good guide, robust and realistic. and if you look at the list of day by day activities how satisfying it is to be able to skip those where you never went there in the first place, like a nice cheat code. 🤌

I think I'm going to have a go at this. but it's the perspective that I'll keep longest: "remember the cloud is just somebody else's computer"

Show threadArielMar 12
@falcennial no - but with your recommendation I will