sad_detective_manWhat's the worst privacy compromise that you are willing to admit you make?
Google maps for navigation in unfamiliar places.
i really want to switch to OSM apps (and I have comaps) but (1) it’s not nearly as good at understanding addresses (e.g. “123 first avenue” when it has my gps coords instead of “cityname, First avenue 123 zipcode") and (2) doesn’t have nearly as many businesses mapped (e.g. i want to type in “Joe’s Restaurant” instead of the address bc i haven’t memorized it)
nikki+1, maps is incredible and I wish a proper alternative existed. it’s the only thing keeping play services on my phone rn since I don’t have time to tinker with sandboxing it
Try Here We Go. It isn’t FOSS, but it isn’t google
CorrectAliasI occasionally need to use Google Maps but I’ve helped map my area on OSM which improved my experience. Most businesses in my town are now mapped.
Grocery store rewards programs. I know they are designed to link purchases to me, but the financial savings is worth the loss of privacy for me.
In many stores, they will swipe “a store card” for you at the register if you ask them. I believe I’ve even seen the option on some self-checkout stations. I’ve only had trouble with this once or twice. But it may be worth risking for the privacy (and monetary) savings.
cerementReward programs can link purchases to you through 2 different means:
- if you give your name and phone number to the smartphone application
- if the supermarket links the purchase to the actual bill sent to the bank account
You cannot technically avoid the second one but I know that most stores don’t do that because their systems are separated: one system for the inventory, one system for sending transactions to the banks. I’m telling this because, while they can link your debit/credit card to your purchase, it never happens because it’s a major PITA for them and it’s a manual process. But it can happen…
djdarrenI need to take a closer look at this. We don’t do it but in these troubled times, young family et cetera… is it worth it?
They can just link purchases to the card I use to pay anyway right?
Having a quick look at my nearest grocery store, it looks like they give me 10% off one shop each month, amongst a plethora of other bullshit perks like points towards fancy cookware or something.
If I shop once a week and spend $200 then that’s $20 a month or $240 a year. Essentially one free shop a year.
Not much of a saving really. There’s other simpler things I can do to save more money I think.
I just make up phone numbers.
Go to number when I don’t want it linked to me. Somehow my current area code doesn’t have someone signed up, but my old area code does.
whotookkarlIf you buy groceries with a credit card instead of cash they will track that too, I’ve received coupons in the mail for specific items I’ve purchased in the past without any rewards program.
- Waze . They know my location when I drive, and there are no alternatives (AFAIK) for traffic jam. I don’t use an account though, it’s not tied to Google or anything.
- Kagi because all the others are worse. I may try SearX again to see if it’s good now.
- PayPal sucks but it’s good for subscriptions.
- Tuta and Bitwarden . They have a link to PayPal but the data is E2E encrypted.
Most of the time, I don’t mind a compromise as long as I can keep the data to myself and encrypted, or if the smartphone application can run without any permission.
The biggest threats for me in the above list are PayPal (they know what I buy), and Kagi (they know what I’m looking for). I could find a way to remove Kagi though…
Wait what’s wrong with Waze and Tuta? The PayPal tie?
That… is unexpected. Why would they make a competitor to their own product?
They didn’t. As far as I’m aware they bought the competition.
Waze serves a slightly different purpose to Maps, being a friendlier face that’s more of a driving GPS than Maps is. And while they don’t really market it as a Google product, people will use it thinking it’s a good alternative to using Google or Apple.
Noooooo. Nothing is wrong with Tuta, they are awesome. The compromise is that PayPal knows that I subscribe to Tuta and BitWarden.
As for Waze, it has been bought by Google a long time ago. If you have Android, you can restrict the location to “when the application is running,” but it’s still Google behind.
ohhhhh. I see. I guess that’s still better than maps. Do you think it had use of all the same data as Google maps then?
The geographical data was always good, and you can use it without an account. The algorithm itself has improved a lot. It used to be very bad in the past though, it would switch the route every five minute to gain a few seconds towards the destination, but they stopped doing that.
CoMaps looks great, but it’s still buggy and I don’t know how to have some traffic data.
rudyharrelsonMicrosoft SwiftKey on my phone. I’ve been using it since before it was acquired by Microsoft. It is an incredible keyboard and after using it for years, I am incredibly fast on it. I ditched it for about 6 months last year for the FOSS alternative HeliBoard, but it negatively impacted my typing speed so much that I recently gave up and reverted to SwiftKey.
Google Maps also on my phone, because it works really well compared to the alternatives I’ve tried. I’ve used (and contributed to) OSM, but it’s just not a drop-in replacement for Google Maps yet.
I “verified my identity” on LinkedIn a while back because I’m job hunting.
I can’t validate our use of them, but I can at least commiserate. Heliboard was so much slower it wasn’t even funny. SwiftKey just knows what I’m trying to say and I can type as lazily as I want. Heliboard had to be nearly perfect to even have a chance of autocorrecting correctly.
Google Maps too, I’m not ready to give it up.
Is LinkedIn even useful to you? Every time I’ve gone job searching, I’ve found a bunch on indeed and barely anything on LinkedIn.
Is LinkedIn even useful to you? Not particularly, but job hunting is rough atm and being verified seemed like it might help with some prospects.
Voxel
smeg- Gmail, GCal, Google Photos, and GDrive
It’s the network effect. I need an integrated solution that replaces all of these functions that I can use, my more tech-casual spouse can use, and that my frustration-intolerant preteen child can use. Also, we use Family Link for youth device management since we use Android devices. No alternative exists that does all of these things, and I refuse to spend my precious free time providing constant tech support.
- Kagi Search - owner seems like typical asshole techbro
- I pay using Google Wallet and debit card everywhere
I have not yet but may soon be required to give biometrics (fingerprints, possibly eye scan) to my employer.
I haven’t decided yet what to do if it comes to that… know I’m giving random tech conglomerates far more in exchange for far less, but this one feels more invasive and personal.
But I’ll probably do it if needed. I like this job, and I trust them more than I trust these tech giants I sell my data to, just for a glimpse of the online hellscape.
oof, THAT’S a fucking leap. gotta be a job you must really want to be considering that
Best job I’ve ever had, both regarding benefits+salary, assignments, and work culture/colleagues/management.
I get it. Had to make a choice like that too once. Whatever you do I hope it brings you success
asbestosIt’s a security clearance thing. But there’s also talks of instead easing up on the requirements for different levels of security clearance, so we’ll see where it ends up.
artyom- PayPal: convenience for online purchases and subs
- iPhone and some apps: Had it for years. I just don’t buy phones often. Considering graphene or just a low tier flip phone for calls next time I upgrade it.
- Proton Suite: A problem or non-problem depending on which side of that fence you are on.
- Lemmy: Jury is still out on whether or not I stay on it vs absolutely no social media.
I have Microsoft Teams and Outlook apps installed on my phone because I need them to do my job. I use gmail, google calendar, and google maps because they work and are accessible anywhere I need them. I am certainly aware of the tradeoffs and use more privacy friendly alternatives on my own PC for things I need to do privately. The VPN DNS block lists running on my phone make it so the Microsoft apps barely function as it is.
Doorbell camera. Stock Android and Google services.
I’ve had a Google account since I was old enough to have one. I’ve been using my email to make so many accounts for years. How does one just move to something else when what yiu already have is so deep into your other stuff?
it’s a process. by now you’re probably using at least one for doing 2 factor authorization with the other. to migrate you have to create a 3rd and go through all your accounts authorizing a login then changing the 2fa account.
I’d say it’s probably easier if you have a password manager app, then you can at least let it autofill login info and use it like a checklist to work your way through. Those are obviously their own kind of baggage though
Gotta do it one by one. It’s taken years, but now most of my stuff is off of Gmail. It’s to the point where if my Google account got closed, I wouldn’t miss much. I wouldn’t even lose my emails that I care about since I’ve done multiple Takeouts.
- google messages - I really need the web ui, trying to switch to scrcpy
- google wallet & samsung wallet - have already decided to go back to a physical wallet with cards
- google maps - I use this mostly to find opening times for businesses.
- ms teams - for work
- facebook messenger - selling junk on facebook marketplace
Messaging apps generally. Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, you name it. I’d love to move to something like Signal or I’d even do Telegram, or in a perfect world, host my own server storing the messages/media. But the broader population just wants the path of least resistance, so now I have like 5 apps on my phone and all of them are varying degrees of compromised.
Heres a little list of things that matter to me personally. I’m sure others would have similar takes.
Medical Practitioners:
Privacy I’d part with: Everything, begrudgingly
Reason: it’s better than dying
Job Sites:
Privacy I’d part with: gov docs, job history, financial history, identity
Reason: Having a stable income is worth giving up a little more privacy than usual. I would never give them computer usage info or biometrics, but having income to eat, have shelter, and help others is important.
Youtube:
Privacy I’d part with: usage data, contact info.
Reason: I do use frontends like invidious and grayjay to get around using the site itself, but I fear one day there won’t be any working alternatives seeing how Google is cracking down so hard. Peertube is great too, but most of my favorite content creators don’t use it. It’s also one of my main sources of entertainment and also knowledge like cooking tutorials, building, woodworking etc.
Google Maps:
Privacy I’d part with: usage data, contact info, maybe even location if I’m traveling.
Reason: I use Organic Maps for navigation, but google maps has far superior information on local business, reviews, pictures, etc. Nothing else like it and probably never will be realistically. I use it via sandboxed browser, and to find cool places to travel to and eat.
Discord:
Privacy I’d part with: contact info (and that’s it). They can pry my ID from my cold dead hands.
Reason: My friends litteraly refuse to use anything else 🤷♀️
Windows 10/Easy AntiCheat:
Privacy I’d part with: kernel level access for non-important device
Reason: Certain games are allergic to linux so I still keep windows around and begrudgingly allow kernel level anticheat. These specific games make me happy and are good for my mental health, which offers more than having one out of my many devices secured. I can just use other locked down devices if I need to do more important stuff. I would also never install Windows 11, that’s a hard line for me.
Aside from these, I’ve essentially FOSSified all of my other apps/devices successfully.
TLDR: I would sacrifice elements of my privacy for:
Happiness/Mental Health
Friends/Family
Medical /not dying
A job
Knowledge/Entertainment
Yeah you have pretty much all the same hard lines I have, minus some unusual shit I revoked about my employment history. How do you personally feel about phone keyboards? Is being able to type coherently worth using a product that is collecting keystroke data? Like assume that you are unable to speak respectably at all without it
I kinda have a niche/weird view on keyboards; I use the default aosp keyboard firewalled for no internet access and with spell check turned off. I find it annoying when it changes what I say, and if Idk how to spell something I look it up and try to remember it for next time. I have typos here and there but mostly I don’t mind and I feel it makes me more deliberate in my use of language.
There are also plenty of open source and generally privacy-respecting keyboards on FDroid like Urik keyboard, so no compromise is needed imo
Fair enough. I’ve been on the goosechase through different privacy focused boards for a couple years. All of them have issues with substituting words in ways that don’t make sense because they’re not hooked up to the privacy-nightmare that is datasets that most common products use for predictive text.
Your take still helps me gauge what privacy minded folk consider is or isn’t acceptable risk though so thank you for sharing
Using Bitwarden’s cloud service. I don’t trust myself enough to maintain and secure a self-hosted online password vault. Also like others said, google maps. The sheer volume of crowsourced data they have is very useful for real-time navigation especially if you live in a city with heavy traffic.
I can’t deny it. The way that thing tells on speed traps is basically indispensable now.
theHastyOne@sad_detective_man my family still uses Amazon. With smaller children and lots of needs the quick shipping is easy. If it wasn't them it would be someone else and it would be the same thing...