Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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Feeling like Privacy is a lost war. (infosec.pub)

submitted 1 year ago by beefpeach@infosec.pub to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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So, I recently moved about 6 months ago. Have only given my real address and name to the DMV, Phone Company, Internet, and rental property(obviously knows my real address)

Ran Optery and found out that over 80 data brokers have my legit new address already.

Feeling like privacy is just some kind of wet dream at the moment. I do everything right, I think but no matter what the 4 companies I have given my information too will constantly sell my personal data no matter what.

It’s truly sad the direction America is going towards, all for some more money.

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[–] erranto@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Unlike most privacy concerned people. I don't believe that privacy is very useful without anonymity. metadata is at the heart of surveillance and tracking. In this regard I was a little optimistic when tor came out and hoped that many technologies will be build around that. that didn't happen because you can't build a business and make a profit by providing anonymity. now half websites are systematically blocking tor exit nodes. it can't be used safely with torrents. and even briar the messenger built to use tor has been compromised by its developers so that you can't be anonymous on briar . All in all I share the same frustration and can't see a brighter future for privacy and anonymity .

[–] beefpeach@infosec.pub -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Don’t forget that the government owes like 75% of the exit nodes.

[–] BaumGeist@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago

This is a myth that's been addressed by the project. For starters, there are no disclosures about the amount of nodes owned by the Government/NSA/CIA/etc. You're probably thinking how the project, in 2012, received 80% of its funding from the US Gov source.

You may make the argument of "follow the money", or you could also make the argument that this type of tech this widely distributed benefits the government too (field agents for some agencies allegedly use Tor, as do foreign defectors) and compromising the network would lead to a potential vector to compromise their interests.

It's also worth noting that Tor uses 3 hops (entry, relay, and exit nodes) and you can check the location/IP of your current route at any time to ensure geographic diversity. An actor would have to own all 3 to know what you were visiting and trace the traffic back to you.