this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2024
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Privacy

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Techlore - Unsubscribe (lemmy.sdf.org)
submitted 3 months ago by ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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After their shameless Synology shilling a couple of weeks ago, today Techlore is trying to sell me Proton Pass.

Is Proton Pass a bad password manager? I don't know. It seems okay, but I have no opinion.

What I do know is that Techlore is affiliated with Proton, which makes their newest 10-minute video - in which they reveal the affiliation only at the last minute - 10 minutes of my life I'll never get back.

Unfortunately, In the business they're in, the merest hint of a bias kind of invalidates any advice they give. As the saying goes, when you point out other people's body odor, you'd better make sure you took a shower yourself.

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[โ€“] paradox2011@lemmy.ml 17 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I've been following Techlore from the early days Go Incognito, and I've definitely noticed a change in his content too. He seems to have lost some of his idealism and is more focused on convenience and the just works mentality. The shift started to happen around the time he started collaborating with the admin team from Privacy guides more often.

I get it that a person may get to a place where their approach to privacy takes on a more general and unfocused approach, but his videos do seem a little tone deaf to the specific audience he spent years creating ๐Ÿ˜•

[โ€“] sunzu@kbin.run 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

the admin team from Privacy guides

did not these guys get discredited?

[โ€“] jet@hackertalks.com 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Not to my knowledge, privacy guides is still the gold standard of open decision making.

But if there is something, I'd love to know about it as well

[โ€“] paradox2011@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'm unaware of any specific failings as well, but I think there can be some issue with the very specific set of priorities that shape their recommendations. It was one of their main admins that corresponded for Techlore at the Synology conference in the video mentioned by the OP, promoting closed source software. That's all based on your values though, as closed source software can still be privacy respecting. All in all they are a good resource, but it seems like they, along with Techlore, have shifted focus to convenience and centralization instead of more rigorous compartmentalization and FOSS.

[โ€“] jet@hackertalks.com 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I just checked their website, they don't actually recommend Synology in the website in any of the guides I could find.

So I think it's reasonable for a person to have personal opinions they state, but in their official work not expose those opinions.

And the criticism is fair, everyone should be open to feedback, but I don't see a smoking gun here that discredits the work they've done so far

[โ€“] paradox2011@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 months ago

Certainly not, as a resource they are invaluable. Just a few trends that I personally take in to account when it comes to their leadership. Kind of like recognizing a news outlet has a slight political leaning.

[โ€“] sunzu@kbin.run 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

last i heard is that they did some weird shit on reddit community and locked out original community

I am talking out of my ass tho

[โ€“] paradox2011@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 months ago

Yeah there was drama between the current team and the original founder of Privacytools.io

Long story short, they disagreed on how to manage the site and had differences regarding ownership of contributed content, so the bulk of the team started up their own site in an effort to separate from the founder. Probably good given the monetization efforts the founder was starting to incorporate in the site (and is currently doing last i checked).

It does seem wrong to me that they archived the privacytools.io reddit though, I can only take that as them wnting to drive traffic to their new site and subreddit. They should have let their work stand on its own merits.

[โ€“] refalo@programming.dev 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

I don't think the majority of people would agree with your stance on this.

the merest hint of a bias kind of invalidates any advice they give

One could make the argument that the entire point of all of these privacy guides and recommendations... is bias.

Also I bet many of the more mainstream users want to know about partners like proton and synology... and I think putting that at the very end of a video is quite a fair way to do that and already goes way above and beyond what everyone else is doing. Basically I think you're being extremely unreasonable.

[โ€“] yonder@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I think it would be reasonable to have some medium sized text in the corner at the beginning of the video describing what kind of relationship Techlore has with its partners. Something like: "We received money from Corp to make this video about their product. We had full control about what statements we made"

[โ€“] refalo@programming.dev 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Agreed, that is a good compromise IMO. I know people will still disagree and say "the statements they made with full control are biased" but whatever, can't please everyone. I think those types of people don't want any corporation to be involved in anything in the whole world and they have extremely unrealistic expectations of people and how one should live.

[โ€“] sunzu@kbin.run 4 points 3 months ago

Advertising hoes don't get second chances...

[โ€“] Oha@lemmy.ohaa.xyz 2 points 3 months ago (3 children)

That guy also told people to use google android instead of graphene a few years ago

[โ€“] Ilandar@aussie.zone 10 points 3 months ago

No he didn't, this is misinformation. Henry from Techlore explained that he was switching back to stock Android, mainly to take advantage of the Google Advanced Protection Program. The description of the video literally reads:

As stressed in the video: This is part of my own personal journey and isn't necessarily a recommendation for all of you.

In the final section of the video he very clearly explains that this is his personal choice and that he is NOT recommending people copy him. He said this is an objectively bad decision for some threat models and that he was only doing it to get ahead of the curve when it came to potential security issues in the future.

[โ€“] jet@hackertalks.com 2 points 3 months ago (3 children)

What was his rationale for recommending stock Android over graphene?

[โ€“] Oha@lemmy.ohaa.xyz 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

better "security" if I remember correctly

[โ€“] jet@hackertalks.com 2 points 3 months ago

Not sure if I buy that explanation, it's rough to say AOSP is more secure then graphene.

If they had said trusting Google is necessary anyway, so you might as well trust them for the software and the hardware, and not introduce any extra parties. That's a reasonable thing to say. At least that would be an interesting and defensible argument.

[โ€“] sunzu@kbin.run 3 points 3 months ago

I think because he sold out and i have seen other spyuber suggest some watered down bullshit. But if there is a good reason, it would be good to know.

[โ€“] Ilandar@aussie.zone 2 points 3 months ago

I explained it here. The person you are replying to is just straight up lying about the video in question.

[โ€“] krolden@lemmy.ml -1 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[โ€“] sunzu@kbin.run 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

how does that link prove your point?

[โ€“] krolden@lemmy.ml -2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I dont really have a point if I did its probably dont use either android or iOS.

[โ€“] sunzu@kbin.run 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

aint newer iphones and pixels "apparently" can't be unlocked by that tool?

[โ€“] krolden@lemmy.ml 0 points 3 months ago

Did you not read the slides

[โ€“] jet@hackertalks.com 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

I independently can endorse Synology, I don't really follow tech lore though. As far as solutions for boxes you put in the back of the closet and forget about, you're going to be hard-pressed for something more hands-off. So I don't know if they were being a shill, or just having a genuine endorsement like myself

[โ€“] ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

If you have any interest in promoting who you endorse, you're tainted and your integrity comes into question. It's that simple.

You in your heart of hearts may genuinely be trying to be impartial, but we can't know that for sure because we don't have access to your heart of hearts. The only proof of your independence is keeping whichever company's interests you promote entirely separate from your own interests.

When Techlore has affiliate links, or accept free flights to Taiwan from the companies whose products they review, they lose all credibility. If you do that too, you do too.

[โ€“] refalo@programming.dev 2 points 3 months ago

accurate username