this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2026
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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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Currently on an enjoyable journey of de-googling, upping privacy, data sovereignty and so on.

Apps that do this just get it.

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[–] hiramfromthechi@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I can’t emphasize how important it is for you to control your phone, especially notifications. Every notification is literally a mind hijacking attempt. Regardless of the type of notification, it’s something that disrupts our thinking and our flow.

Some of them are necessary—but most aren’t.

All the native apps will of course try to get as much permission from you as possible, including notifications. Don’t allow this permission freely.

Get really strict about which apps need to send you notifications, and when. Take it from a dude who used to give free reign to all apps for notifications.

Once I started thinking in a more digitally minimalistic way, it made a huge difference.

Running GrapheneOS actually helped with this a lot. But you don’t need GOS to do this and feel the difference.

I got some notifications turned on, but most of em are silent. So they still get delivered, but they’re not time-sensitive. They’ll be there when I check my phone next. I don’t need em interrupting whatever I was doing or thinking.

TL;DR: Be strict about which notifications you allow, and when. It’ll do wonders for your thinking, productivity, and mental health.

[–] ropatrick@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Thanks for your thoughts. Totally agree.

I was in the verge of installing GOS but I think there is an issue with a first responder app that we are about to get access to, throwing errors of a phone seems to be rooted or similar, so I'll have to check that it more. If its a non issue, GOS will be in play.

[–] nixukty@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

Lemmy also doesn't support unifiedpush so it's impractical to send notifications lol

[–] favoredponcho@lemmy.zip 58 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

@aeharding@vger.social is a local hero

[–] aeharding@vger.social 65 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] HereIAm@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Your name is purple! Witch!

[–] regedit@lemmy.zip 5 points 2 days ago

Witch!

They turned me into a newt!

[–] lonesomeCat@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 days ago

Installed Lineage 4 months ago. My phone uptime is 4 months.

[–] cRazi_man@europe.pub 66 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

There's de-googling and privacy and all....thats all great. But it is a completely separate thing to take back attention from distractions, bullshit notifications and letting tech overlords reach into our daily lives and disrupting our focus and attention whenever they feel like it. Notification real estate is hugely valuable and the default for every app should be "off", with further fine tuning as needed. Better bulk settings are needed for notification settings adjustment.

Technology Connections has done a brilliant video about notifications recently.

[–] upandatom@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

I agree completely and believe it's an issue for people with disabilities too. Hopefully more and more people are taking notice and speaking out. I bet good videos help raise awareness too!

[–] irate944@piefed.social 32 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I jumped on their github page and skimmed a few issues, and found this: https://github.com/aeharding/voyager/issues/1027

It looks like they just need to figure out a couple of issues before they implement notifications, so it might happen someday. But taking into account how old these issues are, it's not their priority.

[–] kingofras@lemmy.world 17 points 3 days ago (6 children)

You’d still be able to just leave it turned off. It’s quite peaceful to lemmy without.

[–] JayGray91@piefed.social 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

While I am still trying to wean off reddit, seeing the equivalent mail icon light up on threadiverse does not entail dread like on reddit

At least for now since I've only been replying to whimsical, silly etc. posts and comments lol

[–] Albbi@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 days ago

I'll add to your dose fediverse fun instead of reddit comment regret.

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[–] deranger@sh.itjust.works 26 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Been using Voyager since it was called Wefwef for both mobile and desktop Lemmy, love it.

[–] freijon@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 days ago

I just installed Voyager yesterday evening. I had to switch instances. On the new instance my old client (Thunder) didn't load images consistently. I like it so far.

[–] Sunny@slrpnk.net 6 points 2 days ago

Wow same here, had actually forgotten it used to be called WefWef until you mentioned it.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 17 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I too disable notifications on all my news sources. They are reserved for personal connections only.

My dad on the other hand, often doesn't see my messages, because he has always the notification stack full and doesn't notice the new ones. Same in E-Mail inbox.

And can we please outlaw pre-selected newsletters? They are annoying anyway, if you don't actively choose them.

[–] s38b35M5@lemmy.world 16 points 3 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

That really is nice, right? I also like when my apps have no mechanism to connect to the internet, so you don't have to worry about trackers, data exfiltration, etc.

[–] sompreno@lemmy.zip 10 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I mean considering lemmy is public information and messages are unencrypted...

At this point, I gave up a long time ago on hiding my opinions. I’d rather die for my ability to speak out than to stay silent.

[–] astropenguin5@lemmy.world 16 points 2 days ago (1 children)

But I know that and choose to make public statements. Plus, there are ways to be anonymous-ish about it still

[–] sompreno@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

True, but my comment was about how it was irrelevant that voyager doesn't allow tracking through notifications when Lemmy is inherently insecure. Although in an open communication like Lemmy the insecurity doesn't matter as much.

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (8 children)

oh, I thought OP's point is Voyager does not even want you to bother with notifications that could make you more addicted

edit: someone else has taken it that way too: https://europe.pub/comment/7070900

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[–] astropenguin5@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Ah fair, didn't think of it like that

[–] ropatrick@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Hi folks.

It was mainly my joy that an app's default position is "we don't do notifications". I've never seen that before. Usually one is rushing to turn them off.

I guess its privacy on two levels; privacy from potential tracking, but also privacy from intrusion, constant attention etc.

I get that Lemmy is public and it could be irrelevant if my notifications are on or not. Its just such a refreshing position to see in an app.

[–] Confining@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 3 days ago

I’m using voyager right now and I love it.

[–] blinfabian@feddit.nl 7 points 3 days ago

no it doesnt get it, i actually tried to turn it on but they dont have the option :/

notifications off by default is good tho

[–] jestho@lemmy.zip 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'm still not sure if those are a second pair of whiskers, or if it's a Wallace & Gromit style mouth

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