How tf do you even do that? I get how you would on a stock proprietary OS. But there are open OSes, and then how? Doubt something this complex and autonomous could be hidden like the XZ backdoor. If some OS complies - wouldn’t people fork it to remove the malware?
And then there are desktops, which are much easier and more universal to make private…
There is no such thing as a binary choice between “absolutely private” and “absolutely non-private”.
Simple Mobile Tools are now continued in form of Fossify. It does have an SMS app.
No, I mean not Njalla-like services, but normal registrars like Porkbun.
Fair point about credit lookups… I wonder if you could use a real person’s info like this.
Yeah, but quite a few of them DO accept crypto - then it’s fine I guess?
But the JS is served to the browser each time the page loads, you can’t be sure it stays the same between loads. Sure, this is the same problem as malicious updates, but still exaggerated - the opportunity to slip in altered code is “every time you open the page” rather than “every update”. Plus much more convenient to do targeting.
I would rather not use KYC even for low-sensitivity transactions. Because I am afraid of such sensitive info leaking. Sure, I do KYC for things like phone service already - but would avoid it at any cost where it can be done.
It asked for your phone number? That is the thing that angered me the most. I wonder why you would share this rather than ask a waiter and say you don’t have Whatsapp, for example.
You would at least be able to examine the link first.
Yeah, I fully agree! Point was different though… How does it relate to your statement of “there is no privacy on the internet”? Such awareness might help gain said privacy in each area, from different threats.
That is a completely different issue from “not having privacy at all” though.
For my current phone, I did - I chose a Pixel. But I got aware about OS privacy while in the middle of using an unsupported phone, so for a while, I treated it as a “public place”. So making a phone private may not be viable for everyone.
Plus, the supported phones may be more expensive. Even my current one was $300, which is a lot for me, in addition to not being officially sold here.
That is not “no privacy” though. Absolute privacy is probably unachievable indeed, but you can be pretty high on its spectrum.
There are indeed shades of grey. Not only the presence of encryption itself matters, but the metadata, as well as details of the implementation. For example, Signal has all the messages encrypted - but it has the capability to know the identities of everyone and to build their social graph due to centralization.
The problem I have with Signal is that it itself pushes people onto the “shitty operating systems”. It does not allow registering from desktop, at least officially. There are workarounds, but they’re cumbersome (especially for a non-technical person, whom Signal is supposed to appeal to), and the official client outright tells you go to use a phone first. And even then, apparently the desktop client is not even full-featured, and not the priority.
I know there are degoogled OSes (running Graphene myself), but you’d need to get lucky or choose a phone with this in mind, while a random given laptop is likely to be able to run Linux.
My 7a cost $300 this summer. Very expensive for me but I don’t regret. 8 is around $400 in that store now that 9 is out, maybe it would drop in price with time (or as 9a comes out?).
How do people who don’t have smartphones do it? Is there some harder roundabout way?
You can at least swap to BTC from XMR. Although I avoid that because BTC has big fees.
Yeah, point is - just how thoroughly do they check if the info is fake? Like, you reveal a realistic name and a real address somewhere.
This is not binary like this either. There are a TON of variables.
All depends on whom you want to be private against, as well as how much effort they want to put into getting your information. There is no “absolute privacy”… But there is “requiring more effort from the chosen adversary than you’re worth”.