Yes, this is the point: Search engines are harvesting YOU and YOUR SEARCH TERMS! TOR prevents that, and they don’t like it.

But if I can’t search for something simple like World Cup Results, without it timing out or blocking a suspected bot, what good is search? It feels sometimes like we are going to have to back to memorising URLs! 🤣

Mojeek in particular I find very challenging. Unless I put in a very specific and multi word search term, I never get close to what I want. And yes, I know I know, thats the point. Google makes it so easy that you only need to think your search term and they give you exactly what you want, but you pay the cost in privacy. If Mojeek is a model for how raw/clean search engines work, then its people that need to change, almost more so than software. We need to be more patient and tolerant, be more specific in our search activities, and keep in mind that its a pain in the hole because we care about our privacy.

Its a big change though, lots of behaviour change required, almost like a detox or rehab, to be unconditioned from the convenience we are accustomed to.

I tried Tor for a while but it was too clunky and when used in conjunction with a search engine like Mojeek, was unusable. Whatever it was doing in the background made it impossible to search, with most failing due to suspected bot activity.

Using Ironfox now and its a bit better. I agree, the underlying stuff is complex so maybe I dont have as much protection with Ironfox than Tor, but I dont know enough about that to know enough about it, if you get me.

So I read what people are saying in posts like this and make a call based on that. I’m happy that I’m better protected than Chrome etc. so that is enough for now.

Its really SO complex the whole privacy (umbrella term) area, boggles my brain, but I’m thankful for people on here that know more than I do. Appreciate y’all.

Its really worth trying to ditch some of them. Its a good feeling to not feel like reaching for the phone all the time. If I do, its just a quick look at Voyager, maybe Email (although I use it for very little) and before I know it I’m sitting there with nothing else to open, hovering my finger, or staring at the screen wondering what I will open next. Then I realise theres nothing else there vying for my attention and I out the phone down. Thats a good feeling.

I have found that I spend more time looking at family photos from over the years, which is lovely.

You can do it!

Totally agree. I have been away from all social media for years, with the final two, LinkedIn and Reddit nuked last year. I spent a full year being as helpful as I possibly could on Reddit, in specific subs, went out of the way to help people etc., but fuck me the toxicity in that place was unreal.

I spend very little time on my phone now, with Voyager the only app I use that connects me to communities, i.e. this one, but its still hard to get away from the heavy stuff. I don’t know where people have the time and energy to be so obstructive and challenging. If they put a fraction of that energy into helping people, it would change the world!

Being on the phone less has been great, but its just a pity that the only place I do go is a bit of a challenge at times. There’s so many good people here, its hard for them to keep their heads above the surface at times.

Maybe I need to curate even further!

To be honest, I came here to get away from the toxicity of algorithm driven social media, reddit etc., but I find myself as angered here as anywhere else. While the algorithms play their role in generating anger, I’m finding more and more that people are as much of the problem as anything else.

Yes it’s great that I can tailor my feed to exactly what I want, and that works fine, but it seems they are riddled with disgruntled, pissed off, angry, paranoid people that don’t seem to be happy with anything before them, and seem intent on annoying everyone around them.

It was a breath of fresh air at first. Subscribe to X, Y and Z, only receive updates on X, Y and Z, but it was quickly ruined by the people, not the algorithm.

It’s getting increasingly difficult to exist online now without this toxicity, and we can’t keep blaming the algorithms.

Anyway, maybe I was a bit naive about what to expect, but its disappointing. We are running out if enjoyable spaces to exist in online and thats a shame.

Lol, what I’m hearing is that unless all my family and friends move to a better messaging app, they are dead to me.

Seems legit.

Edit: How many livers have you stolen?

I’ve been using LibreTube and it’s the pure solid finest.

Am I right in understanding that if you move to Session, Element, SimpleX etc., you can still only message people on those particular apps? So if you (say) move to Session and only 5 of your 300 contacts are on it, you can only message those 5 people and have to use WhatsApp for the other 295, because let’s face it, they are probably on that?

I ask because I see so many people say “I moved to X app”, but surely it’s more complicated than that if the critical mass are still on the likes of WhatsApp?

It can’t be as simple as just moving to another app, surely?

I think it’s still very early in development. From what I have seen/tried, it’s not fit for regular Joe consumption yet, and in fairness they are clear about that themselves. I love the concept though, I hope it becomes more mainstream.

I guess when you pay with a credit card, theres limited information being shared. Taking things at face value, you are paying for a service that wont track you, see your data, give away your data etc.

Looking at it in terms of privacy vs. anon is a good way to look at it. If you want anonymity, you won’t be using a credit card I assume, unless it’s a throwaway you can top up. I imagine people who want full anonymity would be using stuff that’s more specialised and niche than the likes of Proton etc., likely FOSS stuff, home servers, services without login/registration.

Privacy is like a step away from anonymity in that regard I think.

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.

Good shout on the Fossify suite. Have replaced a few G products with those.

Excellent list of FOSS stuff here which helped me a lot.

https://github.com/pluja/awesome-privacy

Ah OK thanks. Its not an app as such. I get you now. I was searxh8ng for an app or UI install called Photon!

Thank you!

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.

Can you tell me more about that? I was able to see this thread on those links but not familiar with Photon. I searched a bit but a few different techie things came up.

You had me at “don’t even bother with most apps any more…” 😁

I can’t unsee that now. 😫

OK I have you. You dont need the internet because you have the internet in your terabyte farm. Pretty cool.

Thanks for the detailed reply.

One final question, I’m sure its dark at the bottom of the deep rabbit hole you are in, what do you do for batteries for your head torch?! 😀

I love the sound of this but can I ask, if the net goes down and you hardly notice, where do you get your ‘net’ from? Or is it that your intranet doesn’t need internet as such and everything is just local?

I might have answered my own question there but I’m interested to understand it a bit more.

Thanks!

Ireland hopes it goes well for you. 🇮🇪

Yes indeed.