The most common argument used in defense of mass surveillance is ‘If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear’. Try saying that to women in the US states where abortion has suddenly become illegal. Say it to investigative journalists in authoritarian countries. Saying ‘I have nothing to h...
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I love Mullvad. You don't see them in any ads (No "this video is brought to you by Mullvad VPN") and you can pay them any way you'd like... Including cash!
The way I explain it to people who say that to me is that it doesn't even have to be something illegal or sketchy.
Everyone...and I mean everyone has something about themselves that, were it common knowledge, would change the way your friends and family look at you. Maybe for the better. Maybe not. And if you, for whatever reason, don't want that they be known, then so be it. That's totally your decision, not the governments.
If you want to let your freak flag fly proudly, go ahead. You have my full love and support. If you want to fly your freak flag privately and not have it be common knowledge. You also have my full love and support.
It's not about "having something to hide". It's about the you that you choose to present to the world. And that is a fundamental right.
It's also about the fact that social standards and laws change. What may be perfectly acceptable today, could cost you your job or freedom in a few years.
Look at how many people lost their jobs, careers, and social standings because of old tweets that were resurfaced years later. That's not even legal changes, just social propriety changes. The internet used to be the Wild West. People would go out with guns blazing, hootin ' and a hollerin'. Then several years later we found ourselves in this socially progressive identity focused environment and shit people said in passing, likely without any thought at all, suddenly became part of their public identity.
Now imagine that there's a drastic change in the law. Today you're celebrating pride month, and 5 years from now homosexuality is outlawed retroactively... Seems preposterous, but it's really not. We need our privacy, from both the government and corporations.
I've got a bit of a VPN question if anyone wants to educate a newbie a little. When I tried a VPN (Mullvad actually!) it defaulted to Sweden but then accessing my banking information didn't work. If I switch a VPN to reflect that I'm somewhere randomly in the USA, is that still sufficient protection?
for my use case, that'd be good enough, i don't want my school/building admins to snoop on the websites i visit, and don't want to fear academic repercussions for torrenting and such
though if you think your government is out to get you, then tunneling to another country is probably best!
Nothing that serious, thankfully. Just want to obfuscate my data and leave as little of an impression on the internet as I can. Good advice, thank you!
I've torrented in the US and haven't been hit with anything. So I think it should be fine as long as you vpn anywhere. Except maybe very totalitarian countries.