Paddy66 @ Paddy66 @lemmy.ml Posts 8Comments 41Joined 2 mo. ago
I'll change the normie thing in the post - that was a mistake to use that term regarding privacy knowledge.
How could I reshape the message to be more about the hostility of the information space? Where would you start? I do talk about elections being swung, but since I've dumpted all billionaire-owned social media (and newspapers/tv news) then I'm actually not in a good position to write specific stories about hostile info. Your guidance is welcomed!
You're mostly right about self-hosting, but in my 'normie' journey (I'm using it correctly there) into self hosting I've found that there are actually a few wins that non-techie people can achieve: Jellyfin, Syncthing and Calibre. They all give back some data sovereignty. but I suppose until I can explain that, it's probably best not to even mention it.
As for the student energy vibe? lol fair. I'm rubbish at design, and probably so immature that my mental age stopped then 😂 In time, and if I can get any funding, I will pay someone to help with marketing and design. Someone quoted my £1200 to get some better visuals on there, but I just cannot afford that atm.
One thing I would like to do is gamify the process of changing away from big tech, but I'm not sure how to do that. Perhaps some web games baked into the site?
I've had a bit of success with this - a cousin for example was shocked by a report I sent him about the RTB system - but I worry that if I send too many of those kinds of info then people will think I'm some kind of conspiracy theorist. 😱
You're right. I replied to someone else about this - I'll change the post.
Totally - if the same functionality isn't there, most people won't switch.
What about having both running in parallel for a while?
This. You're so right. It's stories that move people not facts - I constantly forget this!
I've made a note to use the blog to put the messages in story form - case studies.
Thank you for writing that!
This is a VERY interesting perspective - thank you for sharing!
You are lucky in Norway to have that level of trust, but I'd never considered the flip side: that it would create a dangerous apathy about privacy.
Your two angles are great:
- This is so true but for some it is so nebulous, and it countries like the UK (and especially if you are white and not struggling financially) then there is an exceptionalism that creeps into the thinking. Probably because we've never been invaded and occupied. I was in Norway last year, and Denmark this year, and no one wants that to happen again. It seems to have shaped thinking a lot - correct me if i'm wrong 😊
- This is a big one - privacy is a collective problem. It's a team sport. I have had some success with this argument.
What's very hard is to convey to people just how amazingly powerful and efficient big tech's profiling models really are. Trillions of computations a minute to keep your creepy digital twin up to date. Most people cannot get their head round the scale of it, and I'm struggling to visualise it for them!
oh yes, convenience.... a big problem when moving from the alternatives.
And I have to acknowlege that I'm an unusual case - I would rather use a less-good service than give my data to a better one. I know most people don't think like that.
That's why the alternatives we recommend are usually the zero knowledge encrypted ones, and they need to have a good experience. But privacy by design is sadly not that widely adopted in products. It has been increasing though, but just very slowly.
And about your point to hit the problem when mass change can happen e.g. political, legal - that is more the domain of our friends at other orgs like EFF, noyb, The Citizens etc. But you're right, that is where change needs to happen. Not easy when the big tech firms lobby so hard and throw money at the problem.
First of all, it's May 4th so happy Star Wars day Han Solo!
Your points land... hard. Yes it is so messed up that privacy has been pushed on the end user as 'their problem to fix with consent choice'. As you all know here it's not a real choice.
Yes this should all be solved at the regulatory / gov level, but whilst the EU has been doing some great things recently, and the US has just kicked Apple and Google and Meta in the balls for antitrust, it's never enough - there's just too much lobbying and money washing around.
So, sadly, it does come down to the individual. My position is "if huge numbers of people starve the system of their behavioural data, then the surveillance economy is less effective, and perhaps other business models will have a chance". Do you think that holds water?
Damn. that is creepy. Similar to the comment someone else left about stalking....
Maybe I'll so a series of case studies via the blog - thank you for sharing this!
noted, and you're right.
I actually mis-applied that term in my post. I've been trying to learn about tech, and self hosting in particular, along this journey. I found that 'normies' is the term that tech-savvy people apply to people who don't know about tech - i.e. me! - and I started using it. In the sense of "these install instructions will never work with normies".
In this context I shouldn't have used it to refer to people who do not care about data privacy. I'll edit my post.
Thank you for pointing that out!
lol I thought this was a guerrilla IT warfare post where you snuck in and did it, but you actually did it with permission.... 😂
yeah that happens sometimes, and I have no idea why. The web hosting people told me the encryption certs are fine and everything's working, but it sometimes does that 🤷🏼♂️
I built it myself, using 2005 html skills, so it's probably something I've done..... but give it a few more goes, or take off the VPN and try. We have no trackers in the site so you'll be safe.
https://distrosea.com/ this is amazing for previewing linux OS flavours right in your browser, no need for a USB stick or installation! Linux Mint, Zorin, Ubuntu and Fedora are the winners for me in terms of being normie friendly.
I've put together lists of alternatives on this site: https://www.rebeltechalliance.org/
That does all sound much more equitable. But don't you just end up with a different 1% controlling everything, as per every communist state in the past? And isn't that because not everyone is a worker - you have to have the admin layer at the top, who are deciding what is 'best for society', and they can (and due to human nature usually do) most decide what is best for themselves.
What you describe sounds MUCH better for the majority of people - but I worry about the unaccountability of the ruling admin layer.
Does communism/socialism have rules for mitigating that (which haven't been followed by communist states, but could be)?
see, this is the problem - I've avoided thinking about politics forever, and now I'm not sure about the main concepts 😂
I've always equated high taxes with socialism - so long as those taxes go towards services and redistribution of wealth.
OK - so what *is *socialism? (the main tenets)
very interesting points!
I've just started a non-profit (to try to reduce/undermine surveillance capitalism) - and we'll probably build software along the way. That is entrepreneurship, but not profit focused. However, we would need to be funded and paid to make it work.
How should I frame this in your way of thinking?
ah... bugger. That's the link I used. I'll see if I can find another from the person who posted it.
e.g. there's this https://swicg.github.io/activitypub-data-portability/ - is that being looked at by the people developing the protocol?