This guy is fascinating talking about privacy and internet security. He has info on degoogleing some phones. He reports that it can be quite functional the biggest diff is he needed another app for google maps but he said it worked well. The big plus? Google spys so much a clean phone doubles battery run time. He also says there is no hope for iPhone.
At 17 min he talks about an AWS replacement
Re: Anyone interested in internet privacy?
Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2021 12:49 pm
by fatjack
I'll have to give them a watch. I can easily believe Apple is near impossible to get privacy on as much as Apple loves full control. They're probably the only company as bad as microsoft.
Re: Anyone interested in internet privacy?
Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2021 1:58 pm
by bleys21
I've watched some of the open source phone projects over the years. I wish more people actually cared about their privacy, if so, these phones would be a reality right now, as they just don't have enough money to move quickly on the designs and builds.
I purchased NordVPN this year, and have been using it to confuse the hell out of Google (and others), as now it seems I'm traveling all over the country, and sometimes other countries
Re: Anyone interested in internet privacy?
Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2021 2:51 pm
by Mossman
nomadh wrote: ↑Sun Jan 17, 2021 12:05 pm
This guy is fascinating talking about privacy and internet security. He has info on degoogleing some phones. He reports that it can be quite functional the biggest diff is he needed another app for google maps but he said it worked well. The big plus? Google spys so much a clean phone doubles battery run time. He also says there is no hope for iPhone.
I've watched a bunch of that guy's videos. He's on point with this stuff! I'm in the process of de-googling my life. I've been using a VPN, DuckDuckGo, and secure browsers (Firefox, Brave and Tor), and trying to practice internet "hygiene" as much as possible for years now, but I still have big gaps in my game. Particularly on my cell phone.
Apple users are indeed SOL when it comes to privacy. One of the (several) reasons why I'll never own an iPhone.
Re: Anyone interested in internet privacy?
Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2021 4:05 pm
by nomadh
fatjack wrote: ↑Sun Jan 17, 2021 12:49 pm
I'll have to give them a watch. I can easily believe Apple is near impossible to get privacy on as much as Apple loves full control. They're probably the only company as bad as microsoft.
Funny thing is he didnt seem nearly as worried about ms. Not that they werent as invasive, they just werent as good at it yet. Funny the apple security is considered the best. But that's only at keeping other than apple out.
Re: Anyone interested in internet privacy?
Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2021 4:23 pm
by fatjack
I always thought of Apple security as not letting people out of the Appleverse, vs Ms main thing being you will pay all license fees or I'll own you. whereas Linux is RTFM it's free. And no they're not that bad at least not now.
Re: Anyone interested in internet privacy?
Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2021 5:23 pm
by Mossman
fatjack wrote: ↑Sun Jan 17, 2021 4:23 pm I always thought of Apple security as not letting people out of the Appleverse, vs Ms main thing being you will pay all license fees or I'll own you. whereas Linux is RTFM it's free. And no they're not that bad at least not now.
I like the idea of Linux, and I've set up a dual-boot on my computer several times, only to abandon it for Windows every time. What kills it for me is that figuring out how to make every little thing work (that you could to take for granted on Windows) can turn into a full-time job. I'm not tech-averse. I do have an aptitude for this stuff, but when you end up spending more time seeking out information than actually using the software, it can get pretty demoralizing and frustrating. Especially when you need to get something done right away, and don't have time to spend an entire evening just figuring out how to get a program to run before you can actually use it.
I also found the Linux community to be less than helpful and inviting, and I got tired of being treated like an idiot, and told: "go back to your garbage OS" by some snarky Linux hipster every time I asked a simple question on a forum.
It's been a while since I last waded into the Linux pool, though, so maybe things have gotten better? I certainly hope so, because I don't trust Microsoft any more than I trust Google, and if MS follows through with their threat to switch Windows to a subscription model, there's no way in hell I'm paying for that.
Re: Anyone interested in internet privacy?
Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2021 10:16 am
by fatjack
Yeah those are real concerns. It can be a major pain to get something working if there are issues. Part of it is hardware part where the software is from. And you're right there are some snarky penisheads on the forums some worse than others. I wouldn't use debian arch or gentoo for that reason All great distros set up right but more work than I want and too many dicks. Best advice for learning Linux , dualboot windows use something like long term release Mint and if you need something quick and linux is a problm use windows untill you get the linux program working. of course main difference between windows programs working and linux windows is for the money and linux is done for free.
Re: Anyone interested in internet privacy?
Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2021 11:03 am
by tobijohn
I love the idea of VPN but I recently discovered the hit bandwidth takes with it enabled (I can enable it through Norton 360). Try it with one of those internet speed test sites (I used https://www.speedtest.net/). Depending on your needs though, you might not mind or even notice but with the client based trading software i use that pushes a large amount of download data to the app, I can feel the lag...
Re: Anyone interested in internet privacy?
Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2021 1:31 pm
by bleys21
Yeah, there's definitely a performance hit, so I don't have it enabled all the time. I mainly use it to confuse the internet monitoring police on certain sites. That said, I've found using the US VPN servers is not bad at all for web surfing, I barely notice it. Going over to Sweden or anywhere in Europe, you start thinking maybe you're on dial up again lol (ok, its not that bad, but you really notice it!)
tobijohn wrote: ↑Mon Jan 18, 2021 11:03 am
I love the idea of VPN but I recently discovered the hit bandwidth takes with it enabled (I can enable it through Norton 360). Try it with one of those internet speed test sites (I used https://www.speedtest.net/). Depending on your needs though, you might not mind or even notice but with the client based trading software i use that pushes a large amount of download data to the app, I can feel the lag...
Re: Anyone interested in internet privacy?
Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2021 1:36 pm
by bleys21
Like Fatjack said, dual booting is a good idea. I use Ubuntu as my primary OS these days, but I have both a Win10 partition for gaming, and I also run Win10 via Virtualbox on Ubuntu for dealing with stuff like using Rig Manager to work with the Kemper Profiler, which works surprisingly well routing the USB through Linux to the virtual Win10 install.
Overall, I'd say almost all of the Linux distributions have become much easier to install and use for everyday tasks. Linux is still not great for gaming, but everything else seems most the same. Unless you have a specific Windows app you must have, I've found it to work fine. And the user community has become more friendly the last 3-5 years. Its much easier to find answers, and you don't get the snarky attitude for asking stuff anymore.
fatjack wrote: ↑Sun Jan 17, 2021 4:23 pm I always thought of Apple security as not letting people out of the Appleverse, vs Ms main thing being you will pay all license fees or I'll own you. whereas Linux is RTFM it's free. And no they're not that bad at least not now.
I like the idea of Linux, and I've set up a dual-boot on my computer several times, only to abandon it for Windows every time. What kills it for me is that figuring out how to make every little thing work (that you could to take for granted on Windows) can turn into a full-time job. I'm not tech-averse. I do have an aptitude for this stuff, but when you end up spending more time seeking out information than actually using the software, it can get pretty demoralizing and frustrating. Especially when you need to get something done right away, and don't have time to spend an entire evening just figuring out how to get a program to run before you can actually use it.
I also found the Linux community to be less than helpful and inviting, and I got tired of being treated like an idiot, and told: "go back to your garbage OS" by some snarky Linux hipster every time I asked a simple question on a forum.
It's been a while since I last waded into the Linux pool, though, so maybe things have gotten better? I certainly hope so, because I don't trust Microsoft any more than I trust Google, and if MS follows through with their threat to switch Windows to a subscription model, there's no way in hell I'm paying for that.
Re: Anyone interested in internet privacy?
Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2021 8:22 pm
by Mossman
bleys21 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 18, 2021 1:36 pm
Like Fatjack said, dual booting is a good idea. I use Ubuntu as my primary OS these days, but I have both a Win10 partition for gaming, and I also run Win10 via Virtualbox on Ubuntu for dealing with stuff like using Rig Manager to work with the Kemper Profiler, which works surprisingly well routing the USB through Linux to the virtual Win10 install.
Overall, I'd say almost all of the Linux distributions have become much easier to install and use for everyday tasks. Linux is still not great for gaming, but everything else seems most the same. Unless you have a specific Windows app you must have, I've found it to work fine. And the user community has become more friendly the last 3-5 years. Its much easier to find answers, and you don't get the snarky attitude for asking stuff anymore.
I've always run Linux as a dual-boot setup, as my experience with emulators/virtual boxes have always been less than satisfactory. I could never get WINE working properly, and didn't feel like it was worth the time to get it working. Eventually, I would find myself using Linux less and less, and I'd end up restoring my computer back to the way it was.
I do have an old laptop laying around that has driver issues, and I've thought about installing Linux on that, rather than trying to fix Windows. One thing that's nice about Linux is that it can breathe new life into old gear.
Re: Anyone interested in internet privacy?
Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2021 8:26 pm
by Mossman
tobijohn wrote: ↑Mon Jan 18, 2021 11:03 am
I love the idea of VPN but I recently discovered the hit bandwidth takes with it enabled (I can enable it through Norton 360). Try it with one of those internet speed test sites (I used https://www.speedtest.net/). Depending on your needs though, you might not mind or even notice but with the client based trading software i use that pushes a large amount of download data to the app, I can feel the lag...
Not all VPNs are equal. I use Express VPN and I've never experienced any kind of noticeable lag.
I always thought of Apple security as not letting people out of the Appleverse, vs Ms main thing being you will pay all license fees or I'll own you. whereas Linux is RTFM it's free. And no they're not that bad at least not now.