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If you want privacy guarantees do not install or use anything connected to the internet. Even HN - with stylometry and a motivated actor it's easy to correlate
by endisneigh 3y ago
If you want privacy guarantees do not install or use anything connected to the internet. Even HN - with stylometry and a motivated actor it's easy to correlate your username here with any other publicly written text. An even more motivated actor could do this with privately written text (you know, all of those data breaches).
Stay offline for your safety.
This is obviously unrealistic for many in the modern era. So now the question is - regardless of how much or what is collected, which companies are least likely to sell you out, by any means? By pretty much any criteria Apple is near the top of that list. Though, they're not the very, very top. Companies like Mullvad offer services in a way such that nothing is collected at all, and since you can pay cash in theory no way to come back to you.
Personally, for me - it's more important to think about whether or not you trust the organization you're dealing with, than whether or not they're collecting stuff or not. Of the big tech companies I'd say I trust Apple the most from their track record, but I am not under any illusion that I have absolute privacy while using Apple products, and neither should you.
- appplication 3y agoUnless you’re a public figure with troves of available text to your name, I don’t really buy the idea that stylometry could be used to identify normal folks or even link accounts between platforms. I would need to see some reality compelling evidence. Especially because character limits and different use patterns for different platforms could throw a wrench in things.
- renewiltord 3y agoThe HN stylometry site (now dead) was actually pretty effective.
- LoganDark 3y agoThere are probably plenty of people on here with easily identifiable writing styles, either due to neurodivergence (like me) or whatever else. Though, it wouldn't be necessary for me because my username is just my real name and I already use it everywhere anyway.
- airstrike 3y agoyou can easily solve stylometry by just passing all your comments through an LLM that rewrites them in a different style or by creating throwaway accounts for each thread (not hard to automate either)
- e93849 3y agoApple collects your data for the same reason Google & Meta do: to sell ads. The only thing Apple is better at is PR.
- Scoring6931 3y agoUnless you're Chinese, right? https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/technology/apple-china-censorship-data.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/technology/apple-china-ce...
- JohnFen 3y agoPersonally, I literally cannot think of a tech company that I trust even a little bit.