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I left gmail for self-hosted email. I host a matrix server. I left reddit for Lemmy. I left Android for iPhone. These and many other decisions have been abo

I left gmail for self-hosted email. I host a matrix server. I left reddit for Lemmy. I left Android for iPhone. These and many other decisions have been about increasing data privacy. In a sense, I stopped working for a corporation and pursued my own life for similar reasons. If others are telling me what to do, I am being limited, because I have found my own ideas to be better. Instead of being bitter about that, it is better to execute on them. In the pursuit of privacy, many other things snap into place. A questioning of authority. A questioning of how society is run. A tracing of the root causes. It becomes very clear the situation we are in on a planetary scale. That clarity spreads to a realization of the extremely limited and self serving ambitions held by those driving the collective human vehicle, whether corporate or government. Long story short, yes, privacy affects my decisions, and it is one of many starting points to reach some obvious and inevitable conclusions.

kleiba 2y ago
Cool! I keep hearing that self-hosted email gets discriminated against these days, in terms of delivery rejection. Is that your experience, too?
- survirtual 2y ago
  Yes, this is true. But I rarely send emails, it is basically the corporate communication channel these days. I use a wildcard domain and give each business a different email, for security and privacy. I almost never need to respond. Generally, when responding, the email is always accepted.
- coretx 2y ago
  If you have your mail server in order, think SPF, DKIM/DMARC, this rarely if ever happens and when it does you will be notified. These days, i know more private individuals who configured their mail server well than that i know businesses who do.
FuturisticGoo 2y ago
One of your choice felt odd to me, why choose iPhone over privacy focused forks of Android like Graphene?
- survirtual 2y ago
  Graphene has questionable dev choices, especially given the limited hardware options -- basically, Google hardware. I do not trust Google at all anymore. Their interests align directly against privacy.
  - DANmode 2y ago
    Their hardware aligns with security, because you cannot have one without the other. The software is where their privacy invasions begin. Upon further inspection, they're the only place to find something resembling secure hardware. Just don't run their software or use their services.
  - coretx 2y ago
    If you can't attack their code/work, you attack the person ? Atleast one of their devs is being gangstalked by Kiwifarms and has powerfull adversaries in the weapons industry who work against him and his work. Please be careful with your criticism because there is entire troll-farms/PR-bureaus out to hurt them. Glowies are probably not happy with them either, so that's a tough world they live in .
    - survirtual 2y ago
      ? The questionable dev choices I am talking about is such limited hardware support, pixel devices only being officially supported. That is Google hardware and I don't trust it. That isn't attacking a person, that is a direct criticism of a project.
      - coretx 2y ago
        Your argument puts the world upside down. Non supported hardware/platforms have limited support for the latest hard & software security features. Pixels simply lag least behind the curb compared to other devices. And if Google, Qualcomm or Intel for that matter where to be trusted they would have made onto the Wassenaar lists as Dual-Use goods already. There are limits to as far as you can go.
phyphy 2y ago
Privacy and closed source don't go hand in hand together unless you have a different opinion.
- survirtual 2y ago
  This is true in an ideal sense, but when it comes to phones, you have to look at the whole spectrum of the situation. Given you can sneak a SoC in a phone with backdoor access to everything, can you really ever make it secure? You need open source hardware along with software, and that just isn't where we are at. Apple is more aligned with privacy than other megacorps, so I trust their hardware more. I don't trust their software, but we need to make compromises in today's world to function. Android devices, on the other hand, I do not trust at all. Google / Samsung / etc all have high motivations to compromise security for profit, higher than Apple.
  - DANmode 2y ago
    > I don't trust their software, but we need to make compromises in today's world to function. Perhaps, but that's not one of them.

kleiba 2y ago

Cool! I keep hearing that self-hosted email gets discriminated against these days, in terms of delivery rejection. Is that your experience, too?

survirtual 2y ago
Yes, this is true. But I rarely send emails, it is basically the corporate communication channel these days. I use a wildcard domain and give each business a different email, for security and privacy. I almost never need to respond. Generally, when responding, the email is always accepted.
coretx 2y ago
If you have your mail server in order, think SPF, DKIM/DMARC, this rarely if ever happens and when it does you will be notified. These days, i know more private individuals who configured their mail server well than that i know businesses who do.

FuturisticGoo 2y ago

One of your choice felt odd to me, why choose iPhone over privacy focused forks of Android like Graphene?

survirtual 2y ago
Graphene has questionable dev choices, especially given the limited hardware options -- basically, Google hardware. I do not trust Google at all anymore. Their interests align directly against privacy.
- DANmode 2y ago
  Their hardware aligns with security, because you cannot have one without the other. The software is where their privacy invasions begin. Upon further inspection, they're the only place to find something resembling secure hardware. Just don't run their software or use their services.
- coretx 2y ago
  If you can't attack their code/work, you attack the person ? Atleast one of their devs is being gangstalked by Kiwifarms and has powerfull adversaries in the weapons industry who work against him and his work. Please be careful with your criticism because there is entire troll-farms/PR-bureaus out to hurt them. Glowies are probably not happy with them either, so that's a tough world they live in .
  - survirtual 2y ago
    ? The questionable dev choices I am talking about is such limited hardware support, pixel devices only being officially supported. That is Google hardware and I don't trust it. That isn't attacking a person, that is a direct criticism of a project.
    - coretx 2y ago
      Your argument puts the world upside down. Non supported hardware/platforms have limited support for the latest hard & software security features. Pixels simply lag least behind the curb compared to other devices. And if Google, Qualcomm or Intel for that matter where to be trusted they would have made onto the Wassenaar lists as Dual-Use goods already. There are limits to as far as you can go.

phyphy 2y ago

Privacy and closed source don't go hand in hand together unless you have a different opinion.

survirtual 2y ago
This is true in an ideal sense, but when it comes to phones, you have to look at the whole spectrum of the situation. Given you can sneak a SoC in a phone with backdoor access to everything, can you really ever make it secure? You need open source hardware along with software, and that just isn't where we are at. Apple is more aligned with privacy than other megacorps, so I trust their hardware more. I don't trust their software, but we need to make compromises in today's world to function. Android devices, on the other hand, I do not trust at all. Google / Samsung / etc all have high motivations to compromise security for profit, higher than Apple.
- DANmode 2y ago
  > I don't trust their software, but we need to make compromises in today's world to function. Perhaps, but that's not one of them.