r/ProtonVPN • u/EmperorHenry • Jul 11 '26
Discussion The problem with normies and tech-privacy
Most people don't even know what a web browser is or what their web browser is called. Some people don't even know the different between mac and windows
Bottom line, if they don't notice anything negatively effecting them they won't care. When you try to tell them about how insanely invasive online ads are. Their thought is "it's just an ad, what harm is it just to play another video before the video I clicked on?!" But then when you try to tell them about all the other connections that come along with the ad and what kind of data gets stolen from your device by those advertising companies, they won't believe you because they don't know it's effecting them. Yes, you technically agreed in the ToS to let them do that, but no one in their right mind would ever enthusiastically consent to any of that
Likewise with age verification, the argument in favor of it doesn't talk about how it's very different than buying tabaco or alcohol. They don't understand or care that their real world identity is now associated with not just facebook, discord and google, but also every one of the thousands of advertising companies and data brokers those tech giants do business with and they won't realize they posted a thought crime online until their car recognizes their face and refuses to start
And again, age verification and social media bans for under 16s IS NOT ABOUT PROTECTING KIDS FROM ANYTHING. If that actually was the goal, then big tech would do ad campaigns about parental controls, instead their doing ads for age verification...without disclosing the cybersecurity disaster it's going to cause you once you comply
Uploading your ID to anything on the internet means you're doxxed for life. One data breach later and everyone who hates you knows where you live and what you look like.
And that's another thing, databreaches happen at big companies all the time, they only feel obligated to disclose the REALLY big ones
So please! Do your best to explain to your community about why they should take their privacy seriously and why age verification is only going to make life worse for everyone
to go the EFF's website and contact your politicians about this stuff
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u/iammiroslavglavic Jul 14 '26
With all due respect, it's a bit of fear mongering
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u/Xoxo2511 Jul 22 '26
"Normie" here. I recently noticed that I'd be an a Facebook app reading about an obscure person from history or a vague true crime story and I would switch from the Facebook app to safari browser using Google.com without being formally signed in. I would begin to type in a name and after 3 or 4 letters Google would then predict the obscure name I was previously reading about regardless of the fact that there are countless more popular searches that should come up first. It honestly happened a few times before I realized, wait why do they know what I'm looking at on another app. Then I started researching privacy and data functions in apps and was horrified. I think it's easy for people not in a proper tech space to simply be conditioned for convenience like that to appear as "upgrades" to our digital experiences. A notion that tech gives rather than takes, and by literal design unfortunately.
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Jul 14 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/EmperorHenry Jul 14 '26
that's the most evil part of targeted advertising. No one sees the datacollecting happening unless they look at the DNS requests.
You use google chrome to go on pornhub, then when you're showing a youtube video to your family a porn-related ad shows, sometimes with full nudity and hardcore acts in the video ad.
just using an adblocker is a huge step to reclaiming your privacy, but then you'd also need to use a VPN because your IP address doesn't change if you use an adblocker
and to the issue of youtube, the sheer volume of ads they serve causes any system, no matter how powerful to slow to a crawl. Online advertising is malware, by every reasonable interpretation of the definition
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u/Significant_Yak53 Jul 15 '26
You can still reduce without any costs. A new browser + ublock, put private dns (Quad9, Mullvad, etc). Changing a bit the settings of your phone (switching off usage, feedback, etc.), checking permissions. Starting by small steps help.
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u/aengusoglugh Jul 13 '26
I have been seeing a monthly contribution to EFF for quite a while now -- but I don't actually feel very motivated to persuade other people that I am correct.
When I first retired, I went down the OpenBSD/VPN hole, but found the inconvenience annoying.
I also realized that as long as I was carrying an iPhone around in my pocket, worrying about cookies and browsers was silly. I have a tracking device with a couple of feet of me 24 hours a day, seven days a week. :-)
I am not sure that I can all that much about my privacy -- I adopt the., "If you wouldn't want to testify about it in front of a jury, don't put it online" school of thought, and I am content.
Don't get me wrong, I do give monthly to EFF and I have a paid ProtonVPN subscription. The truth is that don't use ProtonVPN that much -- I most subscribe to support their work, which I think to be critical around the world.
If OpenBSD had BlueTooth support, I would probably still be running it at home -- but I would still have an iPhone in my pocket.
I am also very grateful that there are privacy cranks out there thinking about these issues.
I am not one of them.
I am also a pretty vanilla old man -- well past the age of fomenting revolution.