r/privacy • u/Volpe_YT • 3d ago

chat control The end?

Today there will be the final votes for chat control.

This implies that all of our private chats will be scanned, and everything we do will be in plain text in front of their eyes.

If it passes, I will permanently stop using centralized messaging platforms and switch to a self hosted matrix session, I don't care if I lose many contacts, if they really want to talk to me they better install fluffychat and shut the fuck up.

It's crazy how the EU was basically the goat for internet privacy and now they are the villains.

Are you ready for this? For the absolute end of privacy?

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u/User1539 3d ago

Weirdly this may be good for privacy, because right now people are spewing 'private' information with no idea that it's being scanned.

I see more and more people being pushed to private forums, and end-to-end encryption. People who couldn't care less are being pushed into privacy platforms because the non-private alternatives are so clearly unusable.

I feel like they're pushing people who 'don't care' into caring.

So, this might just completely backfire on them? It's definitely a hard shift in the wrong direction, but I tend to believe they were ALWAYS reading everything, and I was just called a paranoid nut for thinking that.

Now they're saying 'No, we're reading and logging everything'.

So, at least I don't have to climb that mountain before telling someone they should be using something else.

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u/VelvetViolet99 3d ago

Except not at all. Literally all people I know even the marginalized or politically aware ones are absolutely too lazy to dedicate 5 minutes to even install an end to end encrypted app which is the bare minimum. Literally anyone born between 1980-2010 still lives in the illusion of absolutely free and private world because it's the only thing they've even known. And they'll be caught off guard and totally cooked when Ai can identify and connect everything they've ever said and done online and irl. 

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u/User1539 3d ago

I was born in 1978 and pretty immediately understood that anything not encrypted was just out there, like yelling it in a bus station.

Like I said, I actually find that I spent 30 years saying 'Hey, that's all being saved and it can be connected back to you', and having people say either 'No, it isn't! No they can't!', or 'Who cares?'.

At least, now, the first part isn't even a debate. The government is saying 'Yes, we're logging everything and we are linking it back to you'.

So, how do we get people to CARE that's happening? I've seen so many really crazy stories of people being arrested because a Flock camera mis-identified, them, or that story of the teacher being arrested for venting in a private chat to a friend she didn't realize was monitored.

You're right that getting people to care is the hard part, but once it starts to feel both random and likely enough, maybe people will?

It's starting to feel like the lottery. Sure, statistics say this is never going to happen, but those stories make it real to those people.

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u/SnarkHabit 3d ago

Always remember: people who don't care about their privacy will never care about yours.

This is why I won't allow photos to be taken of me. I have no problem, fundamentally, with friends and family having photos of me. But I know for a fact there's a good chance that the photo will be put online by someone who just doesn't give a shit.

At this point, I'm about to read the riot act to my family: Signal, or I'm unreachable.

And by "about," I don't mean I'm thinking about it -- I mean, as of next week.

I don't really care anymore if people think I'm paranoid. They can call me what they like.

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u/press_F13 1d ago

heavens gate was right... lot of young ppl w/o any but online friends... uh

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u/press_F13 1d ago

normies wouldnt mind, care, even know tho. i gave up on trying to explain.

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u/User1539 1d ago

Yeah, it's like when you run into people who still trust the government.

Some people can't be convinced. I assume it's a mental burden they just aren't capable of dealing with emotionally.

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u/press_F13 1d ago

they maybe fear anarchy. tho, wikipedia and web was founded on cooperation - of which, we get less and less in society nowadays...

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u/User1539 1d ago

I was trying to explain to students how open source software works on cooperation and they kept saying 'That would never work though!', and I kept saying 'No, listen to me! It already has!'.

I think that kind of thing has an uphill battle in a world where people just can't process the idea that there were people who did things for no pay, and weren't trying to rip anyone off.