We are not empowered with the free choice of privacy like many people think we are

So go vote, be in unions, call your representative about these matters.

This should be how the message ends.

Man I have been on the internet since before you could even pay to have a dialup account. I hate ads so I just block them. Via DNS currently which is working well. It breaks google serps. It breaks youtube. I often can't read articles people link.

who fucking cares, I don't want to see ads so I don't see ads. It isn't really that hard. Hulu started showing ads even if you paid so as i canceled hulu. If netflix shows ads I will cancel netflix.

I think trying to get rid of advertising is tilting at windmills, as much as I agree with you there's so many more pressing issues to worry about. If you don't like ads just avoid them. Who cares if facebook has a 'shadow profile' on you? how does that affect your life?

I feel completely empowered as an individual online because my eyes only see what my fingers direct them to, and when it offends my eyes i go somewhere else.

There are definitely some steps you can take for your personal privacy. Get a phone with GrapheneOS, use LibreWolf as your browser, switch from Windows/Mac to Linux, use a DNS filter like NextDNS and try to communicate with people over Signal. You can also use a reputable VPN like IVPN or Mullvad and switch away from Google/Big Tech services (Google search -> DuckDuckGo, Gmail -> ProtonMail, Microsoft Office -> LibreOffice, Google Drive -> Proton Drive, YouTube -> Odysee, etc.)

I want to add to this: In my country (Poland, but probably many others) you are sometimes almost forced to be tracked by FAANG companies. For example our mObywatel app, which can be uses as driver's license replacement requires you to download it via Google Play and have Google Services installed. Of course it uses firebase to send notifications.

You're aware of the EFF, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, right? It's one of I'm sure several groups that organizes & strives to push back against malicious action from tech companies, as well as over-encroachment from governments (at times itself coming from tech company lobbying). It's based in the United States though, if memory serves, so others may want to chip in and mention similar groups for their region/nation.

At the same time, services/platforms that don't rely on ads pretty much always welcome donations, e.g. Wikipedia, Internet Archive, Gutenberg, as well your resident Fediverse sites, so also keep those in mind.

Communism is ad free

Facebook has shadow accounts for people who never signed up.

Can someone please explain how they are doing this?

1. Use Adblocker
2. Use DNS filter
3. DoH to prevent MiTM/use your own resolver in Unbound.
4. I'm still trying to look up how to prevent ISPs from logging my SNI Well, it seems Cloudflare and other domain service providers have implemented ESNI.

At the moment, there is no way to avoid having your information taken by corps. But what if we fought back by trying to pollute the information they gather? Instead of just trying to disable data collection, we could try to interfere with it and make it collect all kinds of useless crap that cant be separated or distinguished without serious effort. This way you could achieve same kind of anonymity as standing in huge crowd.

Another way to do it could be having huge community data pool that every participant adds to and also claims as "their own". I bet its really useful to see 1000 people with almost identical dataprofile and no way to distinguish which entry belongs to who. How do you even use ai to sort it out?

I think that is something we could do about it even on individual level.

at some point, we are going to have to boycott everything

This post left me thinking in something. What if we could organize, so a city-owned ISP with a built-in pihole exists? What if we can just block tracking at the metropolitan level as we do in our houses? What if we don't just stop at DNS? What if we made just one city more private? What if we start with that?

The best way to counter publicity is to simply erase from your mind. Turn it into white noise.

I don't have a clue how I've learned how to do this but I can have multiple publicity spots thrown at me that I won't retain a thing. Sometimes to the point I get a song stuck on loop in my head and I can't figure where I heard it.

Using tools to dodge or simply eliminate ads is also an option, especially online.

You can take back your freedom of choice to take part of an audience for publicity if you are willing to put some effort to regain it.

I agree with you in all your points and I have also look into why people just give up their privacy so easily , most of the time what I have noticed is that they (we all) love convenience. You want a plug and play camera? Buy ring , Need a plug and play router with a nice App? Buy google and Amazon Eero. Need to promote your business? Where is everyone at? Facebook , Twitter and Google. Most regular people give up their privacy for convenience, they don't have time dealing with thousands of option on a PF sense router , no time to create VLAns.

This was clearly spelled out - quite by mistake - by one of the very sumbitches stealing our privacy all the way back in 1999:

https://www.wired.com/1999/01/sun-on-privacy-get-over-it/

The sumbitches have since learned to work quietly and boil us frogs slowly. But they sure have been busy since 1999.

When I heard Scott McNealy utter that obscene statement back then, I laughed and I remember telling a coworker "That guy is off his goddamn mind". A decade later, I understood that he actually let slip something we should have paid a lot more attention to. But it was already much too late.

After reading about Snowden leaks and what world governments are capable of technologically, I've come to the same conclusion that privacy is now an illusion. Sure, one browser might send less data to corporations, but the government can see whatever they want on anyone's computer with an internet connection. The answer is to take a step back technologically. Interact with people in person. Read books at the library. Shop locally instead of online or at big box stores. Buy thrifted DVDs. The further you remove yourself, the more private you will be.

I mirror your concerns but as long as there's money to be made, the thing that makes money will continue to happen. Advertising is part of that, and if they can harvest our data to target ads, they will.

We won't win the fight against money. What we can do is block/avoid advertisements, avoid (as much as possible) services that are known for this behavior, support services that are known to respect privacy, and educate those that are receptive.

This is why you vote in every election.

Another user, in a similar thread, shared this speech on enshittification. Addresses a good bit of what you are talking about and why mass action is hard in the current legal framework. We need better laws.

https://youtu.be/rimtaSgGz_4?si=pdDRwugtHefZACcd

Devo wrote a song about it.

We are empowered with our own path in life but we do not have full control of it. And that is ok, it is ok to not be able to control everthing.

Why do you want advertising to go bankrupt? Just opening it in a private tab or blocking it so you don't get it is enough.

Welcome to the team, comrade. Wait til you find out why they demonize China and it's approach to the internet