Privacy @lemmy.ml Mandy @beehaw.org 1 yr. ago

How to stop worrying about software privacy?

I honestly dont know if i should post it here or not, but here goes. Most people that are privacy aware (or foss aware, they go hand in hand at this point) commonly have "that one program" that they cant quite let go.

Heres the thing, in my mind when i use such a service, my mind keeps nagging me that i COULD be using another program/service (this goes vice versa really)

If you have ever been in such a situation, what did you do to keep that little gremlin in your head at bay,

16 comments

Remind myself of the 80/20 idea (or something like that)

20% of the effort gets you 80% there. Easy things like using Firefox instead of Chrome, Signal/Telegram instead of FB messenger/Whatsapp, managing cookies and opting out of tracking options is already doing a lot more than most people.
- Well said
- I've been wanting to ditch FB messenger for years now, but everyone I communicate with use it, so it's impossible.
  
  I try to encourage basically everyone I'm friends with to move to Telegram or Signal to talk to me. If they don't, they get slower responses 🤷 I don't open it regularly
Spend a little bit of time writing out pros and cons when this happens. The important thing is to actually write it down; don’t just leave it in your head. If this is a regular conversation you have, keep that list handy and keep it updated. Make sure you’re taking into account time and resource considerations (eg running your own Mastodon instance requires money or time and effort) as well as soft considerations like social impact (eg you gotta convince all your friends to join Signal). Make sure to keep moving things around.

For me, the time and effort involving in running certain things just isn’t worth it to me. I have limited time available and I don’t often want to spend it fucking with servers. Convenience also plays into some of my comms choice because it’s just easier to use certain things to do the kinds of things I need to do.

I cannot stress enough that you should write this down. Getting stuff like this out of your head and onto paper has a lot of helpful benefits. You move the problem from your working memory and onto paper which helps reduce cognitive load (see Programmer’s Brain and sources). You have a discrete problem you can update without having to constantly rebuild the whole thing in your head (see How to Take Smart Notes and sources for the idea of the zettelkasten). And eventually you’ll be able to tell yourself why you do one or the other.
- very solid advice, ill try this out, thank you
I tell that little gremlin to go fuck itself, I do what I want.

But jokes aside, you just need to be honest with yourself.
- both of these are very solid advice lel
Use what you need to use. I need certain privacy invasive stuff, mostly for work. That doesn’t mean I let that software free rein, over my system/network. I try to keep software isolated, and kept in check via a Firewall. Something like Portmaster, SimpleWall, LuLu, or OpenSnitch works wonders.
Currently going through it right now w/ YouTube.

Started using alternative front-ends and was able to really curate my feed to be more productive. Now, Google is cracking down on the front-ends even when I cycle through different instances. So far I'm telling myself that even my productive feed wasn't that productive, but I'll probably take some of the info to heart in this thread and reevaluate a few things.
If I exhaust all options for this one program/service I just let it go, I did my best.
- Adobe is always the best example of something professionals can't replace.
  
  Artistic rarely mixes with capable programmer so there is a severe limit to the number of people contributing to FOSS art suites.
Isolate it in a virtual machine until I find a replacement I can live with
I let go and switched to the private program/service.

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