I'm honestly so sad that the US government is foolish enough to want people to use their government IDs just to use the interent, I'm still going to try to self host my personal website using Docker and Nginx and downloading YouTube videos and keeping them in my hard drive, I also hope to buy cds of tv shows and maybe burn anime in dvd cds as well too. I might as well make Geminispace my new home when things on the https web is getting worse.
Aug 28 · 7 weeks ago · 👍 hizi
23 Comments ↓
Did I miss something?
But you always needed ID to have a bank account to pay for phone and cable. They always know who you are. Not sure what government ID is required here.
🦔 bsj38381 [OP] · Aug 28 at 09:28:
Sorry, I meant IDs that are required by force by corporate websites for "child safety" and "age verifications" reasons, but it's just an excuse for corporations and data brokers to get more personal information about you to make more money. YouTube's new AI policy for "age verification" and the US/UK government wanting to censor the internet for privacy breaking reasons. I could go on, I'll just read more tech news I guess I dunno.
🦔 bsj38381 [OP] · Aug 28 at 09:29:
Alongside being asked to take a selfie only for a pfp, like what Facebook does, I deleted my Facebook account for that alone honestly, I don't want a social media site to have my selfie and one day getting a data leak.
👻 darkghost · Aug 28 at 10:14:
I am also wondering if I missed something. I do think this is the end goal of certain ideologies but the plan isn't implemented fully.
I know MS has a social media law that, as I understand it, is written so broadly it applies to any website with a comments section. Bluesky famously will not serve MS because of this law. I know multiple states require ID for adult content. That would be an interesting database to get ahold of.
Is there something more?
Edited to add: I started making my reply before your reply.
Your anonymity was gone 15 years ago. You just haven’t noticed.
We are at the point where they are going to start pulling partial fingerprints out of all the cloud photos to unmask people.
Literally every tech advancement in the last two decades was crafted to make you easier to identify.
You think 2FA makes you secure? Yes, give them your phone number… which is tied to your ID at registration or from the moment you top up with your CC, which is connected to the back with your ID. It doesn’t matter what your IP is if they can confirm you authorized the login from a device they know you have.
Your only hope in the future will be to go full schizo.
Posting from your basement on a Pentium 4 or a Core 2 Duo over Tor via a hacked WiFi point. Never sharing a photo of anything lest they match the wood grain of your table and the paint in your walls to CC purchases, or the position of your air vents and weave of your carpet to real estate photos of your home. Only buying things at thrift shops in cash. Sending all text through an air gapped LLM machine in your basement to translate English->Chinese->Farsi->English to obliterate any stylistic quirks of your speech that AI could use to link posts together.
This is the world we chose.
👻 darkghost · Aug 28 at 13:02:
I have said it before and I'll say it again, cash is being deliberately obsoleted. The largest bill you can get is $100 and every year inflation makes that worth less. Never mind civil forfeiture where if you are caught carrying thousands of dollars, your cash is seized and charged with a crime. The amount is so low, less than a mortgage payment on a median home bought recently, to arouse suspicion. And I have definitely been to places that are no cash, which in my opinion should be illegal.
It’s gotten so poisoned that people seem surprised our business accepts cash.
And when the WiFi goes down or the Internet shits out we can’t process payments from the people who walk around assuming no one takes cash, so why even have a wallet: they all just want to use Apple Pay.
Yeah. Why leave anything in question? Of course you should hand over your credit card, all data in your bank records, your phone number, your device IMEI, and your GPS position to the government every time you make any purchase.
The best is when you take cash to the bank and want to deposit it.
What are you doing with $1200 HMMMMM?
I sold two Super Nintendo games to a retarded millennial in the woods. Fuck you. Deposit my money.
Decades ago people started tagging photos with me in it on Facebook. thanks boomers.
German vps provider netcup just requested that I provide identity verification, using a device that has a camera. Screw that.
🦔 bsj38381 [OP] · Aug 28 at 16:47:
I used to get tagged a bunch by annoying spambots on Insta a few years ago, and my account is private. Fuck I hate spambots tagging me.
I still pay for stuff with cash, and request cash. (I never deposit money in the bank unless I need to write a cheque and I rarely do that.)
🦔 bsj38381 [OP] · Aug 28 at 20:51:
I would either go to an ATM to get more cash, or turn a bunch of my coins into dollars into a coin to dollar despenser, then take the receipt to the customer service person.
Sadly the reality is privacy has been super dead for a long time.
Cameras are everywhere. Your neighbors likely helped (Ring doorbell cameras). I know I did, I got tired of people stealing packages off my porch.
You can probably take a bit of comfort knowing that it's all pretty useless. Even when I show cops footage of who stole my package, by the time they (maybe) do anything my package is long gone and never coming back.
Getting on the Internet in the first place requires turning in a good deal of info, and you're under constant digital surveillance.
Only way to stay truly anonymous is to buy some old tech, run Tails full-time, use other people's Wi-Fi.
🦔 bsj38381 [OP] · Aug 30 at 10:40:
Yeah. I'm still thinking of making my own wifi or something. But I'll just do my thing on the main internet and on here. I'll just hope that things get a little better in 2029 or something. At least I can try out the Ladybird browser next year. I'm still unsure about the date still.
👻 darkghost · Aug 30 at 11:05:
Humans existed without the internet for eons. I remember growing up and being stuck with my own destructive thoughts. While you might need the internet for some things, I think you can limit its hold on your life. Have a single dedicated online computer on a desk with an uncomfortable chair. You won't spend hours mindlessly scrolling if your butt is going numb after 15 minutes. The internet of yore was transactional. You dial in, do your business, then hang up. Business might be email, checking stocks, reading the news, or posting to a message board. With some changes you can have that too...
Until you get a job that demands you be on call 24/7 and respond quickly to any Teams message. Oh well.
There are so many unknowns when you try to anonymize yourself! The first time around I tweaked Firefox and thought I was so smart until I realized my browser was completely unique, and anywhere I went, I stuck out like a sore thumb.
I had several headslap rounds like that. Like the time I installed a thing called 'haystack', a utility that sent random queries to Google to hide my real ones in the noise. Until I looked at the log to find that the queries were horrific, using words like b*mb and t*rr*rist every other time. I am sure I'm on some list now.
👻 darkghost · Aug 30 at 13:17:
This is a very good point. The more unique you make yourself the less private you are. I used to use Links2 to browse around. No JS, no CSS, no tracking, no nonsense. And I was probably the only visitor using that browser.
Fingerprinting is impossible to fight. The best I can do still makes me unique in a coffee shop full of computer users.
@stack Yeah, you’re on the MKULTRA “GIVE THIS MAN A WEAPON ASAP!” list.
You get the TSA preferred check-in lane for all gun purchases now.
🦔 bsj38381 [OP] · Aug 31 at 02:39:
I'll be volenteering at an office job at some point, so I'll have to mostly deal with Microsoft stuff. I'm just hoping I'll get hired for a job so I can earn money to buy me a new laptop to boot Linux into.
Honestly the worst thing that has happened to privacy concerns is that “normal” people wont react or respond to things that are quite invasive because “you have nothing to hide” when like yes i do, i dont want any random person to be able to find out my name from a picture of me let alone companies selling my info for profits
👻 darkghost · Aug 31 at 09:42:
Nothing to hide? Let me into your bedroom. I can look in any drawer and go through the closet. I won't take anything. Also, here is a camera for your bathroom. I want to see the face you make when you poop. Now tell me how much you earn and your kinks so I can judge and laugh.
Privacy isn't about being able to do wrong without anybody finding out. Privacy is a matter of personal dignity. A loss of privacy is a loss of dignity. And I bet anybody who says they have nothing to hide still has enough self worth as to not publish the details above in the news paper with their full name and address.
More importantly, saying privacy doesn't matter because you have nothing tohide is like saying
"Free speech doesn't matter because I don't have anything to say"
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