Stop using any electronics and move into a shack in the woods.
this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2024
54 points (100.0% liked)
Privacy
787 readers
8 users here now
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
Chat rooms
-
[Matrix/Element]Dead
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
The real answer
Herd goats.
That you Ted?
There is no real change. It's a reauthorization. Continue following best practices to mitigate surveillance.
Continue following best practices to mitigate surveillance.
The slimy part of FISA has always been that the data it collects about overseas communications never sunsets. Moreover, Federal law enforcement officials used to be able to troll through the data without a lot of oversight. In 2020 and 2021, there were 270 thousand questionable uses of the data by the FBI looking for dirt — not on foreigners (who are fair game apparently) — but on citizens. The furor over that is what fueled the failed opposition to re-authorization, which succeeded primarily because the FBI insists that the data provides early-warning of terrorists plots and that [the FBI] promises to play fair in the future by digging for dirt only on terrorists here and abroad.
The reauthorization expanded it to anybody with a computer who passes on communications with the computer.
And if that’s the case, should I just always use a VPN? And furthermore, shouldn’t you have always used a VPN prior to this anyways?
No idea about these USA specific things but always using a VPN would mean that you need to trust your VPN provider more than your ISP and your government. There is only one commercial VPN provider that I trust and one non commercial one. But then there is Tor, and the slower i2p. You also have to take into account that VPN blocking appears to be increasing. For all kind of shopping on-line and filling in forms for government related things (Things like let's say e.g. request money support for a wheel chair) I cannot use VPN because they're blocked or worse : time out. And I found out that lemmy.world likes to block Tor and VPN for posting and uploads. Reading is allowed though. So all in all you have no smooth sailing guaranteed.
How do you figure you need to trust it more than both your ISP and your government? I understand how it gets as much data as your ISP traditionally does, and that means you need to trust it as much as an ISP...
...But I have a very poor opinion of any ISP that operates on regional monopolies (as is common in the United States), and those are probably linked directly to the NSA a la PRISM anyway. I imagine a VPN, even a mediocre one outside the Eyes countries' jurisdiction, frustrates this.
Stop it from being passed
I tried calling my state's senators, they voted yes anyways...
Establishment
Well its better than not calling them
The Wyden/Lummis amendment would have struck language that expands the definition of an electronic communication service provider to include, with some exceptions, any "service provider who has access to equipment that is being or may be used to transmit or store wire or electronic communications." The exceptions are for public accommodation facilities, dwellings, community facilities, and food service establishments.
So basically anybody with a computer network open to the public has to bend over in secret. This changes nothing if you assume all connections end up in their metadata database. It just makes it faster. Use your VPN/tor/i2p
Nothing different than before. Make sure you use a VPN at all times and everything you send after that is end to end encrypted.