We're talking on website with one of highest concentration of tech savvy IT professionals, programmers, cyber security experts, etc.
What percent on people on Hacker News who say they care about privacy live without Google, Apple, Microsoft and Facebook accounts?
How many people outside of HN do you think care about privacy for real? Like about adtech surveillance and not about their naked photos leaking?
I doubt either % is very high sadly. We tend to say we care, but very few people actually do anything or use self hosted solutions or not tied to Apple or Google ecosystems.
I mean, there’s a lot of products out there marketed around privacy. I really doubt the HN readers are the sole source of income for all these products… I do agree, it’s a minority, but within the VPN using population, I don’t think it’s a minority. Average Joe watching porn doesn’t give a shit about someone knowing about this (except, and that’s new, if you’re lucky enough to live in a place where VPN has become mandatory for this).
VPN market is huge, but in my opinion majority of people who buy it "for privacy" dont really care about privacy and just use the same Google services or other accounts registered using a mobile phone number.
You really cant blame VPN providers for selling on "privacy" hype and not delivering because most people dont care either way.
Might be I wrong, but I feel in west for most normal people use VPNs for torrents, watching porn and hidding activity from school or employeer. Small subsets are also sport fans who bypass geo blocking and people scheming for cheaper regional prices on netflix / steam / consoles.
He said they don't rely on it. They can use fingerprinting. Obviously they'll still use any other data you give them, including IP addresses or cookies.
That's a different claim though. Obviously they'd use cookies and source IPs when they're available, because why not use all of the information available to you. That browser fingerprinting is good enough that neither of those sources are necessary is for you to decide on whom to believe.
On that topic, though, is the Mullvad Browser, who's entire intention is to defeat browser fingerprinting.
We're talking on website with one of highest concentration of tech savvy IT professionals, programmers, cyber security experts, etc.
What percent on people on Hacker News who say they care about privacy live without Google, Apple, Microsoft and Facebook accounts?
How many people outside of HN do you think care about privacy for real? Like about adtech surveillance and not about their naked photos leaking?
I doubt either % is very high sadly. We tend to say we care, but very few people actually do anything or use self hosted solutions or not tied to Apple or Google ecosystems.
I mean, there’s a lot of products out there marketed around privacy. I really doubt the HN readers are the sole source of income for all these products… I do agree, it’s a minority, but within the VPN using population, I don’t think it’s a minority. Average Joe watching porn doesn’t give a shit about someone knowing about this (except, and that’s new, if you’re lucky enough to live in a place where VPN has become mandatory for this).
VPN market is huge, but in my opinion majority of people who buy it "for privacy" dont really care about privacy and just use the same Google services or other accounts registered using a mobile phone number.
You really cant blame VPN providers for selling on "privacy" hype and not delivering because most people dont care either way.
Might be I wrong, but I feel in west for most normal people use VPNs for torrents, watching porn and hidding activity from school or employeer. Small subsets are also sport fans who bypass geo blocking and people scheming for cheaper regional prices on netflix / steam / consoles.
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The mass surveillance industry doesn’t rely on ips or even cookies to track you.
That seems like a huge bet. I don’t bet on this, I am careful about cookies and my source IPs.
Do you have any facts? I know they really on _additional_ stuff, but do you have sources showing that they never use cookies or source IPs?
He said they don't rely on it. They can use fingerprinting. Obviously they'll still use any other data you give them, including IP addresses or cookies.
1 reply →
That's a different claim though. Obviously they'd use cookies and source IPs when they're available, because why not use all of the information available to you. That browser fingerprinting is good enough that neither of those sources are necessary is for you to decide on whom to believe.
On that topic, though, is the Mullvad Browser, who's entire intention is to defeat browser fingerprinting.
1 reply →