Libb

Sure but you still have to believe and trust Filen

Obviously, like I must trust anyone involved in the whole process of me using a computer/phone to do anything. From the maker of my device (that it doesn’t contain some spyware out of the factory, I remember an issue like that with Lenovo and another with Sony), to the app I use but also my ISP (that in France is legally required to keep all my online activities for a few years, btw) but also the maker (and the seller) of my keyboard hoping that they too did not add some spyware or keylogger.

As a matter of fact, one of the reasons I moved a lot of my activities offline is me realizing my inability to trust (corporate-owned) digital tools to actually respect my privacy. The simplest solution for me was to remove as much as possible of that tech from my workflow ;)

Depends what you use cloud storage for obviously.

Indeed.

This is not irrelevant if you just don’t want to bother with encrypting them or with having to deal with a locked folder (I think I understand what that would be, but I’m not sure). Filen does encrypt the folder(s) I tell it to encrypt and sync them to its cloud storage. I have nothing to manage once I’ve setup the sync(s) I need. Different solutions for different needs… and different types of users ;)

I use it too, as well as Infomaniak KDrive (not E2EE)

They want to stay by themselves? That’s fine by me. But then they should also stop exporting their Hollywood and streaming turds (as well as their shit food). That would only be fair. And maybe also stop behaving like if they owned the entire planet?

We have people telling us the earth is flat. Them saying so doesn’t make our good old planet any flatter ;)

I mean one can find excess absolutely anywhere, that doesn’t demonstrate much imho.

It’s no secret that we trade our information for access to the Internet.

You tell me. I had this odd idea that I was already paying a monthly sub to access the Web and then, on top of that, corporations suddenly deciding it was their natural right to suck our data without our consent.

That truu, I’ve recently started my privacy journey,

That’s a great decision, imho.

I made the same choice a few years ago. Every little step counts. I will never be an expert or feel that safe using digital tech but I quit using many tools and services I realized I can’t trust at all, which is already something. And it all started by one small first step.

so im slowly switching to alternative to trying to show them to people.

Showing them is a good idea, preaching them to do what you’re doing is probably not that great an idea. Think about it, when was the last time you sincerely changed your mind because someone was forcing you to listen to them or was harassing you. What most probably happened is that you told more or less politely to funk themselves ;)

That article

… is terrifying, imho and it is certainly not the kind of society I want to live in.

There is also a much older story about Amazon deleting the novel 1984 from the kindle of customers having legally purchased it (they were refunded but still that doesn’t change what happened). This kind of events is what started my journey toward a more privacy and ownership-respecting usage of digital tools. That’s also what helped me switch back to analog wherever it was doable (Amazon can’t delete a printed book from my bookshelves).

“You don’t care about privacy? Why not give me your bank login, then”

More seriously, You don’t have to convince people of anything. Sooner than later some huge leak will happen or anythign more intimate that will still impact them, say, like the story of this dad sending a pic of some intimate part of their sick kid’s to their doctor and being flagged by Google AI and being arrested for sharing child porn. And then they will realize why it mattered to protect our privacy.

Any suggestions?

Ignore the nuts, like we all do?

As others have suggested: next door local shops. And then, other online shops.

For example, here in France, the law make it so books are sold at the exact same price everywhere, be it on Amzn or in one of our local bookshops. I’d rather talk to nice human being than fill a web form, and I’d rather do business with someone that can also do business with me than send money to some billionaire. So, I order at the local shop ;)

I find almost everything I need. It just requires me:

• to go there, or to pass a phone call (it’s nice talking to people or to re-learn to do it… and it’s never too late to start doing it either).
• to plan my purchase, as those small shops aren’t open 24/24 and don’t have a bazillion and a half items in stock and they can’t get it overnight either (which is good too as it helps me distinguish between what I need from what I ‘stupidly’ want to buy)

And for the rare few things I can’t get elsewhere (at the very least I will try to directly contact the seller on Amzn), well, either I will have realized I don’t really need them, or I will find some alternative or, then and only then, I will order it on Amzn which since January had not been that frequent, but that’s just me.

+1

just underlines that Russia and India are scared of their citizens taking their privacy back and perhaps even organizing.

They’re far from being the sole countries scared about citizens safekeeping any semblance of online privacy (hi from France, EU)

Get that shit off my eyeballs, I paid for this product.

You should try Proton, then /s

Proton constantly tries to push you to upgrade to their next plaid plan too. So much so that this coupled with still zero fucking support for Proton Drive under Linux are the two reasons I have cancelled my paid Proton plan… and I had been paying for years.

edit: typos