• 3 Posts
  • 61 Comments
Joined 14 days ago
Cake day: June 17th, 2025
  • BubblyRomeo@kbin.earthtoPrivacy@lemmy.ml•Challenges meeting new people without an Instagram account
    0·
    8 hours ago

    https://ibb.co/cKVX0nnP

    This comment is all you need to know about this community! c/privacy is filled with millennials, Gen-X and boomers! There are only a handful of Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha here. I was in the same situation as you 2 years ago and asked advice here and the most upvoted comment was “If you can’t ask for a girl’s number you ain’t got game”. I deleted my original lemmy account within a few minutes then. The Fediverse was filled with Linux nerds who were at the extreme ends of privacy-anonymity spectrum back then. And nothing seems to have changed much after reading all these comments. My original Fediverse account lasted approx. 1 month 2 weeks. Let’s see how much time this run lasts. I already have a lot of complaints regarding the Fediverse. The cons outweigh the pros. I’m not having fun here. It’s only a matter of time till I pull the trigger.

  • BubblyRomeo@kbin.earthtoPrivacy@lemmy.ml•Challenges meeting new people without an Instagram account
    0·
    8 hours ago

    @[email protected]

    I assume you’re Gen-Z too! Socializing and Dating without Instagram and Snapchat is impossible! Don’t listen to others here shouting “get their email!” “ask them to install Signal!” "ask them to install PixelFed!! “They are not worth your friendship if they don’t want to talk to you if you don’t have Instagram!”. I know the real world ground reality having experienced it earlier, you have no other choice than making an IG and Snap account. Everyone you talk in real life will ask for your “ID” after sometime, which means IG or Snap ID depending on where you live. No “normal person” (as in normie) will install Signal or PixelFed for you. I have studied in 2 separate universities and only knew 3 girls who didn’t have Insta or Snap. The foids who spout nonsense here are millennials who have no idea on how Gen-Z interact with each other or individuals who are too far into the privacy-anonymity spectrum. Anyway, you can take the following steps which will preserve your privacy in IG and Snap:

    1. Create IG and Snap accounts using newly created emails.

    2. Use AI generated or heavily AI altered pic as your profile pic in IG. So Meta wouldn’t be able to meaningfully use your photo to train their facial recognition systems.

    3. If you decide to post photos on Insta, alter them heavily using AI or Photoshop.

    4. Use ASCII empty characters for your “name” in Insta and Snap. Use random username generators for usernames.

    5. Keep Bio empty, if it doesn’t allow you to keep it empty, use ASCII empty characters.

    6. Don’t watch or post Insta reels.

    7. Don’t like, comment or share in Insta.

    8. Don’t watch stories in Snap.

    9. Use open source frontend apps on Android to browse Insta and Snap (I previously used a good app for Insta (I forgot it’s name) which allowed you to control which pages to show. Like you can choose to stop displaying reels and feeds section and make it only to display DM’s. This is very useful if your only aim on Insta is to use it for messaging. It even had a “Ghost mode” which will allow you privately browse Insta without alerting anyone- it’ll keep your online status as “offline” even when you’re online and turns off typing indicators for DM’s and groupchats and you can videocall anyone without showing them you’re online. Like I said, I forgot it’s name, I’ll link it here if I find it).

    10. “Build a profile”- follow all of your Job/University/School friends. This will make your profile look less suspicious. Remember - It IS suspicious to not have Insta and Snap in this day and age. The fact that you didn’t have both of these apps this far itself will make you look suspicious in the first place. So first build a profile.

    11. Some have recommended apps like Insular, Shelter and Island to Isolate apps but let me tell you the truth- they will have no effect. Meta and Snapchat will still track and surveil you.

    12. De-activate account after your purpose is resolved (only on IG) - Deactivate after your work is done. Say like the girl you were talking to has officially become your girlfriend. Don’t do this on Snapchat as Snap doesn’t have separate deactivate and delete account options. Your Snap account will get “permanently deleted” if you don’t re-activate within 6 months.

    13. Using VPN, TOR and other similar proxies will get your account getting flagged by Meta’s spam filters and you will have to verify your identity via a real-time video verification (which has got scarily accurate in recent years) or submitting a government provided ID. Which is against what you’re trying to achieve. So don’t do that.

    Good luck!

  • BubblyRomeo@kbin.earthtoPrivacy@lemmy.ml•Google Gemini is about to control your messages and calls, even if you say no
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    9 hours ago

    We use Chromebooks at my work (along with the whole Google suite), and we are bound by the rules of HIPAA.

    Assuming you mentioning HIPAA and disabilities, you must probably work in the healthcare industry. What kind of backwater hospital/healthcare company uses chromebook?! I know chromebooks are prelevant in the education industry but healthcare… They are cheap but Google makes up that money through Google Workplace vendor lock in! Man… I have seen Linux running on hospitals even in 3rd world countries… If you can, please quit that job! A healthcare workplace using chromebooks will not give a damn to employees privacy!