Do you value privacy or have you accepted the botnet? What if using the botnet you will have a better future? I valued privacy a lot until I realised I became paranoid, I felt alone, I avoided things because muh botnet muh proprietary software and JavaScript. What did you do?
Please discuss.
>>54297933
Well, for one, I don't listen to anything /g/ says.
>>54297933
>What if using the botnet you will have a better future?
I stepped back and realized that most of the things the botnet gives you are conveniences at best, which I can give up without a great deal of trouble. We did, after all, get along just fine before them (I even remember those days) And there's a lot of botnet that doesn't give you any benefit whatsoever (ads and analytics).
so I removed botnet
>>54297994
samefagging cause fuck you
In the end do you even care? If it gets the job done, then it doesn't matter if it's botnet or not, proprietary or not. If you see computers as anything more than tools, you're probably a NEET nigger
>>54297933
>Lazy ass. The Rationalization.
Living in the information era and taking advantage of what that provides also means being subject to the capitalism of it. Nobody is personally going through my browsing habits or even logs detailed enough information to know what I'm really doing anywhere. I don't care if microsoft scrapes basic telemetry and program diagnostic information and if google tracks my webpages and interests to estimate what they can sell me.
It's a direct consequence of involving myself with their products, and they have the best products, so I reap what I sow.
>>54298021
I think I have anything I would need on Linux, although I have to admit that Photoshop and Lightroom helps me a lot when I need them. I earn some money from photography. There are decent programs for this on Linux, but I had problems. Also, I needed to edit some videos in Kdenlive, I had so much trouble (it was dead on Arch before finishing. Worked OK on Ubuntu). If I used a proprietary editor like Sony Vegas, things could have gone easier.
>>54298034
>it doesn't matter
but it does, anon. Privacy restrictions are a bit like taxes - you have a right to have as little as possible of them.
So if there is a way to avoid giving up too much personal information, that way is better by default.
>>54298135
see, selling parts of your privacy to companies and getting something in return isn't the problem. The problem is that in return for knowing your passwords, your porn fetishes, your budget expense reports, how long you need to type in your password at the lock screen and whether or not you rated the calculator app - all MS is offering you is Win10. Since it's easily the most shitty OS they have ever produced, that's not a great value.
generally speaking it's not a problem if company A knows a bit about me, and company B knows something else. The problem begins when one company knows too much about me.
Communication is a different matter by the way, that should always be confidential by default.
>>54298140
I get by fine with Rawtherapee instead of LR. Then again I'm not a pro, idk what your requirements are. But for me it does all the photo-editing and raw development stuff I need to do while being free software.
probably the most trouble I went to for botnet removal was switching away from gmail and putting CM on my phone with no gapps. but most things weren't hard at all (install some browser addons, disable some updates in the windows 7 install I keep around, change some about:config settings) and that kind of basic stuff is a small price to pay to at least inconvenience the botnet. The whole logic of mass data collection is predicated on it being easy to do, so doing a little bit to make it harder goes a long way.
I use a libreboot thinkpad X200 with Trisquel. I don't have any social media accounts or a phone and I use a privacy respecting email service like protonmail.
>>54298219
Are you really sure about that? Do you really care if, for example, your browsing habits are monitored by an automated, non-sentient system that all it tries to do is personalize your browsing experience by displaying targeted ads, tailored to your habits?
>>54298219
>knowing your passwords
Don't save them with chrome then
>your porn fetishes
They actively don't track that because it's bad PR to advertise that stuff
>expense reports
They track the websites you visit, not the word-for-word content of them
>how long you need to type in your password at the lock screen
Why would that be an issue for anybody?
>Since it's easily the most shitty OS they have ever produced
Quite literally the opposite. The only reason people don't like it is because I-ITS SPYWARE RITE GUIZE
Microsoft doesn't know diddly shit about anything you do on your computer. They don't track browsing habits, parse files, or any of that shit. They don't WANT any of that. Do you have any idea what an insane amount of data that would be to pull in, parse, analyze, and then make use of? They're not google trying to parse for keywords to sell you shit.
They're interesting in security, program, and hardware diagnostics, and that's really about it because that's what enables them to produce better patches and more relevant updates.
If you're genuinely concerned about a company knowing too much about you, you should be more worried about Google or Apple. Google basically has full access to all your email, personal documents stored on drive, every iota of your browsing habits, and if you use android now they can track where you go, how long you stay there, who your friends are, what apps you use, how often you run, so on and so forth.
Microsoft is a drop in the bucket improving their own product. Google is literally selling you as their product.
>>54298226
Man, Rawtherapee is the shit. I love it. I had problems in the past when Rawtherapee crashed so often, I couldn't work and I needed it so much. Seems OK now. Search for Film Emulation for Rawtherapee, I love that feature. Sadly, there's no good HDR software for Linux. Google HDR Efex became free recently and it's the best, it doesn't work on Linux.
I did almost all the privacy things. Linux, Cyanogenmod without Gapps, no Windows, no proprietary software, encryption, etc. I realized this is all I was doing all day, finding ways to fight against data the botnet. I could do it easily again, but I will have to use non-free services again. People paid me for photos and I must deliver them, often by internet. Google Drive is very convenient for this.
>>54298288
I started to use Google quite often. I don't think I really need it, but it makes my life a bit easier. What do you recommend me? I still think about privacy and going back.
If you are really that big of a bitch about providing usage statistics you should kill yourself. uMatrix to block all the shitty JavaScript
>>54298326
I like uMatrix, used it a lot on Firefox. But all these extensions make Firefox so slow, it is slow already. Chromium is fast as fuck and more secure.
>>54298357
I use chrome too for that same reason. Add-ons made Firefox take forever to startup
>>54298286
yes, I do care. Why would I care about personalized ads? That is a lie marketers tell themselves, that anybody might want that. Give me untargeted ads in exchange for no data collection any day.
>>54298288
>knowing your passwords
>Don't save them with chrome then
actually I was talking about the keylogger in Win 10, but yes, not saving passwords is a good start.
>your porn fetishes
>They actively don't track that because it's bad PR to advertise that stuff
except if my fetish was cp, then their systems would automatically recognize it as illegal. What happens if I'm into bestiality? Legal in some countries, illegal in others. Gay porn? BDSM?
>They're not google trying to parse for keywords to sell you shit.
sure, MS is giving away their OS for free and they are not going to salvage data for advertising. Keep telling yourself that.
>>54298322
For what? These are monolithic corporations that are successful purely because they offer amazing, convenient, well understood services in exchange for bits of your information.
If you don't like that, then you can subscribe to 3rd party paid providers, but you're still handing your data off to them and they are much more frequently the target of attacks and breach attempts.
The only "real" way to not be a part of das botnet is to host all your own services on your own hardware. Buy server, pay to host them in a local datacenter, and secure everything yourself.
But that's expensive and a huge pain in the ass, so I'd suggest taking stock of how valuable your browsing habits could ever possibly be outside of ads and how much you want to keep your update history secret, and then be a sane human being and just use whatever works well, rather than avoiding some meme botnet.
>>54298288
>paid shill.
>>54298357
I find that blocking ads and JS speeds up the web more than the additional addons slow it down
>>54298293
I use HDRMerge. Win/Lin, GPL. Again, works for me, idk about you.
the photo software I haven't found a good free alternative for is DeepSkyStacker, but you only need that if you do astro.
>>54298322
Startpage. It's essentially a proxy for Google, so you get Google results, but Google doesn't get to see who you are or your real IP or anything, just the serach query coming from a server in the Netherlands.
>>54298372
>actually I was talking about the keylogger in Win 10,
Turn it off, just like all the other annoying shit that's on by default. Not like the 6 hours you spend configuring linux are any less work.
>cp
That's not windows or google, that's all the honeypots and reported logs from hosting companies that find it.
>sure, MS is giving away their OS for free
Were. July 29th you'll have to buy it. They did this to prevent a repeat of the XP -> Win7. They want as much of the marketshare as they can afford to get onto the new OS so they're not stuck with half the market using dilapidated software again.
>>54298387
>He doesn't use GNU/Linux and iceweasel! I bet he doesn't even have LibreOffice!
If you use an android device with any google services installed, you're a massive hypocrite.
Sure, blocking things reduce the load.
I never tried HDRMerge. Will try, thanks! Good to hear you are into astrophotography, I do visual observations with a 8".
I used Startpage a lot. It's really good.
>>54298384
>how valuable your browsing habits could ever possibly be outside of ads
I used to think like that. But even the most basic amount of data is bad in the wrong hands.
I don't need to bring up the example of cheating on your partner, even though there have been data leaks for OKcupid, of course. But what about your insurance buying data on your eating habits?
"We had to increase your monthly payments because we saw you are eating a liiiitle too much pizza every month, Mr. Smith"
What about landing on some kind of watchlist because you're doing something out of the ordinary?
"You're buying everything with your credit card. But yesterday you withdrew 2000$ in cash from your bank account. What were you going to do with it?" (buying an engagement ring anonymously maybe).
As long as there is data, there is a possibility to abuse it. And that's all the reason to avoid large data collections
>>54298372
Nigger, they aren't asking for your SSN. They track data that is completely of no importance to anyone else but marketers. You are quite literally unaffected by providing said data.
Please admit you have a problem and go see a psychiatrist to treat your paranoia as soon as possible. They aren't looking at you stroking your limp dick through your webcam, they're deducing what you might be interested in based on the sites you visit.
>>54298466
Sorry, forgot to quote >>54298424
>>54298438
>keylogger
>Turn it off ... 6 hours you spend configuring linux...
if Linux had the same default settings it would take me 7 hours instead of just 6. And it's not just my personal computer, but library pcs, machines from relatives, it would be impossible to even log into your mail account from another Windows pc without first checking if it's configured right.
>cp
>That's not windows or google
except that right now you can't upload certain files to their services because they are illegal. It's entirely possible to automatically scan for file hashes across all of their customer's data.
>>54298484
>they're deducing what you might be interested in based on the sites you visit.
and why should that data be freely available to anybody with good business relations to MS/Google/Amazon/whoever? Do advertising companies have a right to know about me?
I mean, there is worthless data, yes. But worthless data isn't good enough for advertising. If I know you live in the US that's nice, I won't offer you chinese adverts. But if I know that you have Hepatitis C and your son is bad at math, now I can sell you much better things!
>>54298466
I just use that Pentax GPS gizmo. It ain't magic but it can get you a 60s exposure at 300mm equivalent, so its enough to get somewhere with. Been saving up for a proper telescope but haven't pulled the trigger since you need a beast of an equatorial mount to do astrophotography, and I don't wanna buy something cheap that I'll just have to replace later.
>>54298484
Name, contact info, location, occupation, income level, interests, web browsing history. All the kind of stuff that any ad company tracks, also enough to give them or anyone else who sees it a pretty complete overview of your life. Why should they have it anyway, even if it's "just for advertising"? I don't have to justify wanting to keep it private, they should have to justify why they should be able to collect it.
>>54298384
there are companies that make their pitch as "you pay us for something other companies give you for free, but we respect your privacy when they don't". Which I subscribe to a couple of, I want that to be a viable business model.
>>54298617
Damn, sweet picture! Looks really nice. Do you travel somewhere or is your sky dark?
>>54298664
Nah I live near Chicago, sky is shit for a hundred miles around. When there's a new moon and good weather I just drive for four hours to get someplace where its at least decent.
>>54298747
I think it's worth it, that photo looks good. Good luck! Also I hope you are prepared for Perseids (soon). ;)
>>54298288
>They're not google trying to parse for keywords to sell you shit.
Fucking lol'd.
>>54297933
I kind of value privacy so basically not at all. I keep telling myself one day I'll have enough money to just buy something like the Talos secure workstation board and swear off proprietary software and be fully security/privacy-minded, but it's probably never going to happen.
>>54298288
Microsoft was the first company to sign onto PRISM. They are trying to increase profits from their ad revenue. Don't act as though they are any better than Google or Apple. I could go line-by-line through your post, but I really dont care to.
>>54298905
Microsoft is really shitty. At least, Google is a bit more helpful and somehow secures your data. Microsoft is trying too hard to promote things instead of fixing their bullshit.
>>54298905
google shill waterhead.
>>54298939
I don't care for Google, Apple, or Microsoft. It's absurd to pretend that one is better than the other when it comes to protecting user content.
>>54298960
Exactly. When a company is in a position to collect your data, it's safe to assume they will do so and try to monetize it.
>>54299022
They give you their products for free. You use them, they use you.
>>54299022
Not only is it safe to assume, they actually have a moral obligation to their shareholders to monetize the data they have.
>>54297933
As a long time Internet user I have long since realized that there is no such thing as privacy online which is why instead of trying to fine services that "value by privacy" I instead make an active decision to choose what information I give up and use my own services whenever possible.
>>54299059
sorry for nitpicking, but they don't have a moral obligation. It's a legal obligation. Huge difference.
And again, giving a company some personal information is not the problem, one company being able to collect too much personal information is what's bad.
I don't care if Google knows people search more for cats than for dogs, but that's rarely everything they know.
>>54299091
Wise words. Also what do you mean by your own services? Self-hosted email?
>>54299116
That is correct on both points. Ideally, there shouldn't be any personal data or metadata associated with the actual content.
>>54299140
Self hosted email, self hosted "cloud storage" and backup solutions, etc
You can make very low powered machines, only 15~30W, that cost less to run per year than you would pay for similar online services so the only excuse would be that they would be in charge of ensuring data safety instead of you.
But /g/ should be able to handle this.
If I want to do something that requires privacy, I'll use Tor in a Linux VM. Otherwise I don't care if Google or Apple or Microsoft know I like to wank it to anime girls or whathaveyou
>>54297933
I'll value privacy when I can sell it for cryptocurrency.
>>54298484
Lol Pajeet are you getting bonuses for your shill posts if they gather (YOU)s?
