this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2025
69 points (98.6% liked)

Ask Lemmy

35749 readers
1282 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I have neither time, resources nor know-how to like go all out on data privacy. But I try doing things like using Proton for Mail, browsing with DuckDuckGo or Ecosia, messaging on Signal instead of WhatsApp, etc.

But I'm having a hard time responding to people who say "why do you do that, it's completely pointless since companies like Google have all of our data anyways unless we go all out, and nobody has time for all the effort that takes".

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] rudyharrelson@lemmy.radio 28 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (2 children)

I've had moderate success by using a handful of quotes over the years whenever this topic comes up with friends or family.

"Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say." - Edward Snowden

This quote can substitute out the "free speech" bit for "gun rights" if you are talking to a gun nut.

"I like to close the bathroom door when I'm taking a shower. It doesn't mean I'm doing anything immoral in there, I just have the right to privacy." - Anonymous

A fair followup question when they say "why bother, it's pointless anyway," that might provoke some thought on their part is: "Do you ever make any effort at all toward a goal that is ultimately a drop in the bucket? Have you ever recycled a single plastic bottle? Covered the PIN pad when entering your PIN number at an ATM? Walked to the store instead of driven? Written a letter to a congressman? If so, why? The overall effect of your action was probably negligibly small in the grand scheme of things, so why did you bother to put any effort in at all?"

The answer to that question is: just because you can't get to 100% privacy/eco-friendliness/whatever goal it is you have, doesn't mean you can't put in some degree of effort to protect your rights, the earth, or hold your government accountable.

They don't have to ditch Google entirely in one day. That's ludicrously hard and even privacy advocates like myself can't do it easily. You take incremental steps when you are ready. Ditch Chrome when you have the bandwidth and get Firefox. Ditch Google search in favor of DuckDuckGo when you think you can deal with the different experiences. etc, etc. Everyone's journey is different.

[–] jacksilver@lemmy.world 10 points 11 hours ago

Another one is "Just cause you have nothing to hide today, doesn't mean you won't tomorrow."

Especially looking at the US, the assumption that what is worth hiding can't change is dangerous. You're comments/conversations that are legal today may be used against you in the future.

[–] Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it 8 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

"If you think privacy doesn't matter then i invite you to shit in the square" Btw, i 100% agree with you