this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2025
68 points (100.0% liked)

Privacy

2916 readers
337 users here now

Welcome! This is a community for all those who are interested in protecting their privacy.

Rules

PS: Don't be a smartass and try to game the system, we'll know if you're breaking the rules when we see it!

  1. Be civil and no prejudice
  2. Don't promote big-tech software
  3. No apathy and defeatism for privacy (i.e. "They already have my data, why bother?")
  4. No reposting of news that was already posted
  5. No crypto, blockchain, NFTs
  6. No Xitter links (if absolutely necessary, use xcancel)

Related communities:

Some of these are only vaguely related, but great communities.

founded 7 months ago
MODERATORS
top 24 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

is there a good open source thi9gor this?

need: YouTube with ad blocking, and stremio. that's like practically 100% of what I use

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

This is why the anprims don't seem stupid.

Because capitalism is even fucking dumber.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

anprims

You made me look up Anarcho-primitivism. My world doesn't seem much wider tho. I already knew there were crazy people out there. But I do like the name "Zerzan". That's kinda cool ...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

It's dumb, but it's not capitalism dumb.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago

I have two smart tvs. One is my gamer monitor, it doesnt get internet, and doesnt even have the correct time. The other one pretty much only plays youtube music, it replaced my old stereo.
I don't think they are getting much info from me.

My cell, on the other hand, there's only so much of it you can disable before it becomes unusable. And you have to use it. The spyware is the platform. In both cases.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Says the website that has a baljillion cookies

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

You can obviously block cookies locally in the browser, but what you can also do for those "consent" popups that ask you to decide which of the 1300 data brokers you want your data to be sold to is to use https://consentomatic.au.dk/ which automatically declines all of them. It works on a lot of websites, and I don't see consent popups anymore. Of course there are also adblock lists for your adblocker of choice, but they never get rid of all of it sadly. If you have an android phone then a Firefox fork with unlocked extensions will be able to install it as well (for example Fennec). Presumably also a chromium based browser with unlocked extensions, but I can't verify that. On iOS there's the Orion browser by Kagi which allows you to install extensions for both Firefox and Chrome, but again I can't speak to the actual effectiveness there.

EDIT: forgot but obviously safari also. duh.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

I use Firefox with badger and ublock, and next dns which does a lot to make for a clean browsing experience, I didn't know about that extension. Installed. Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I simply do everything in private windows and accept whatever. Then flush the cookies down the toilet 5 minutes later.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Cookie AutoDelete should do this automatically.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

I prefer the control of keeping the window alive until it's time to kill it, then keeping the regular browser window as what few things I allow to persist with login sessions.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago

I'm starting down this path. My current TV is beginning to fail and I'm getting frustrated trying to decide on a new one.

In terms of picture quality and such, I'm leaning towards an LG but their OS and such is a huge red flag.

I've got my router set to adguard for DNS and I'm learning how to set up a pihole.

Basically, all I really need is to be able to do is use my consoles and then SmartTube and Emby. That's it

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

You can connect, set it up, patch it, and then wipe it, revoke the permissions, make it an offline device again.

You can go back and forth. To use smart tv functions again, youd need to agree to the spy stuff again.

(Edit: I own a Visio and a Fire TV, so that's what my response is based on.)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

No.
You can deny permissions and use it as a monitor.
YMMV on using tv channels, but that should work.
But no hulu for you if no smart tv.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Avoid Roku in my experience, TVs with that shit built in definitely force setup and Internet access before they can even be used as a dumb TV. I used to favor Vizio, since you can decline the agreements and just use it as a TV. But their quality has unfortunately gone downhill. Last one I purchased (last I'll ever purchase) didn't even last a year and the backlight started malfunctioning and flickering.

I'm probably going TCL next time I need a TV. They seem to be doing quite well, and from what I hear you can opt for using them just as a TV as well.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago (3 children)

I wonder if I get an android TV with my fav apps and limit or block everything else. I do agree with roku, my enitre house has it and it seems like the only thing you can do is turn off personalized ads and nothing else. Really Limits your control.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

Turn palo alto to glass.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I use the web browser feature instead of tv apps. It circumvents a lot of the tv tracking. Of course, you trade it for web tracking.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

I feel like with web tracking its easier to block than tv apps. So I would rather go with that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

That reminds me - I am also curious about rooting a device with Android TV, so that's another potential option.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

Yep, that was my experience try are all ‘smart’ now, and o gate it. Let’s see, I got a tcl from Costco, and it let me skip anything that needed a connection

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

Its OK. I hope they can read it while its unplugged gathering dust. And we don't plan on getting a new one anytime soon.