Mercer

I wanted to do one of these for how to use macs + iPhones and wondering if anyone in here uses any of the following. 1. Dropbox as opposed to iCloud, also if used, do you use the camera uploads feature? 2. Password manager? 3. Hazel, or manually writing your own applescript for automation? 4. A firewall to monitor all connected activity? 5. a VPN service?

I read that whole thing and had to dip to TOR for a minute after the granny fisting was mentioned, now my arm is exhausted. On a serious note, I wonder what's cutting edge with intelligence agencies like the former KGB, or NSA. Keep in mind the entire internet was originally the intranet for the US military first. Just some of the stuff I've seen private companies (that are bound by laws) are capable of is disturbing. Imagine a what a rouge organization like the NSA (that has no laws it follows) is doing.

Got this in the mail today, moral patches boosted my moral. Nice highlight coming home after a shitty Monday.

I actually get that problem a few times a day, I said granny fisting you fucking NSA morons, sure I’ll enjoy the occasional granny horse combo but when I need granny fisting I don’t have a lot of time to dick around, and need that fisting visual like right away.

@fat ralphy and anyone else using Brave here's the thing, and it can be annoying until you understand whats happening. Brave blocks Javascript, so you're going to think some websites are broken occasionally since most sites rely on Javascript for some basic functionality (like recognizing the url you posted should be swapped to embed code). Fear not, 12oz works great in Brave, and it also happens to be a site I trust more than any other since I we the owner. 12ozProphet won't work well until you got to the top menu and choose Shields > Site Shield Settings > Then choose turns shields down for 12ozProphet. This is going to happen periodically as you visit new/old websites in Brave, in each instance you can choose to lower your shields so the site works, or just not use the website if you don't trust it, or it's advertisers. Bonus tip, lowering shields will still block advertisements in most cases.

Even more bullshit from google, Metamask is basically an essential tool for so many people working with blockchain (myself included). Both Facebook and Google have purposely attempted to stall cryptocurrency adoption in several different ways, and this is yet another example of a solid, useful product being artificially derailed by them without explanation. Unsure if it's them supporting the government/status quo, or their own ambitions in this space but either way it's not based on providing their users the best possible experience.

So back to the mission at hand. Most people seem to be focused on what browser you're currently using, I still recommend brave browser and opening an occasional TOR tab in that browser for anything you want to keep even more private. Stopping new data from being gathered/stored is a good start, but what about the data google already has stored, is there any way to eliminate it? Yes, well at least they're saying there is at this point and you can thank regulatory overreach of the EU for this. How much data google actually allows you to delete is unknown, there's a good chance some of the data will be backed up someplace on their servers. Deleting your search history is probably one of the most important things you can do, especially if you've set your default search engine to Duck Duck Go. That search engine is actually on par with google's in many aspects. In fact, it's so good I originally started using it as a default planning on actually visiting google.com for the searches it sucked at, but till this day have been completeley satisfied searching for animated gifs, web results, etc. using duck duck go. With that said, here's how you delete your search history from google: Go here: https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity perform a search for all types of activity, with the parameters of before today's date, and after January 1st 2014. Once you get the results, choose the three verticle dots and then choose delete all history. Boom, Done. I can't take screenshots of this since all of my history is deleted according to google, but here's what the page should look like when you're done. Once you're done with that, it wouldn't hurt to check the other services google offers in the account page: https://myaccount.google.com/dashboard and see what else they've got. Old text's and voicemail from an old google talk phone account? A ton of stored emails archived in Gmail? Either download that shit and store it someplace else or not, then delete it all. Pour over all of your account services, calendar data, contacts, etc. and anything you don't deem useful there's no reason for google to keep that record stored forever.

@Crackwhatever Understood, but at the same time it's impossible for me to not give a fuck about the "greater good" and focus entirely on me and mines. I know speech recognition is how they got to Ross Ulbricht regardless of how they claimed to have found him through legal methods. I do take measures to avoid being flagged, like not going into detail on things that could be interpreted as subversive, or randomly liking a mainstream political meme here or there opposite of what I think to throw off algorithms. In my case, I'm hopeless. I face this same issue in other areas of my life and pay the consequences regularly. I can't just not give a fuck, or just go with the flow, or aways follow the path of least resistance by my nature. It sucks, but for me life isn't worth living without having, and realizing convictions. I just keep them to myself in social situations as much as humanly possible, including spouting them in detail online, and avoid going into tricky areas online without protecting my real identity.

Good advice@CrackwhateverI might have to set up a USB and play around with that. My own main concern for privacy is based on seeing how easy it is to psychologically profile someone, and in turn use that info to either predict, or influence their behavior. While the technology to deploy this in large scale is still in it's infancy, years down the road this could be a major concern. I've watched this technology starting to make use of the internet, and have seen clear signs of people being PSYOP'd for political purposes recently. The U.S. Army's Psychological Operations Unit has been busted multiple times pre-internet era placing operatives in media organizations like CNN & NPR, I can't imagine what they're doing with google and Facebook these days. There's also clear evidence of Russians using these methods to polarize U.S. citizens, and campaigns built around the use of Cambridge Analitica. Having such strong political convictions myself, along with a voracious appetite for political literature, I'm not concerned I'll be influenced politically. I'm so far from mainstream it would be more effort than it's worth to figure out how to influence the small percentage of people that hold beliefs similar to mine. What I could definitely see myself doing is making a dumb expensive purchase, or bad investment in the future, and not realizing why I wanted to until it was too late. Once this technology starts trickling out into the private sector I think it will become more commonplace for people to be influenced into purchases and other financial decisions that go against their own best interests. Like I said earlier, we're all putting this data out there. Giving it away for free to companies that are admittedly gathering it to turn a profit. Even if Facebook, or Google never use it for nefarious purposes, who's to say they can't be hacked some day, or that they won't be coerced into sharing this information with the government. If you ask me the odds of that NOT happening are almost zero. We have no claim to ownership over this data, and zero rights to, or say on how this data is used. The more you can keep out of these data gathering vaults the better IMO. So yea, fuck chrome, use duck duck go, and tor if needed, and do everything you can to stay in charge of your own thoughts moving forward.

Misfits Beats could only possibly beat Minor Threat because the Crimson Ghost Logo is way more iconic. So with that said...