In the latest episode of “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”, John Oliver has created an unusually-named website with instructions on how people can make themselves less valuable to Meta.
The solutions themselves aren’t significant but hopefully, more regular folks can start on their privacy journey.
Both FireFox and Privacy Badger received a shoutout on the website. I wish they recommended UBlock Origin instead, especially since it makes Privacy badger redundant and is more feature-rich.
Honestly I love John Oliver and the facebook, tiktok video and many others only enforced that point, and yes on the government surveillance btw, he interviewed Edward Snowden.
John Oliver is a rare mix of both mainstream and “willing to defend the right to privacy”. Despite his dislike of Julian Assange, he has grudgingly defended Assange against the extradition order in the past, because he understands the importance of journalistic integrity and the need to fight for it. He also criticised outlets like CNN for their misleading reporting on the case.
With a history like that, it is good that he is pointing out alternative, decentralized and open-source platforms against the Big Tech proprietary giants. That small mention will probably count for more than it seems.
Yeah, while UBO is better at blocking stuff it does break things occasionally. Which would not be a good idea for the broader masses the video is aimed at. Most people do not change settings of software.
Idk I use UBo with no tinkering and it would work just fine So I would recommend UBO over using something like Privacy Badger and Facebook Container and stuff like that.
If you simply want a refreshing and clean browsing experience, then i dont see an issue on deviating from defaults. Fingerprinting might not worry most people too much if all ads could be blocked.
People in different regions needs different blocklists, otherwise the effectiveness of UBO could drop significantly.
If recommendations algorithms are also concerned, then I have no idea how significant it could be.
President listens to Billionaire whining about issues with the system = Bad
Population listens to Millionaire whining about issues with the system = Good
Actual privacy and open source activists are in the government now with Tulsi defending Snowden, and Kash working against ATF/FBI/etc. overreach. People like John Oliver just bring more revenue to their privacy invasive masters like HBO, AT&T, etc.
uBlock will never be promoted by shows sponsored by ad networks like broadcast TV. Recommending basic digital hygiene is not the crusade people here are equating it with.
I encourage everyone here to scrutinize everyone in power. Just because they align with your beliefs in other areas does not mean they are “privacy” friendly. All of them are equally bad for privacy once they have any meaningful sense of authority.
No politician will oppose FISA once in power (check Obama, Trump, or Biden). The national security implication is too huge. Why would anyone want to take responsibility for the next 9/11. See the Mike Johnson flip flop.
The new administration is certainly more encryption and privacy friendly than previous ones (conservative or democrat) simply because they have “anti-censorship” stances. This is in contrast to Europe (becoming anti-encryption), China (everyone knows), and India (anti-privacy) among major democracies.
Outside of FISA, I very much welcome the reduction in state police power.
I’m trying to remember on old website which was surfacing all steps needed to disable data collections for a lot more websites than just meta and insta. Anyone have any clue to help me ?
It’s an interesting debate. Most of it is a “wait and see” thing for sure.
I do agree that the current administration is very anti-censorship. What I am concerned about is that these initiatives are only causing existing content moderation policies to be relaxed rather than meaningful changes in privacy and surveillance policies. It doesn’t matter if the FBI or CIA is gutted…it’ll just lead to a more streamlined and effective organization.
I doubt that something like a federal data protection bill will pass (or be sufficiently comprehensive) due to the newfound influence of the Big Tech lobby. But there are talks about a bill being made in the House though.
