this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2025
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With what's happening globally, how worried of privacy should we be? (Sorry if I'm posting wrong) (piefed.social)
submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by ranedance@piefed.social to c/newzealand@lemmy.nz
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10 years ago when people said we need to be concerned about privacy, I thoguht it's not a big deal. It's gotten pretty bad tho and I thought I need to be prepared for the worst case scenario of things getting worse in the next 10 years.

So I started moving my emails to proton and stuff, removed or disabled a bunch of apps on my phone. Access everything through browser with ads and trackers blocked, etc.

BUT it's like, weeks after my privacy journey started, three of our allied countries (US, UK and Aus) all decided to prove me right and not even wait the 10 years.

How likely is NZ to follow suit? I thought over 10 years I ease off social media, convice people close to me to do the same, etc. But it seems like I fucked up and it's too late and the empire won.

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[–] RecallMadness@lemmy.nz 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I think you should be prepared to make sacrifices. Either to your lifestyle, your principles, your safety or your wallet.

Eg. If the new RUC system comes with GPS trackers, what will you do? Abandon your car, abandon your principles, or act belligerently?

If NZ introduces an adult-ID system like the UK, what will you do? Give up ‘adult content’, or pay for an overseas VPN?

Can you afford to protest? To stand by your principles? To circumvent the systems?

It likely won’t come all at once. It’ll be slow and incremental. But privacy will keep being eroded. In this modern age data is money, data is power. Privacy is the anthesis of that.

[–] ranedance@piefed.social 2 points 4 months ago

Its a lot harder when your decisions impact others too. Missed a call earlier cause I don't have fb messenger installed. Shit like that makes you want to just give up cause if feels like my tiny insignificant protest is not in inconvenient for me, but other people who likely don't care as much.

[–] TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Privacy has been used to smoosh people's hopes of communicating authentically with each other.

And US federal law enforcement has everything already.

I think that it is better to stand up and be counted now. I think that votes should also be publicly counted, though as well. The secret ballot system in the USA has been demonstrated to be a way to corrupt vote counts.

That said journalists and their sources should take heed to try to maintain privacy.