Often times, I tell people to what extend big tech is willing to hurt people, to collect more and more money, as in data! And the reaction is… disappointing. They either don’t care, sometimes even making jokes, or don’t get over the inconvenience of switching.
If I tell them that that some of those privacy apps, like brave compared to chrome, is more convenient, they don’t care. If I tell them that they hurt themselves by using big tech, like TikTok, they don’t care. If I tell them that their use of those apps hurt others, they don’t care.
I don’t think I am convincing enough. So what can I tell them?
You can’t control or convince others.
What you can do is live your best life and let them know it. Not in an annoying way, but in a real way.
How many conversations do I hear about spam calls or text messages? Everybody hates them and they get in on this commonality thing of yeah we all hate that it sucks. Then I bust out with a, yeah I’m glad I don’t really deal with that anymore… Wait what? I have a solution?
Then I break it down, and I’m very clear my measures are not for the faint of heart. But its a spectrum and there’s some low hanging fruit they can do to dramatically change things from where they are. Do they do it? No. But they now know there is a better way and acknowledge it, then actively choose not to do it.
Does that change anything? Yes and no. No, nothing technically changed. But yes, they understand a little more now. So now they don’t treat you like a crazy person or if you say you’d rather not use WhatsApp or whatever they aren’t so insistent that this is all you being weird.
Stop making it a confrontation is my point. That makes you the bad guy. You’re not, the companies and governments are. Let them see that.
First, don’t expect to change their mind with anything you say.
Second, keep it simple and only provide details if they ask.
Third, make it less about logic and appeal to pathos and ethos more. If they’re Christian, talk about your “God-given right” to privacy. Talk about how you don’t like your fourth amendment rights being stepped on. If they ask about that, then start adding in some actual arguments. “If the governments not allowed to invade my privacy, then who do these corporations think they are?” “The governments not allowed to invade my privacy without a warrant, but they just buy my data from these corporations anyway, it’s basically illegal!”
You can try telling them about all the ways their information is used against them. Collect information about how the current govt is using all sorts of information to target and harrass people, especially immigrants.
You can teach them about surveillance pricing, and how companies are using their personal data to drive up the cost of goods.
Realistically, from experience, you just annoy them, and they taunt and dislike you.
To put it plainly, we’re just fucked. We continue absolutely careening towards a surveillance dystopia, and very few people seem to care at all.
I find a lot of people don’t feel confident enough with computers to mess with their PCs or phones to secure their tech, and I kind of get it. Like people act every impressed with my linux PC or Graphene Pixel. Ive seen old ladies give remote access to their machines to random smooth talkers, so I do understand its something many normies cannot even comprehend.
Depends on the audience but I’ve found adding “it’s just common sense” to the end of my argument tends to be more effective than citing sources.
That’s just common sense
It’s too late to matter imo. People are addicted to dopamine rewarded by the algorithms, it takes work and will power to get over that. By the time you whittle them down, they’ll be on their way to be black bagged.
“brave” is joke?
it’s not the best but basically anything is an upgrade over chrome
Here’s the thing: You don’t. You can’t. There are no magic words to make someone see things your way. You can give them ideas to mull over, but you can’t convince someone who doesn’t want to be convinced. You can be open, express your views and give your reasons to anyone willing to listen, but that is the extent of what you can do. Some people may eventually come to you for advice; welcome them and guide them as you can. Most people may take some bits from you but never start actually caring. That’s ok, that’s their way.
You can’t force people to do things your way, nor should you try. Just be honest.
Corporations put a premium on your data, why shouldnt you?
I talked to a guy like you a while back, and then he also mentioned he used “Brave” and he was surprised when I mentioned the awful things behind it. So perhaps re-evaluating your suggestions and own choices is the first step?
Brother, they were using Chrome for fuck’s sake🤦 Brave could never amount to the kind of societal damage Google creates, even if they tried their hardest.
Telling someone to improve their privacy is like telling them to eat healthier. They probably know on some level that they should do better, but it’s breaking habits. Changing their…everything is a daunting task on top of everything they actually want to do.
It’s a sales pitch, so I’d say sell them on one small lift at a time (Firefox, uBlock, DuckDuckGo) and build on them as they get comfortable with privacy control. Don’t shame them, don’t look down on them, don’t be overly pushy.
Show them that it’s actually more convenient to protect your privacy than not doing it. It gets real easy to get people interested in privacy when you show them that just by installing a simple adblocker you can view youtube videos without ad interruptions and you can visit sites without annoying screenlocking pop-ups.
Also, don’t use Brave if you are into privacy. Brave is doing a lot of awful things with your privacy. It just blocks others sometimes from doing these things as well. There’s so many browser alternatives out there now, that there’s 0 reason to pick Brave.
My family had a mix of android and iPhone. Whenever the iPhone people sent videos to our SMS group chats they would get compressed into near oblivion because of imessage (I’m pretty sure).
Convinced them to switch to signal so we could all share videos. Anecdotal, but sometimes an indirect route works best.
Be subtle about it, free of judgement. Don’t lecture them on something they likely know already, and (semi)consciously ignore to maintain an unhealthy, yet comforting pattern. It’s rather about planting seeds, than doing the thinking for them: let them come to their own conclusions next time they use it.
It’s all about predatory dark patterns, that deliberately exploit human psychology; so gear them up to recognize these abusive mechanisms. Not in a direct way, but just by casual conversation about content on their timeline, with some observation woven into it, like: quite some advertisements, huh? What does that little text say? Oh, “sponsored content”. Do your friends still post things? Because I haven’t seen any on your timeline. Shouldn’t that be the entire purpose of this platform? They give you notifications about friends liking other’s posts now? That seems a little excessive.
My mom has been using the platform a lot less since I did, and she even has opened up to the concept of disabling Facebook push-notifications. The latter needing some more time, because she’s struggling with a fear of missing out. I once disabled push-notifications for news applications too without asking, so perhaps I should do the same for Facebook (Messenger being a different application anyways).
The main problem seems to be that users have, successfully, been conditioned into wanting anti-features. My mom actually clicks personalized advertisements, and I have no clue how to cure her from that; other than to joke about a particular shoe brand always being featured. I already substituted her ad-ridden weather app for a Firefox (with uBlock) shortcut, which she has really come to appreciate. So there’s progress to be made: it just requires the right approach, and a lot of patience; which is worthwhile for loved ones.
Ask to any normy.
Would you give you home key to some random in the street ? I Guess not. Even if it say he’s working for the gov ? I guess not.
Can i see what you are doing when no one is looking ? When you are in your home, not knowing that i’m watching behind your back ?
Now let it cook a year, and come back. You will see a shift.
I convinced my Family and some friends of the importance of privacy, other, well, the Darwin award. It’s not possible to do more than advice the importance online on social networks, each person must be responsible for their own actions.
