HuggingChat is open source and lets you use DeepSeek. It also doesn’t censor results like the main app (allegedly) does.

Here you go! I had to take some time to consider its specific use case, but I’ve decided it’s unique enough to be its own entry. Thank you!

I will always find the idea of buying ordinary items with Monero to be a little funny. You spend years building up your privacy and go through the effort to have an anonymous Monero wallet and then… buy a towel, or a cup of sugar. I guess because it isn’t fully “mainstream” it’s just a little funny seeing such ordinary things cropping up as an option to spend it on.

Thank you! I have heard of it before, but I haven’t tried it out yet.

Wherever possible!

Hey, if you can manage it, and if that’s what makes you happy, I respect it! I do agree there is more freedom on a desktop, but I’ve found a balance between minimizing my phone usage and still using it for what I need. I really only use it for messaging, news, pictures, and an occasional game.

Yes! Most of them just switched when I asked, very easy. A few were stubborn so I did end up cutting ties.

Here are a few good tips on how you can convince people to switch: https://youtu.be/s9Ux8DFgMSM

So Android it remains for now, alas.

A corporate OS on a mobile device with lots of sensors which follows you around everywhere - this is always going to be a privacy minefield.

Have you taken a look at GrapheneOS? It’s a “de-googled” version of Android, which means it has none of the trackers and even has a network permission toggle for apps.

I’d love to see a website or app that has a full privacy roadmap. Even if there is one, I doubt it would be very good. You need something that constantly reminds you “Hey, you’ve been fighting for privacy for X months, and you’ve achieved so much! Look at how far you’ve come.” It would also need to be tailored to each person, because some people already use Android, others don’t, so the switch to a custom ROM may be harder for some people. It would have to make sure to have easy incremental steps, defined goals, threat modeling, “good” rewards, etc.

Sadly, I’m far from capable of coding that, even if I tried. Best of luck to that one Lemmyer that sees this and says “Hold my beer”

Being able to curate my own news without ads using an RSS reader, never needing to remember or come up with passwords thanks to a password manager, not a single ad thanks to uBlock Origin and Pi-hole, never worrying about songs becoming unavailable or price hikes on streaming services, increased battery life due to no invasive programs running in the background, faster and more reliable devices, and… the list goes on. In a way, you trade convenience in some areas to gain convenience in others.

Thank you!

I’d honestly love to share the whole crazy story of how I got into privacy in the first place, but it would reveal too many personal details about me and other people. It’s not an easy battle, and I’ve certainly made plenty of mistakes along the way, but I wouldn’t change a single thing about how it turned out. It takes a lot of time and effort, so it is unfortunate to see, as you said, many posts of despair.

They would likely put a bounty on it, like they did with Monero.

(I’m only half joking)

Some YouTube clients allow “local extraction” (FreeTube and LibreTube, to name a couple), which sidesteps the need for an instance altogether. However, that then means either 1. You use a VPN to hide your IP from YouTube and risk getting the VPN server IP banned or 2. You don’t use a VPN, expose your IP to YouTube, and have a (small) chance of banning your own IP.

The best alternative would be to remove YouTube altogether and switch to something like PeerTube or Odysee, but you can’t expect all your favorite creators to be there.

I knew Instagram was privacy invasive long before I ever started using it. Still decided to use it for some reason. Anyways, glad to have my dopamine receptors back.

I will continue to use Proton and their services, not because I support or endorse any political decisions from the CEO/board members (and I don’t), but because they provide open source, secure, and private software that I love.

This is no different than arguing about using GrapheneOS based on the behavior of the maintainers.

Do you have experience with LMMS or MuseScore Studio? If so, what benefit does Ardour provide over them?

I do not know, sorry. Someone who does know is free to answer this, otherwise you could try researching using some of the sources listed in my previous post, or contact some knowledgeable people such as the GrapheneOS team, Mozilla, etc.