Donât forget with the Recall feature, you may be on Linux and are using a secure communication application, but if who you are talking to is on windows your conversation can be scraped.
Same thing with email. Itâs all well and good if youâre using ProtonMail or Tuta or Posteo, but youâre still cooked if the other side is using Gmail.
Old problems, new modi operandi.
Afaik, with proton you can send messages that wonât open through gmail if you protect them with a password. The other person receives a message with a link to open the mail in a browser after entering the password. Itâs not the easiest solution but if you want to avoid gmail from knowing the contents of a message, you can do that.
Do Proton remotely erase the message on the recipientâs email server? Even if itâs not a protonmail server?
Itâs not like companies that use Linux donât get breached either. Your personal data is in thousands of databases that have varying levels of security. Personal choices donât affect any of that, regulations like GDPR are whatâs needed.
GDPR has much the same problem: it can only actually be enforced against entities with a presence in Europe. When Europeans do international business, the GDPR only protects them if that foreign site has a business presence within Europe. When they have no bank accounts or business assets inside the EU, they are not subject to the GDPR.
Even though the GDPR covers your side, it doesnât always cover the other side.
Thatâs why I said âregulations like the GDPRâ. The US and other blocs need similar regulations. Especially the US is important, as theyâve shown that theyâre willing to stretch the size of their jurisdiction to sometimes absurd lengths.
Thatâs usually a bad thing, but in this case that might be good.
But does your medical clinic do?
No, they donât, and it pisses me off. Every time I see it, I think, Well, there goes my medical privacy.
But where else can I go? Thereâs only one health company in town, and they bought all the doctorâs offices.
Who can I complain to? The doctors and nurses are visibly frustrated with Windows every time I see them use it. If they canât change it, how could I?
They might not know there are alternatives. So they likely do not ccomplain to their IT person.
Dont be a âjUsT uSe LiNuXâ guy, but when you see them frustrated maybe say âhey I see you are frustrated as well and I as a patient are concerned about my medical data privacy. You know there are better and safer alternatives, maybe you could ask your IT if it would be possible to switch to Linux?â
Realistically, they canât switch because the software to use some $âŹ1m medical device only runs on windows.
Iâve had the se thought as expressed in the last paragraph the other day and isnât the anwser in compatibility layer? Like canât they install and run windows medical software using WINE?
i use linux and donât have family or friends or get any kind of medical care âşď¸ checkmate
The failures of the United States healthcare system are compatible with the Unix philosophy due to its emphasis on doing one thing poorly and leaving the rest for the user to figure out. Like Unix tools, each componentâinsurance, billing, and treatmentâfunctions independently, refusing to communicate effectively while relying on the user to âpipeâ themselves between endless calls, paperwork, and escalating bills. Debugging your health, much like debugging code, requires advanced knowledge, infinite patience, and a willingness to accept that nothing will ever be fully resolved.
This very succinctly explains why I, with AuDHD, find it practically impossible to get anything done as I slowly rot from untreated chronic illnesses.
privacy is scary stuff if you think. itâs like, i care so i dont share my phone number with facebook, but someone out there may have my number/address/name on their contact list and chances are big that they have no problem sharing with zuck. so iâll still end up on zuckâs database.
I just activated my checking account with PayPal and one of the questions from the verification battery was asking me which email I recognized. They were different domains of my motherâs ISP email that she uses only with Amazon.
I had the urge to answer incorrectly as if that would remove their association.
My dad did that. The man has a slight obsession with collecting information about our entire extended family, as far back as he can go in time. Heâs been known to get in touch with small municipalities to ask for their records about someone 8 generations back. Heâs collated quite a bit of data over the years.
And then one day he went and loaded all of that into a shitty mobile family tree app. Phone numbers, current addresses, email addresses, photos, a shit ton of personal information of a shit ton of people, uploaded to some random developerâs unknown database without their consent. He didnât even pause to think about it for one second. I told him what he did, he wasnât even bothered.
There are tons of people like my dad who donât have a single cell in their entire bodies that gives a flying fuck about data privacy, unfortunately, and they give out everyoneâs data along with their own.
Demand it from who? With what power or leverage?
Not to be defeatist, but Iâm just a guy. Nobodyâs gonna listen to my demands. Iâm surprised privacy notifications say anything other than âYou donât have anyâ with two buttons that both say âOKâ. All I can do is selfhost as much as possible and decline to use tons of applications or services that underpin modern societal functions or social activities. So I do. But it sucks ass and I donât have any power to change any of it.
No, but the point theyâre trying to make is, I think, that the more you complain, the more other people complain and the more other people start complaining and unless we have enough complainers and people switching, nothing is gonna change.
Our power is imperceptible but not non-existent