Had a recent conversation with a loved one about how uncomfortable I am with the aggressive data scraping and ai profiling of companies and social media platforms, and they hit me with this one.

I found it hard to respond without sounding paranoid and political, and to articulate it in a way that doesn’t info dump all the things in worried about that are happening now and in the future.

I feel like digital hygiene is incredibly important now, even though we don’t live in the US.

How do you guys approach conversations like this? I’m not trying to convince them or whatever, I just don’t want to sound unreasonable.

They’re also my life partner, so I’d prefer it if they respected our shared digital privacy too but I understand people have different anxieties / views of the word.

Thoughts?

Probably not gemini or Chat

I'm looking to add a better stereo to my old car so I can play audio from my phone. I've never had a big infotainment screen before, and generally prefer something simple with physical buttons, but it would be nice to be able to put the map up on a larger screen instead of putting my phone in a dash holder. If I get a larger unit with a screen, am I automatically inviting more invasion of my privacy than using Google maps on my phone? Or are there good options for this?

I was on an 11-hour Air France flight from Paris to San Francisco earlier this week. I have pretty bad allergies and, for part of the flight, I was sneezing quite a bit. I used tissues, sneezed into my arm, and eventually fell asleep for roughly 8 of the 11 hours.

Four days later, I received an email from a woman who had apparently been sitting near me on the flight.

We had never exchanged names, contact information, or spoken to each other.

Her email said:

“You gave your name to someone you were talking to on the phone during the flight, so I was able to get your email address.”

She then told me that exactly four days after the flight she had become quite sick, believed I was responsible, and contacted me to tell me about it.

What unsettles me isn't really the complaint. Someone being annoyed about sitting near a person who is sneezing on a plane is understandable.

It's how she found me.

My full name isn't particularly useful for finding my personal email address, and after thinking about what I was doing during the flight, I suspect she may have obtained additional identifying information by looking at my laptop screen. I was working during portions of the flight and certainly had my email visible at various points.

To be clear, I can't prove that she copied the address directly from my screen. I only know that we never exchanged information and that she explicitly told me she obtained my identity by observing or overhearing me on the flight and then used it to find my email.

I find the whole thing fascinating from a privacy perspective. We spend a lot of time worrying about sophisticated digital tracking, data brokers, breaches, etc., but apparently sitting in business class with your laptop open for several hours creates a much simpler vulnerability: the stranger sitting nearby can potentially collect enough information to identify and contact you later.

Would you consider this a meaningful privacy violation, or simply an unpleasant reminder that anything visible or audible in a public/semi-public environment should be treated as public information?

And for people who regularly work on planes, trains, or in cafés: do you actually use privacy screens or take other precautions against shoulder surfing?

"He added that the label prices are changed overnight, when customers aren’t in the store, and the system has human oversight as well to ensure it has “robust governance” and doesn’t make mistakes." - Greg Cathey, Walmart’s Senior VP of Digital Transformation

Link in comment since the automod keeps deleting the post

How likely or unlikely is it that google would require ID verification to log into gmail? Will I wake up one day and be blocked from accessing my gmail account unless I give in and provide ID verification? That feels almost illegal considering how important email is to access. Yes I created another encrypted email account (Tuta/Proton), but I have 250 accounts online so the idea of changing my email address at all those accounts is daunting.

I am trying to avoid ID verification because I do not want my bio-metrics or government ID info in a company's database only to be hacked and stolen by bad actors. But what if Google Gmail locked me out of my email by requiring ID verification? I would have no choice but to comply, because email is so critical for 2FA logging into many accounts online.

So my little brother asked me to download Roblox so I can play a few games with him. Without thinking at ALL, I did the age verification scan. I told my brother what I did and he told me about how the company in charge of these scans is a HUGE privacy risk but he laughed it off and we continued playing.

This made me a little paranoid, so I did some digging and now I’m realizing how big I’ve messed up. Everybody is saying not to do it, but I already have and I’m literally panicking. I feel like my whole world is crumbling around me and that my life is over. What do I DO?!

I want to contact Roblox to delete my account but obviously that’s not gonna do anything since they already have my biometric scan data!

I’m currently in my bed crying and hyperventilating over this and I just want some guidance on how to deal with this.

I have a (£four figure) payment to make, and the invoice remittance advice directs me to a page where I can use Flywire to pay with brank transfer, card, or 'pay by bank' with Trustly.

I recently had a horrible experience with a different third party online payment manager. Having my personal details deleted was a huge effort, with emails going back and forth and them asking me essentially for more information - photos of my passport for example - before they would consider my request to delete my address, dob, and payment information that they held.

So I prefer to not use these services if I can help it - although they're ubiquitous and it's proving hard to avoid.

I'd like to contact the recipient of the payment, and offer to pay using an alternative method. But I really don't know what alternative method to suggest? The invoice is legit and is not a scam.

Is a straightforward BACS transfer preferable? Or even PayPal? I feel clear on what I don't want to do, but unclear on the alternative options.

Signal only allows linked devices through a QR code. However, it's still possible to scan a QR code sent by an attacker without them having physical access to your device.

The document states that the German customs agency has been testing messenger surveillance since the end of 2023, and it has led to success in criminal investigations. They're light on details as to exactly what strategies German customs officials use, but there are plenty of ways to maliciously link a device to an account.

This type of surveillance became an official, permanent strategy available to all agents since August 2025.

The messengers affected include WhatsApp, Telegram, Threema, and Signal.

I want to be part of some discord communities that require to give my phone number, i obviously do not want to do that. And some other services where I HAVE to provide my number

So it would be nice if i had some service where I can get some temporary phone number to get just act as my phone number. I paid for just temporary or I can pay monthly for a second phone number if it is fairly priced and trustworthy.

I need to submit some pdf files and photos that contain sensitive info. How do I permanently redact the info digitally? If I print out the pdfs, how do I safely redact them?

Thanks.

I’m expecting a baby soon and want to send out printed birth announcements to close family and friends so pictures of the baby are never uploaded to social media. is there a specific printing service that will not store or share my photos?

I know their privacy policy leaves a lot to be desired with the lack of e2ee but when faired against discord I still think they're better by miles and easier to transition compared to element especially for the average user that just want to avoid mass surveillance and Ai training

I'm thinking of switching to it but thought I'll run it here first?

Beforehand this is less of a tech support issue rather than a privacy concern, Smart TVs are flooding the market and finding one that does not possess these capabilities is a real pain. Not connecting it to the internet does not suffice in certain cases due to remote access (which is available even on monitors) allowing some Smart TVs to upload data collected locally.

I was wondering if desoldering the storage NANDs would basically turn the Smart TV into a regular TV or if the primary NANDs also contained things such as calibration, drivers, etc.

Currently trying to make more emails for myself, and I want something outside of Gmail. I already have a Proton and Tutanote email, but I keep those private. I don't want to violate their ToS, so I'm wondering if there's any other email providers I can use for my email.