What are some privacy focused forms of entertainment?
from Charger8232@lemmy.ml to privacy@lemmy.ml on 08 Jul 2024 15:05
https://lemmy.ml/post/17756525

A while ago I reached a point in my privacy journey where I simply felt bored. It’s not a result of going too far in privacy, but simply my threat model has caused me to let go of a lot of things that used to entertain me (games, movie streaming, short form video, etc.) The entertainment landscape in privacy seems pretty bleak, since you no longer own the movies you watch, the games you play, and lots of proprietary software along the way. I entertain myself through FreeTube, physical copies of movies, and offline installations of games like Minecraft, but it’s still a step down from how it used to be.

What do you do to keep yourselves entertained in a privacy conscious way?

#privacy

threaded - newest

frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml on 08 Jul 2024 15:08 next collapse

Buy a book with cash. Read the book.

The entertainment landscape in privacy seems pretty bleak, since you no longer own the movies you watch

It’s the other way around.

tonyn@lemmy.ml on 08 Jul 2024 15:52 collapse

They have cameras in the bookstores with facial recognition

frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml on 08 Jul 2024 15:53 next collapse

Who does?

merde@sh.itjust.works on 08 Jul 2024 16:05 collapse

then don’t go to those bookstores with cameras 🤦

not all bookstores have cameras

tonyn@lemmy.ml on 08 Jul 2024 16:55 collapse

I was being facetious to make a point. There is a limit to the amount of privacy that one can achieve while still residing within a modern society. As with all things, it’s a personal choice. Everyone has a limit up to which they are comfortable surrendering their privacy. You can be tracked and recorded even walking the streets in many cities, and in most retail stores. How far is one willing to go to be private?

frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml on 08 Jul 2024 17:37 next collapse

Poor point poorly made

tonyn@lemmy.ml on 08 Jul 2024 17:59 collapse

Ok, I’ll give you that. But don’t you agree there are certain aspects of privacy one must forego to live in a modern society?

helenslunch@feddit.nl on 09 Jul 2024 00:16 collapse

The question was:

What do you do to keep yourselves entertained in a privacy conscious way?

The questions was not:

What do you do to keep yourselves entertained in a completely private way?

We are all aware there is no such thing as complete privacy unless you move into an Amish society. The only thing you can do is your best.

DARbarian@kbin.run on 08 Jul 2024 15:08 next collapse

Personally I haven't really changed anything about my entertainment other than how I attain it. Torrented movies, shows, and books, cracked games, and ad+sponsor blocked YT via Piped mean I get all the same entertainment as ever if not more (plus I actually own it forever). The only thing I'll admit I miss a bit is Reddit.

mipadaitu@lemmy.world on 08 Jul 2024 15:10 next collapse

Hiking, camping, fishing, outdoor activities.

Woodworking, painting, knitting, blacksmithing.

Basically anything that’s not connected to a screen.

possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip on 08 Jul 2024 16:01 collapse

Gasps

frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml on 08 Jul 2024 16:54 collapse

🫨

LucidBoi@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 08 Jul 2024 15:13 next collapse

You can own movies by pirating them. same goes for games etc

GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml on 08 Jul 2024 15:19 next collapse

But games will still have the built in invasive telemetry I think.

frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml on 08 Jul 2024 15:51 next collapse

When people get games from e.g. fitgirl-repacks, do they play them offline? (just curious, I don’t play games)

GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml on 08 Jul 2024 15:56 collapse

Online features don’t work on pirated games in 99% cases (it says “connection error”, “failed to connect to insert the developer company name here servers” or something similar) but I’m afraid the telemetry still works.

DaGeek247@fedia.io on 08 Jul 2024 16:26 collapse

You're missing a pretty key fact; any good repack is going to disable everything trying to connect outwards. Otherwise the methods for pirating that content will be easier to detect and block.

It's also really easy to just check for yourself when a program is phoning home. https://superuser.com/questions/99039/any-good-utility-to-track-outgoing-traffic-and-requests-from-win-pc

GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml on 08 Jul 2024 16:52 next collapse

Hmm this is a good point.

gaylord_fartmaster@lemmy.world on 09 Jul 2024 01:46 collapse

You’d be surprised how often none of that is touched, and I really doubt any repackers are bothering to block any network calls if the original scene release didn’t. I’ve used some equivalent of OpenSnitch that prompts on all network requests that I haven’t explicitly allowed already for the past decade, and at least 90% of all games I downloaded during that time tried to phone home.

ALWAYS set firewall rules to block internet access to any software you pirate.

kugmo@sh.itjust.works on 08 Jul 2024 19:47 collapse

unshare -nc

Not my problem.

autonomoususer@lemmy.world on 08 Jul 2024 16:16 collapse

False, a pirated game is still anti-libre software.

GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml on 08 Jul 2024 15:16 next collapse

I just get a separate device with a fake identity and no personal data for games and proprietary software. Short videos are hosted by very invasive companies and don’t have any APIs or anything to make custom privacy-friendly frontends so it’s out of the question (fortunately imo because that things are addictive and can degrade a person in months). Idk much about movies because I’ve never used a paid movie service like Netflix but since they’re paid, privacy is very questionable there.

Unfortunately digital entertainment is very privacy-invasive overall. You can fix some of the privacy issues by the cost of convenience but some things will remain too invasive to be viable in many threat models.

frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml on 08 Jul 2024 15:53 collapse

Short videos are hosted by very invasive companies and don’t have any APIs or anything to make custom privacy-friendly frontends so it’s out of the question (fortunately imo because that things are addictive and can degrade a person in months).

If you view tiktok content thru ProxiTok, it fails to be addictive because things like autoplay and recommendations are disabled.

GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml on 08 Jul 2024 16:01 collapse

ProxiTok

Never heard of it but if a client with proper profiling mitigation exists, it’s awesome. Though (as I understand) since there’s pretty much no useful content on TikTok (unless it’s a shortened copy of a YouTube video or something), good recommendations are really needed to keep the user entertained so privacy-focused clients without total profiling kill the point of the app.

DaGeek247@fedia.io on 08 Jul 2024 16:23 collapse

since there's pretty much no useful content on TikTok

Just like any other major social platform, it has been used to pretty good effect in organizing protests against various issues. https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/nation/2023/12/14/starbucks-why-everyone-boycotting-controversies-explained/71885557007/

I don't personally use it though. Too scared i wont be able to put it down.

GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml on 08 Jul 2024 16:55 collapse

Just like any other major social platform, it has been used to pretty good effect in organizing protests against various issues.

Yea but come on we all know that stupid memes and harmful propaganda of all sorts will be at least 95% of your feed so it will degrade you fast. It’s a nice platform for creation and advertising but not for consumption.

Winco@lemmy.sdf.org on 08 Jul 2024 15:32 next collapse

Board games with friends and family. My brother rotates hosting board game night with his friends and it’s great fun.

possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip on 08 Jul 2024 16:03 next collapse

“Shorts” rot your brain like maggots. They are like smoking nicotine. You are probably suffering from withdraw of domine.

I think it is healthy to not be constantly entertained. Go outside and be in nature for a while. Maybe you could even meet someone new.

poVoq@slrpnk.net on 08 Jul 2024 16:05 next collapse

You can make your own open-source games, it’s pretty fun. And of course there are loads of games that have no telemetry what so ever.

Charger8232@lemmy.ml on 08 Jul 2024 16:38 collapse

“Holy shit this guy programs games to play them what a chad.” - MigratingtoLemmy

_haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works on 08 Jul 2024 16:39 next collapse

Go read at your local library, you don’t even need to check the books out if you read them there.

Tarogar@feddit.de on 08 Jul 2024 16:39 next collapse

Anything that doesn’t require high tech still works really well. Don’t need to worry about tracking software that tries to sell you something with say a horse or two. And as a bonus you get lots of physical activity as well which is healthy.

GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml on 08 Jul 2024 17:38 collapse

Don’t need to worry about tracking software

Unless you do it near a device with gapps installed because these were proven to collect real-time microphone data (may not be the case anymore).

RmDebArc_5@sh.itjust.works on 08 Jul 2024 16:45 next collapse

Emulation is a great for offline gaming. You can also find some great FOSS games on flathub like srb2, srb2k and Mindustry. You can also get old books for free on Project Gutenberg and audiobooks on Librivox. In Germany (and other European countries) there is state financed tv which has free drmfree adfree and (relatively) privacy friendly streaming services. Newgrounds also is a treasure trove, especially for music. Also there is piracy

helenslunch@feddit.nl on 08 Jul 2024 16:47 next collapse

Have you tried touching grass? 😃

But seriously, most outdoor activities are like the most private things you’ll do all day.

NaibofTabr@infosec.pub on 08 Jul 2024 17:51 collapse

Never mind the security cameras, and the drones, and the smartphones, and the satellites…

helenslunch@feddit.nl on 08 Jul 2024 18:22 collapse

Those things are less-likely to be in outdoor areas than anywhere else.

NaibofTabr@infosec.pub on 09 Jul 2024 02:06 collapse

Where I live, there are security cameras all over the buildings and the lamposts and the traffic intersections and the parking lots, plus Ring/Nest doorbells everywhere. There are more cameras outside the buildings than inside. Everybody is carrying a smartphone and I see people taking pictures or video with them all the time.

Drones and satellites are really only outside.

So I don’t agree with your conclusion.

Ilandar@aussie.zone on 09 Jul 2024 03:08 collapse

Where I live there are no cameras, so I agree with their conclusion.

tkk13909@sopuli.xyz on 08 Jul 2024 17:36 next collapse

You could try jacking off

Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee on 08 Jul 2024 23:54 collapse

To porn that you have painted yourself ahead of time.

HumanPerson@sh.itjust.works on 09 Jul 2024 03:20 next collapse

You ever search any torrent tracker for anything not very specific? 80% of the results are porn.

TheSun@slrpnk.net on 11 Jul 2024 07:58 collapse

Paint me like one of your French girls, Jack

HurlingDurling@lemmy.world on 08 Jul 2024 18:49 next collapse

Go to your public library and just sit there and read a book

Lemongrab@lemmy.one on 09 Jul 2024 05:50 collapse

Public library would be less private than just pirating the book. Public spaces tend to be thoroughly captured by stray security cameras (often with terrible Security). Impossible to avoid going outside lol so most likely fine.

fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 09 Jul 2024 06:57 collapse

You’ll never be able to live your life if you never go out.

Lemongrab@lemmy.one on 09 Jul 2024 19:28 collapse

Yes, I know that. Some people may need to take extra precautions when going outside. The reason for my original comment is that “outside” does not equal “more private” in many circumstances.

Humans need sunlight and it helps to release dopamine and vitamin D. Important.

jlow@beehaw.org on 08 Jul 2024 21:33 next collapse

Cycling is amazing if there are good roads that aren’t much traveled around your area and check your local arthouse cinema, they even still might have paper tickets 😸

Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee on 09 Jul 2024 00:00 next collapse

Minetest in creative mode with Radio Free Fedi’s comfy channel playing in the background 🤌

ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 09 Jul 2024 02:48 next collapse

Pirate movies, shows, and music.

That and I play old games. SMB 2 rn.

drwho@beehaw.org on 09 Jul 2024 18:51 next collapse

I read books. I tinker.

gopher510@lemm.ee on 11 Jul 2024 07:15 collapse

Motorcycling. Nearly all modern bikes have no ability to touch the internet, so you can get into a really fun hobby with practical benefits without being spied on.