this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2023
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Cyberpunk

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"High tech, low life."

"The street finds its own uses for things."

We all know the quotes and the books. But cyberpunk is more than a neon-soaked, cybernetic aesthetic, or a gritty dystopian science fiction genre. It is a subculture composed of two fundamental ideas: PUNK, and CYBER.

The PUNK: antiauthoritarian, anticapitalist, radical freedom of expression, rejection of tradition, a DIY ethic.

The CYBER: all that, but high-fuckin'-tech, ya feel? From DIYing body mods to using bleeding edge software to subvert corporate interests. It's punk for the 22nd century.

This is a community dedicated to discussing anything cyberpunk, be it books, movies, or other art that falls into the genre, or real life tech, projects, stories, ideas or anything else that adheres to these ideals. It's a place for 'punks from all over the federated Net to hang out and swap stories and meaningful content (not just pictures of city nightscapes).

Welcome in, choom.

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This is the smartwatch I own. True netrunners know that the tech we wear on (or under) our skin is a prime entry vector for ever hungry megacorps to bleed the pulsing data from our digital veins, so having a wearable I have full control over is of paramount importance. I can flash it with new firmware whenever I want, the multiple open source options available are all an open book to any hacker worth their cyberlinguistic salt, and I can know for a fact that it won't phone home with my location or other data to any corporation behind the scenes. If we are all going to be cyborgs integrating technology onto and eventually into our bodies, better to control that tech ourselves!

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[–] edgerunneralexis@dataterm.digital 13 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Apple's made privacy a fairly large part of their value offering recently.

The problem is that that's mostly marketing smoke and mirrors. They define privacy as not giving your data to third parties (who aren't subcontracted with them), not actually refusing to collect in-depth data or link it to your personal identity. There have been a number of pieces of evidence released recently that show that they actually collect as much if not more data about you then Google does, and tend to ignore your privacy settings.

The amount of effort required to root a phone hard enough to where apps couldn't stalk me wasn't helping.

Depending on your phone, you could use GrapheneOS (which is super easy to set up compared to rooting and basically the best security and privacy you can get in any smartphone) or CalyxOS. Both easier (and more effective) than rooting, and certainly better than Apple.

[–] lwgrs@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

Re: Apple + privacy

I believe most of their intentions about restricting 3rd parties from seeing your data is keeping it for themselves. IIRC Apple plans to (if they haven't already, I'm on the Android platform) release their own ad service using their own proprietary data.

[–] Widget@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

When your device is locked with a passcode, Touch ID, or Face ID, all of your health and fitness data in the Health app — other than your Medical ID — is encrypted and inaccessible by default. Additionally, if you are using iOS 12 or later and turn on two-factor authentication, Apple will not be able to read your health and activity data synced to iCloud.

Most of iPhones' data at this point is e2e encrypted. (Medical ID is the info for first responders thing, which has to be accessed while the phone is locked.)

[–] lezgineer@dataterm.digital 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

How is graphene day to day? Is it basically just android sans google or are there major compromises?

[–] dorkian-gray@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Graphene user here. I rooted my devices and flashed cousin ROMs for years, but stopped because I got tired of the compromises. A couple of months ago I took the plunge while upgrading and got a pixel 7a (so it's got the longest support) to put Graphene on. I have found it to be, basically, Android. Googless at first, but you can add Goog to taste. Play Services runs sandboxed, if you want to run it.

Most apps work just fine, but in my setup Google Wallet does not. I can't remember exactly why but I think it's related to Play Services. Banking and "pay me" apps like Venmo seen to work fine though!

[–] edgerunneralexis@dataterm.digital 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's basically just Android sans (or with sandboxed) Google, I really don't miss anything. It's honestly a pleasure to live with.

[–] lezgineer@dataterm.digital 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Well now you make me want to switch, but I still have a perfectly good iphone and replacing it just seems wasteful. sigh, maybe in a few years.

Haha, that's the same position my gf is in, yeah.

[–] Weaselmaster@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I think you’re (intentionally or otherwise) mistaken about Apple and privacy. E2E encryption and key data being stored only on device, it’s the best privacy story around. They don’t make money by selling you or your data - they make money selling hardware to you.

[–] edgerunneralexis@dataterm.digital 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You should watch this video about how much invasive user data MacOS collects and sends (in plaintext) to Apple's servers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMc5zgALLiY

And this one, about App Store tracking and them ignoring privacy settings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=016QGxOsjQY

And read this NYT article: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/19/opinion/apple-iphone-privacy.html

E2E encryption and key data being stored only on device

That's for iMessage. And you can get identical functionality from Signal on any Android phone with a secure element (like a Pixel). They don't encrypt iCloud backups, and regularly turn that info in to the government. And, ironically, those iCloud backups include messages, which aren't stored on their servers encrypted! According to the NYT: "Apple also has access to text messages that it says are otherwise encrypted when they are backed up in iCloud, a workaround that’s apparently necessary to aid law enforcement."

it’s the best privacy story around

Not remotely. That would be GrapheneOS on a Pixel or CalyxOS on another Android phone. Apple is good in comparison to other stock vendors, sure. But it isn't the best option. Also, maybe read their privacy policy sometime: https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/en-ww. It's enlightening stuff. They collect a lot, and use it for whatever they want as long as it doesn't leave Apple (or the businesses its partnered with).

They don’t make money by selling you or your data - they make money selling hardware to you.

Maybe not: "Apple is also building out its own online advertising business, portions of which a French privacy watchdog said may run afoul of European laws. The agency said that Apple doesn’t appear to require users’ consent for tracking, as it now does from other app makers, meaning it could benefit from the targeted advertising that its do-not-track feature is meant to hinder." (From the NYT article)

After all, why would a megacorporation turn down the opportunity to milk more profit out of their very captive (have you ever tried to get an Apple person to leave their walled garden?) income source? Remember, this is /c/cyberpunk lol

[–] s_s@lemmy.one 2 points 1 year ago

Basically, Apple says all sorts of nice things about privacy, but its all entirely bullshit.

They don’t make money by selling you or your data

Correct. They make money holding it hostage.