(if you don't want to go through all my strident words) Thus, after this rant, my question is: where do I start from to build my surviving kit and my right to be private and disclose personal information to who and when I want to. How I become the actual owner of my device?
(I'm Italian, sorry for my Englishi) I feel I'm enduring too many aspects of my everyday life. Because of my scarce knowledge on many things I am enforced to accept other's companies decisione.
My approach toward The mega companies who, in my view, are owning Internet is obsolete and definitely ineffective: I don't use X, FB, instagram, TIK TOK and I boycott Amazon. I just use YT, via freetube, reVanced and Newpipe, until this will be possible. (but, alas, I pay to use chatgpt 4, rather useful tool sometimes)
I don't own a sufficient knowledge to use the net ad the mobile phone to riaffirm my independence and anonimity in this once beautiful world of collective enthusiasts and clever people that once was internet.
Also I find infuriating that I'm spied constantly for the simple fact of using a device that I bought with my money and that from the has never be mine but Google's. I am just sick of it, but I, repeat, don't have the knowledge to switch and turn into a citizen who strolls in the world of internet without being followed by 'people' who wants to sell you constantly something and wants to profile you. I find this too aggressive and unbearable.
Thus, after this rant, my question is: where do I start from to build my surviving kit and my right to be private and disclose personal information to who and when I want to?
**** How the f**k I defend myself from these greedy psycopaths (in the film 'Don't look up: Peter Isherwell, the billionaire CEO of BASH Cellular, was a pricelees portrait of people I cannot stand and for humanity are more harmful thant covid-19)
I completely agree with your point of view. If you don't control your technology, then your technology controls you.
You should know that it's really incredibly difficult to actually establish privacy on internet connected devices. They are designed to share information. Security is often an afterthought and privacy is often directly opposed to the goals of the corporations. It is possible to get a fair amount of privacy, but it is not easy. It will cost a lot of time in learning and configuring things, money to buy specific devices with specific features, and the sacrifice of the convenience that comes with mainstream products (you will have to do a lot more for yourself). There is no quick solution, it is an endless struggle - but personally I think the learning process is extremely rewarding and the skills you gain will be very useful.
So, where to begin? I would recommend learning about the technology that underpins all of the data gathering - computer networking. In order to make real decisions about how to use the technology and how to secure it, you need to understand how it works. You won't ever know if you are leaking data if you don't understand how that data is collected and transmitted.
I would like to point you to Professor Messer's Network+ training course, starting with the OSI model. This will help you learn the terminology of computer networking, and the concepts that underlie everything on the internet. If you get through the Network+ content, do Security+ also.
I also want to recommend the Selfhosted@lemmy.world community. A major goal of self hosting is separating your internet services from corporate control. This community is great place to learn and ask questions.
You should get a cheap computer (old, out of date hardware is completely fine) and install Linux on it so you can start learning how to use it (you'll need this to get away from Microsoft and Apple, and more importantly to have some control over your computing environment).
You might also be interested in the Murena 2 smartphone. It has physical switches for turning off the microphone and camera and network connections, and it runs /e/os (a de-Googled Android version).
There's also the Privacy, Security, and OSINT podcast.
I could write about other resources but this post has gotten long. Please feel free to ask me more about anything that interests you.
thanks a lot man, this is really helpful: veyr understandable. (first time that I read in clear letter that this kind of technologiy is designed primarly to share information. And it is a shame that here in Europe laws don't force corporation to build technology that has as a goal the privacy first. I am passionate in literature and Cultural studies, thus if we were living in another world I believe I would not read this stuff, because my heart beat for humanities (in a finite and short life: reading all Cormac McCarthy's opus for a second time it would be for me highly preferrable than learn about networks, but this is the world I live in and I am tired of these damn corporation that treat people like objects)
Unfortunately the podcast doesn't exist anymore. I really liked it.
Oh damn, I didn't realize. All the episode links are dead. Well, shit.
I've still got a local copy of the last episode, #305, in my podcast app... but that's it.
I was actually thinking about downloading and archiving everything, but then it got taken down. Damn.