
Ask HN: Safe? - ezal
Everyday a new data breach is reported.
Is our personal information safe online?
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Top19
Probably not. A quick thing you can do is start using a password manager and
opt-out of ads and tracking on Facebook and Google. Beyond that? Look into
Michael Bazall’s (sp?) books on privacy.

Look for yourself though: [https://pipl.com](https://pipl.com)

There was a book a few years ago called “Brave New War”. Can’t remember the
author’s name, but he basically argued that it’s now possible to run your own
semi-competent intelligence agency off of simply internet data. Once this
becomes more widely known, that data, combined with with a desire for
vengeance, could lead to lots of blackmail, retribution, and general
harassment.

The other day I found someone’s Facebook profile and he posted everything.
Where his kids went to school, where his wife worked.

I kind of think society is like it was with airplanes up until the 1970’s,
which was called the “golden age of hijacking”. Before that sure everyone knew
technically you could hijack a plane, but no one worried about it because it
hadn’t been done yet seriously or frequently. The time will come.

~~~
ljk
> _start using a password manager_

isn't that a point of failure too? why not just use different passwords for
every site and make a longest-allowed password?

~~~
Top19
You know I’ve thought of that too, but if the popular password managers fail,
then we have such a big problem on our hands that your personal data will seem
trivial in comparison to the larger societal disruption.

You could also use a local password manager that doesn’t upload to the cloud
and just syncs with your phone.

Also there are lots of guides on Github on how to set up Mac, PC, Linux,
whatever as securely as possible. Good stuff to look up.

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aaronaarzelbart
No.

The even is completely insecure, in ways not yet discovered.

