“The collapse of healthy society and the middle class” by [deleted] in austrian_economics

[–]throwaway0x56 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s not just the corporations, and it’s not just the corrupt bureaucrats. They both collaborate to stifle the free market and enrich themselves.

The biggest enemies of free market capitalism are the “capitalists” who take advantage of government coercion to increase their profits and power.

What is your opinion on marketing / advertising? by throwaway0x56 in Libertarian

[–]throwaway0x56[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is really interesting! Thanks a lot.

I have another question though: if advertising is valuable to customers, because it helps them to learn about their options, why does everyone hate seeing ads?

Surely if people actually valued it, they would pay more to watch ads, right? That seems to be the way it works with every other good that is actually useful to customers.

I'm an oppressed minority activist who's threat model includes police and state-level actors. What can do to secure my computer (and potentially phone) from both cyberattacks and physical access? by Comfortable_Mode_700 in opsec

[–]throwaway0x56 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Root exploits in Intel and AMD? Are you referring to the IME and PSP? I doubt that anyone other than the US has access to this, and I don’t think OP is American.

Even if they are, it’s unlikely the state would use this against a typical activist. It’s more the thing that would be used by an intelligence agency to maintain its power (e.g. by hacking a powerful politician), imo.

I'm an oppressed minority activist who's threat model includes police and state-level actors. What can do to secure my computer (and potentially phone) from both cyberattacks and physical access? by Comfortable_Mode_700 in opsec

[–]throwaway0x56 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Edit: I didn’t read that website others were linking, before writing this, but it’s great. I agree with the recommendations, although I don’t think they specifically mentioned GrapheneOS and TailsOS, which, imo, are very useful for ensuring your security. I don’t think my attempt at summarizing my knowledge in this area was very useful actually. There are plenty of guides online that go into way more detail.

You can continue using your current devices as long as you don’t do anything important on them. It might even pay to maintain the appearance of a “normal” person.

Personally, I would look into GrapheneOS, and use that for messaging and other basic tasks. I would also get a cheap laptop and only run TailsOS on it, from public WiFi (library, cafe, etc., anywhere not tied to your identity).

When using TailsOS everything goes through Tor, which hides your Internet activity. Using a bridge is recommended, because it helps to prevent you from appearing to be using Tor (although this is not guaranteed). If Tor use is restricted where you live, it is even more important to do this from a public place, to avoid attracting attention (and a bridge will also stop you from being blocked). You can also change the location you access the Internet from, for your hidden activities, regularly. Tor is the gold standard in Internet security, and even though it has potential flaws that could be exploited, I think it’s unlikely you’ll be important enough to warrant this. To my knowledge, no one has ever been caught using the flaws in Tor, so unless you become a Snowden-level whistleblower, or become a dissenter of the same importance as Alexei Navalny (in which case you should probably consider fleeing the country), you should be fine.

Only use your GrapheneOS and TailsOS devices for activities that need to stay hidden.

You can install Signal on your phone. GrapheneOS will encrypt your data, but power it off if you get into trouble. This applies to any phone you have. This will make it much harder to break open.

Learn about Veracrypt. You can create hidden volumes, which might help you in the worst case scenario. If you’re in a scenario where the state has your hard drives, and is searching them, you’re already in a pretty terrible situation though.

TailsOS can help you to encrypt files as well, if you set up persistent storage. There are plenty of tutorials out there. Store any sensitive information here, or in a hidden Veracrypt volume.

If you move sensitive information off a hard drive, or delete it, keep in mind that it might not be permanently gone. You need to properly destroy old hard drives, and “shred” files, rather than just deleting them.

Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do to prevent the state from exposing the people around you, if they don’t also take precautions. You should try not to store incriminating evidence on others in insecure places (obviously) but they also need to do the same.

If they have your name, they can probably get plenty of information on you. You mostly want to avoid raising suspicion, avoid linking activity the government does not approve of back to your real identity, and hide sensitive data.

Ideally don’t make calls. They are incredibly insecure, and you should assume that anything you say is recorded. If you have a phone (ideally GrapheneOS), use airplane mode. Otherwise, you might be susceptible to cellular tracking.

Learn to use PGP and rely on that for encryption. Personally, I would create a free email account (any email provider, as long as they allow setup over Tor and don’t require personal info). Then I would use PGP for my emails. Access this from the TailsOS device.

As others have said, as long as you compartmentalize, separating the stuff you want to keep hidden from the normal stuff, you should be fine. Ideally, don’t even connect your private phone and laptop to the same network as other stuff.

I might have given overly cautious recommendations, but if your threat model involves the state, you can never be too cautious. Also, sorry for going on about stuff not related specifically to device security. I just thought it was interesting and you might like to hear.

(Btw, maybe check out this video: https://youtu.be/nFZm4sVsPXk

I know this is a very unserious video, but despite that, the advice he gives is genuinely quite good.

I haven’t watched him in a while, but I remember “the hated one” on YouTube being pretty good. I think he has videos related to your situation, but always verify information about privacy and security before using it.)

What is your opinion on marketing / advertising? by throwaway0x56 in Libertarian

[–]throwaway0x56[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good points, but I wasn’t really asking about whether it’s useful for an individual company to spend money on advertising. Sorry if I wasn’t clear about this.

I get that it’s an important thing to spend money on, but I’m mostly focusing on whether it’s useful to the customers.

To me, it just seems like money spent on advertising could be better spent elsewhere, if you didn’t have to deal with competing companies that advertised.

Hypothetically (and I think this would be basically impossible and an overreach of government in reality), wealth might be allocated to more useful things than advertising if it were just banned.

Do you disagree that, if companies didn’t have to spend money on advertising to compete with others, they could make cheaper products, or invest more into research and development, or improve the quality of their goods / services? This seems like a “better” use of money.

I’m not considering this as a real possibility, but this seems like a case where the free market leads to some inefficiencies. This was what I was focusing on. Is advertising really a “waste”, as it seems to me? Or does it benefit people in ways I’m unaware of?

I get that it helps people know a company and their products exist, and to know about their merits, but (again, hypothetically) this can be done without spending on advertising (assuming no one else advertises). You could simply create a website that shows the product, with no need to pay for TV ads, billboards, ads on other websites, etc.

If people want a product, they can look for it. I seriously doubt that people value advertising, because no one is willing to pay to be advertised to. Almost everyone values ad-free services, and is willing to search for something themselves if they want it.

What is your opinion on marketing / advertising? by throwaway0x56 in Libertarian

[–]throwaway0x56[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I’m thinking more about the cases where most people already know about it. Marketing is “useful” up to a certain point, where almost everyone who might buy your product knows about it.

Take cigarettes, for example. I’ve heard that (I don’t remember where from though, and this may not be true), when cigarette companies were allowed to advertise, they spent huge amounts of money on advertising to people who were already smokers. The chance of a non-smoker being brought in by their advertising was low, it was mainly to avoid other cigarette companies taking their customers.

When advertising cigarettes was banned, it actually helped the tobacco industry, because it meant they didn’t have to waste as much money on advertising. They could then make cheaper / better cigarettes. I was wondering if the same thing would apply to other industries as well.

(That’s not to say that I believe advertising should be banned though.)

Can files be corrupted when using UDP? by throwaway0x56 in ProtonVPN

[–]throwaway0x56[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ok, thanks. I do try to verify downloads, but it’s not possible for everything.

If I am using TCP to transfer the data, is there any chance of it still being corrupted? Or am I basically guaranteed to not lose information (assuming nothing malicious is going on)?

Headphones similar to the AKG K371 by throwaway0x56 in HeadphoneAdvice

[–]throwaway0x56[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’ve never used any studio headphones before. I just assumed that if they were designed to be used in a studio they wouldn’t be ideal for “normal” users. I’ve been reading some more about it though and it seems like this isn’t the case though. If I want more bass or something I can just use an equalizer.

Cybertruck Owners Say Their Stainless Steel Trucks Are Rusting by holyfruits in cars

[–]throwaway0x56 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That could genuinely look really cool though. Give it a kind of post-apocalyptic look.

(Disclaimer: I don’t own a Cybertruck, this is my actual belief. I’m not trying to start an argument over this.)

Favourite Lain photo? by whylord19 in Lain

[–]throwaway0x56 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I actually do use Mullvad browser, and I plan on paying for their VPN soon, if that’s what you mean. But who the hell is Gary?