this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2025
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Privacy

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I've been digging into the rabbit hole for a few months. Been switching to Linux, FOSS everything I can, trying to go to smaller sites, the least dubious social media, VPN, trusted mail, etc etc

But lately I've been in a rough state mentally (I say lately but it's always been with me) and having GPT guide me and being able to just dictate what I think helps me a lot on various levels, for various reasons.
But at this point, using ChatGPT with a mic, isn't this basically cancelling every effort I've made? (using it in the first place anyway) I'm weak and it helps me, should I just throw my efforts out of the window and just say I don't care about privacy anymore and use whatever everyone uses? (on one hand, I've found alternatives for almost everything, so I could keep on using those, but also, again, if I keep on using GPT on a regular basis, this is probably the worst threat the future has to offer in termes of privacy, so...I'm lost)

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[–] jjlinux@lemmy.ml 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Dude, it's all good. I doubt anyone has entirely removed intrusion from their lives. I've been the nut in my family, friends and work environments (not complaining, I actually love being that person) on privacy and cybersecurity. I still keep my Gmail account, the one I used to buy all my movies when I thought Google wasn't evil. My kids love using the Lenovo Google Assistant screens. I have 2 Chromecast with Google TV with the account I mentioned (my TVs do not connect to the internet). I play on my PS5 with my account and use my credit card (none of that temp credit card or cash or crypto), but I haven't used my PayPal in years (but still have it). I buy shit on Amazon (it's so convenient).

The point being, do what you can to safeguard your privacy as much as possible, as long as it does not affect your mental health. You need Facebook for whatever reason? You can minimize the invasion, and still use it. (Full disclosure, I fucking hate Meta, so I don't use any of its platforms, or even their open source language model). I'm on GrapheneOS in my phone, use Linux exclusively in my personal life, but I'm picking up a surface pro 11th Gen for work this Friday. I need my job, everything is windows based, and it's just getting harder to use Ms shit from Linux effectively. So, I use Windows. I have a good job, get paid well, so, I have to decide if that's worth some of my privacy.

Live life man, enjoy, be happy, then worry about the rest.