And generally, if the user have chosen private account, what's the sense of it if you can find his or her posts anyway just by putting username in the search tab? What's the point in calling it private account if no privacy at all? Is there something to be done to prevent being able posts being findable and unique user name unseen?

Is it safe to use Tor browser - just for privacy - not to browse the dark web? After installation, Tor Browser asked to import bookmarks from edge, google? is it safe?

I'm curious what people here think about the privacy implications of using AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude and AI coding assistants at work.

It's pretty easy to paste a chunk of source code, an internal document, customer information or even an API key into an AI tool without thinking too much about what's included.

Even if a provider says it doesn't train on your data, that doesn't necessarily mean you're comfortable sending sensitive information to an external service in the first place.

For those who use AI regularly, do you actively avoid including sensitive information, rely on your provider's privacy settings, or use other tools to protect your data?

I'm also curious about the workplace side of this. Do you think employers should be doing more to prevent sensitive information from being sent to AI services, or should it primarily come down to individual users being careful?

Interested to hear people's experiences and whether you think this is a genuine privacy concern or something that's overblown.

I got hit with the "Verify you're human" and I'd prefer to not give my data, and while I think I'll be fine without Twitter, I still want to try and see if cheating is possible. My idea relies on the difference between their "biometrics" and "selfie" option.

"Selfie" : 100% off the table, even if they say it's not stored on their servers I don't trust them.

But what about "biometrics" ? Does that leave the device, since it uses the system's own Touch ID ? Or can Twitter see it ?

A friend told me that when she unlocked her account, she could use her Samsung's options for biometrics. So it gave her an idea : she registered on her Samsung a new fingerprint of a finger she never used (like ringfinger), used Samsung's Touch ID with that new finger when verifying the app, then deleted both app and fingerprint once she got access back. She has no Samsung account, either.

My question is : was she correct ? Did her ring fingerprint leave her device, or did her Samsung just tell Twitter "yes, that user's good" without showing the print to Twitter ?

Because I was thinking of doing the same, but with a toe print instead. But I don't know how this is handled.

Long story short, I got locked out of my work machine, due to a password reset blunder, and my work IT department sent me a link to scan my ID and face over to Microsoft to get me back in. Is there a way to request that data be removed, or am I straight out of luck?

I was talking to a relative of mine trying to help her with tech stuff. She told me she had an Amazon account in the mid 2010s but stopped using it around 2015. Now it's attached to a Gmail she doesn't have access to.

The Amazon account had her mailing address saved, as well as several wishlists privated. I also assume her email was attached to accounts but she can't remember any besides an old Youtube and maybe Skype.

I'm confused what this means from a privacy and internet safety POV.

Me myself as a kid (like 10-14) had some Yahoo emails I lost access to. But I know Yahoo would deactivate your accounts after a certain time. I'm pretty sure most other sites don't.

I’m firing up my LinkedIn account again as I’m considering my work options next year. LinkedIn is I believe rated as a data privacy nightmare and so although I use a MacBook Air as my primary pc, I’m logging into LinkedIn on my Windows PC on a non cross device synced browser .

Is this too extreme or would just using my Mac and cleaning all the MS cookies after each session be sufficient?

"But there’s a frightening caveat: In order for Muse to accomplish these tasks, it basically wants back door access to your entire life. In addition to storing logins and passwords and linking your bank account information, it wants to see your messages, personal calendar and contacts, requesting more sensitive information than virtually any other AI app, according to ZDNET. "

"Around that same time, Inc. tech columnist Jason Aten said that Muse read private messages between him and his co-worker without permission, even though he remembers explicitly denying it access. When the columnist confronted Muse and asked how it was able to access this correspondence, it said that it didn’t know. To his shock, he discovered that many more messages had been synced to Muse without his knowledge. Even more eerie is the fact that it tried giving him pitch ideas, even though he never asked it to.  "

"Given the fact that Meta makes most of its revenue from ads, it’s also perfectly clear why its overlord Mark Zuckerberg is giving us, the commoners, such a powerful tool for free.  

“The true end users of Facebook are the marketers who want to reach and influence us,” media theorist and CNN columnist Douglas Rushkoff wrote in 2013. “They are Facebook’s paying customers; we are the product. And we are its workers.” Instead of paying firms to conduct research on consumers, by constantly engaging with Meta’s products, we provide it for them, he argued. More than a decade later, this sentiment couldn’t feel more true. "

I've been thinking about online privacy lately, and something that bothers me is how much can potentially be learned about a person by connecting information that seems harmless on its own.

A search here, a public comment there, an app permission we barely think about, or an old account we forgot about. Individually, these things might not reveal much. But when information is collected across different services and combined over time, it can paint a surprisingly detailed picture of someone's habits, interests, relationships, and daily life.

The difficult part is that avoiding this isn't as simple as deleting social media or refusing every cookie. We rely on online services for work, communication, banking, and everyday tasks. There's a balance between protecting our privacy and still being able to participate in modern life.

I'm curious about how people here approach this in practice.

What's one privacy habit or change you've made that genuinely reduced your digital footprint without making everyday life unnecessarily difficult?

I'm especially interested in practical steps that don't require expensive tools or a highly technical setup.

Someone on a server told me that my discord bio was “like a tutorial for doxxing.”

For context, my bio literally just says:

• My cat's TikTok: [username]
• I use Reddit for complaining, it's like my personal journal!

That's it. My TikTok is currently just cat content,mostly very old videos cause i havent posted in awhile and my Reddit is mostly jokes, and rants about my experiences.

I understand that linking accounts can make it easier to connect them, but I genuinely don't understand how that alone makes my bio a "tutorial" for doxxing. They didn't explain what they meant, and I didn't ask them to elaborate at the time.

I'm not particularly bothered by people knowing that my Reddit and my cat's TikTok belong to the same person,i dont have anything linking me to my location. I just found the wording dramatic, especially when they didn't point out any specific information that could identify me.

Is there an actual privacy risk I'm overlooking, or was this person just exaggerating? Because calling something a tutorial for doxxing sounds pretty serious when you haven't explained what makes it one.

I joined a new medical practice as a patient. There was no AI form to give or deny consent. Under their consent forms pages, to cover my bases even though there was no mention of AI use, I wrote "I DO NOT CONSENT TO AI RECORDING" and signed and dated.

Imagine my shock when I read my notes, which are extremely long and detail every random word of the appointment, now in my permanent medical file.

At the end of each clinic note, it says this bucket of flaming lies:

"Patient and/or family have been informed of the use of Ambience, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) scribe dictation technology in the documentation of medical records. Patient and/or family was further advised that the AI scribe is not used to make any health care decisions and that AI-scribed notes will be reviewed by the clinician for accuracy. Patient and/or family was able to ask questions and offered the opportunity to opt-out. Patient and/or family voluntarily consents to the use of AI scribe technology for medical documentation and understands that he/she may withdraw this consent at any time."

I WAS NOT INFORMED. I DID NOT CONSENT.

I EXPRESSLY DENIED CONSENT.

AND NOW I HAVE TO BE AFRAID OF GETTING KICKED OUT OF THE MEDICAL PRACTICE, BECAUSE I TOLD THE ADMINISTRATORS THAT RECORDING MAY NOT BE LEGAL. THEY CAN FIRE ME AS A PATIENT FOR SAYING THEY DID SOMETHING WRONG.

With AI finally being pointed at big tech with these reverse engineering projects popping up everywhere it feels like a good opportunity to take a deeper look at what really goes on under the hood of controversial software when it comes to privacy protection claims. I wonder if there’s anyone out there that has publicly started such endeavours?

Found in my wife’s car while doing a fall detail. Reverse image search didn’t seem to find the logo.

https://imgur.com/a/4IvWOEl

And i also see my university info etc on Google ai results. What can i do for it? I really need help for this, thank you