Gen Z Are Getting Stingy with Their Data
Posted3 months agoActive3 months ago
thred.comTechstory
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Data PrivacySocial MediaGen Z
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Data Privacy
Social Media
Gen Z
The article discusses how Gen Z is becoming more cautious with their data, sparking a discussion on the HN community about the effectiveness of this approach and the broader implications of data surveillance.
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Sep 27, 2025 at 11:16 AM EDT
3 months ago
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This all-or-nothing approach isn't really feasible for the average normie and probably alienates more people than it manages to convert. You can get most of the benefits by switching to privacy-preserving apps (eg. whatsapp -> signal), using browsers with adblock when a proprietary service doesn't have alternatives, and enabling privacy settings. "Install Linux, use a custom ROM [...] learn about self-hosting" is the equivalent of living off the grid with no social security number to the average normie.
On the other hand, some of the "simple" recommendations are hard to follow in practice, especially "get rid of whatsapp". Right now, I have 5 messengers on my phone, both Signal and WhatsApp among them. Not because I particularly like them, but because those are the apps that the people I want - or have - to talk to are using. The network effect is real. For messaging apps, the choice of which apps to use is effectively a group decision, nothing that users can decide on their own.
If you're browsing the web with an ad blocker and VPN, have third party cookies disabled, are using a privacy respecting email service, big tech basically has no insights into your off-site activities. Facebook might know you're still messaging your aunt, but it doesn't know what sites you go on (via facebook embeds). Therefore big tech doesn't know what your interests are (unless you join a facebook group for model train enthusiasts or whatever), or what you buy. You might still object to Facebook knowing that you messaged your aunt at all, but if that's the only way of keeping in touch with her, it's really the best you can do without going off the grid.
As for ad/tracking networks, there is active research in fingerprinting and "supercookies" to be able to track you even without third-party cookies. It's essentially a cat-and-mouse game between trackers and browsers as far as we know.
I don't want to say those aren't good things to do, I'm just not that confident they would bring the kind of absolute level of protection that you're asserting there.
My prior comment mentioned switching apps where possible, and Chrome/Edge is easily switched to Firefox that we can assume they're not used. As for Windows, that's covered under disabling telemetry, and despite all the misgivings about Windows "spying" on you, I haven't seen evidence advertising profiling data (eg. your browsing history, as opposed to something generic like your hardware id or ip) is sent to Microsoft.
>As for ad/tracking networks, there is active research in fingerprinting and "supercookies" to be able to track you even without third-party cookies. It's essentially a cat-and-mouse game between trackers and browsers as far as we know.
You can partially mitigate fingerprinting by using RFP on firefox. It's not perfect, but installing linux/custom rom/self-hosting isn't going to do much more, if anything those will make you more fingerprintable. Moreover it's not something that you can fully mitigate, without literally living off the grid in a cabin somewhere.
>I'm just not that confident they would bring the kind of absolute level of protection that you're asserting there.
Note my prior comment said that you can get "most" of the protection, not that it's "absolute".
Other things like DNS filters/adblockers and privacy settings can help, but they do comparatively little for your privacy compared to quitting social media. And the best thing is that you don't need to be tech-savvy, you just need some awareness and maturity.
Even something like Mastodon? Where's the privacy invading part, the fact that you're uploading vacation pics for others to view, or that it's building a dossier of your interests for advertising purposes?
How do you reduce your consumption of addictive stuff, in the easiest way? You quit, full stop.
It is the same as if you want to quit smoking, or as if you realize that you are drinking four cans of beer each summer evening and realize this is not good for you. It is far easier to quit, and decide what to do instead, than to "reduce".