Just a small heads up; ive noticed a uptick in links spread on Reddit, 4chan and even here to collaborative playlist from youtube, spotify and similar with very non or very few followers. All coming from new accounts.

Its a common way to fish for your personal data. They will make a new list and post it in only certain posts/threads and wait for you to subscribe with your account.

An easy way to protect yourself is by setting your phone or pc to open links in a second browser where you are not logged into anything. Set it to delete cookies on exit.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

      • ☭ 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗘𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 ☭MA
        5•2 years ago

        Yeah, it’ll hide your IP address. On the other hand, you have to trust that your VPN isn’t logging, but it’s definitely better than nothing. Also, even with a VPN, you might have DNS (domain name system – it’s what maps “lemmygrad.ml” to whatever IP address its server has) leaks, and you might also have IP leaks if you haven’t disabled WebRTC support in your browser

          • ☭ 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗘𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 ☭MA
            6•2 years ago

            yeeaaah, when I was learning about online security, things did feel kind of hopeless for a while

            If you want to access something anonymously, Tor Browser is the easiest alternative (it’s possible for someone to track you across Tor as well if they have a shitload of public Tor nodes, but it can’t be done reliably)

            • Arsen6331 ☭
              3•2 years ago

              It’s not just if they have public tor nodes. If they have enough information to fingerprint you, they can identify you that way. Also, if the person is determined enough, things like style of writing and the way your mouse moves can be used to figure out who you are. Essentially, nothing you do on the internet is completely private.

          • ☭ 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗘𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 ☭MA
            2•2 years ago

            Depends on the proxies. torsocks is certainly better for anonymity, but it’s usually significantly slower than using a VPN. Other SOCKS5 proxies may be faster than VPNs, but AFAICT they’re often less secure.

            • immoral_hedgeOP
              2•2 years ago

              Yup, its the encryption in the VPN that usually slows you down. SOCKS5 does not have that, thereby faster.

              • ☭ 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗘𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 ☭MA
                2•2 years ago

                That was my understanding, too. As long as you use HTTPS and trust the proxy provider, I guess it can be fine, but they seem more suitable for bypassing regional restrictions rather than for security (excluding torsocks and the like)