There was some story about privacy and politicians finally getting off their asses when they learned that their business records at porn shops could be revealed. I think this was in the 80s. Not sure at what level, but probably pretty local, I would guess.

Anonymous data sources are largely a myth. The idea you can have large sets of data remain anonymous is unrealistic. Once you have enough data points, it's easy to de-anonymize almost any individual

My parents started screaming at me when I brought up a preacher killed these democrats. Telling me he was a Liberal. When I showed them his sermons in Africa. Again they double downed and said he was a democrat.

How would you respond to this ignorance? What facts can I show them. If they won’t even believe his own words at a church in Africa?

Lock Fox news channels with parental control.

Sadly they don’t watch the news on TV. They went Qanon from social media and I can’t get to their phones.

That depends entirely on how sneaky and unscrupulous you’re willing to be lol

Seriously though I’m sorry you’re dealing with this, it’s a shitty place to be. Personally I’ve had friends have some success with anti-cult/anti-brainsashing techniques but even when done under ideal conditions with people in obvious and outright cults it can fail. The human brain really just is wired in such a way cult think can genuinely hijack it

Idk if I’m planning on murdering someone I’m not keeping it in digital form where who knows who or what is stealing/scraping it or using a back door or whatever. Deleting stuff off a computer can also be difficult with insane things being recovered off computers. I would have zero interest in linking anything illegal to anything digital in this day and age.

What if you just spoofed a police report about a threat?

The more you try to use facts and reason, the more they will dig their heels in. It’s a tough uphill climb

Stop talking to them

Sim swap your parents. Nuke their social media.

A text file encrypted with aes-256/gpg on a usb drive with a hidden veracrypt volume that also have a decoy encrypted veracrypt volume is essentially uncrackable even by state actors unless you give up the passphrases or use some dumbass passphrases that are easily guessed.

This is the kind of shit where if you have critical evidence on the drive they’ll hold you: there was a police sergeant in Philly who (probably) had child porn on his macbook. They couldn’t prove it becuase his drive was encrypted and he refused to give up the passphrase. He was held for four years on contempt charges and they finally gave up. He wasn’t even using an esoteric approach, he just had macos filevault turned on

The approach I described sidesteps that issue because it creates a decoy encrypted veracrypt for them to find and for you to give up. The hidden veracrypt with your salacious details is a volume that is created within the free space of the outer volume so it essentially undetectable unless you give it up and by design you give up the outer volume that shows innocuous data. Of course, having veracrypt at all invites suspicion of a secret volume but this puts you in the above spot: catching a few years with no real charges for refusing to give yourself up. Much better spot than catching charges for whatever crime (or being executed for political activism/journalism/etc)

Meanwhile this guys journals were immediately found and well documented for his federal complaint. You could just burn them I guess but then you no longer have all your data

I guess this is a good way to spread the techniques to others....

I've been using a service to automatically opt out of these sites for about a year now. I also don't use my full last name when I buy things online anymore, and use VOIP phone numbers and anonaddy/simplelogub emails.

Can't find myself on google and most data brokers anymore.

They are obviously not in a reasoning place. I wouldn't try logic, but they are susceptible to emotional manipulation. That's how they fell for fascist propaganda in the first place. I would go for emotional truth.

You have to judge if you're safe to do this, but the next time they're screaming about their absurd conspiracies, I would get a really sad look on my face, make direct eye contact, shake my head and say, "You're so full of hate, and it's really sad." Just go full sincerity and show them how you see them.

You can even set them up for it. Next time you try telling them some fact that they're going to have this hateful response to, you can have this in your back pocket. You start with a simple fact, they respond with hate, you reply by telling them they're being hateful.

This is a modification of this strategy: https://youtu.be/tZzwO2B9b64

Basically, don't waste time arguing with fascists, just point out that they're being assholes.

Now, I say you need to judge how safe you feel doing this, because you might be surprised how ballistic they go. People stuck in abusive behaviour patterns hate nothing more than having that behaviour simply described to them. But when they do lose their shit, you can just describe it again.

Sometimes they will just short-circuit and try to ignore you, or chastise you for speaking out of turn. The authoritarian personality is deeply connected to authoritarian parenting attitudes. Just persist over time, and maybe they will notice that they can't stop you from reflecting their ugly selves back at them.

I don't know how old you are, how physically big you are, how prone they are to serious outbursts, but again, pay attention to your body and how much you're feeling your flight instinct. Only if you feel safe.

I do this with my parents sometimes. Like if my mum is fussing over my kids in some way that I think is invasive, - this was a sore point in my upbringing, she has no filter and no boundaries - I don't engage on the facts of what she's saying. I don't tell her, "That tiny red spot you've noticed isn't a big problem," because that's also being invasive and speaking on their behalf. I say "People don't like to be scrutinised like that. If that's a real problem they can tell us."

It's honestly astonishing how fast this resolves some situations. That might have been a perennial argument about some fussy detail of my child's appearance, all the time adding to the boundary-crossing scrutiny they experience, but shutting it down by pointing out her behaviour really makes her stop, and it communicates to my kids that they don't have to put up with it. It teaches them that they have autonomy.

It's taken many years of demonstrating to her that I won't be pushed around or intimidated for me to get to this point though. It's not an easy road, and often the way to know the tactic is working is by watching how unpleasant someone gets when you do it, at least at first.

Again: only if you feel safe.

What service.

I've used both Mozilla monitor and optery. Both are a bit slow on the removals, but they get the job done. I've used optery for the past year. Unsure if there's a better one at this point or not.

Unfortunately they know how to tame a horse in Minecraft

remember that exactly a month ago trump killed the cfpb rule targetting data brokers.

How would you respond to this ignorance?

Humans are mortal, you wait for the reaper to take them, then piss on their grave.