I mean, exactly how invasive are default operating systems? (Like Windows, Mac, Chrome OS, Android, iOS) Do they log your keystrokes, log passwords, capture screen, upload your photos, videos, or audio? (Assuming you aren’t a target of government) Is it even possible for the average person who doesn’t feel comfortable messing with installing operating systems to have any privacy?
You’ll be a lot less private, but it’s not black and white.
This is a highly loaded question.
You are making a number of very poor assumptions based on a number of ridiculous misconceptions.
The average, everyday, human adult is fully capable of understanding their own personal “threat landscape”. How they deal with that will vary.
For most; if not all, average consumers; their concerns are still very limited. They’re not so much concerned with the provenance, the history, of companies…they just want to duck for the oncoming threats in their landscape. These metaphorical tree branches are what they’re ducking under. They have no logical need to fear the entire tree.
Personally, I choose not to live like Stallman, nor do I have fears of big state repercussions like Snowden does. Neither does your average consumer. Functionality is the top priority. Functionality on-par with the CSSC (Closed-Source Software, Corporate) competitor is critical. If the FLOSS (Free/Libre Open Source Software) version can do exactly what people typically want and expect it to do AND cost less monetarily AND can impact their privacy way less than using the CSSC competitor would, then it will be adopted by many and loved by all who use it.
This isn’t to say that privacy does not matter.
It simply means that privacy is a spectrum; and everyone has varying privacy wants and needs. For some reason, a large potion of the “tech-savvy” people in the FLOSS community feel the need to measure their superiority in “How private their systems are.” The average user does not give a damn about that dick measuring contest; and really would rather not be bothered. They just want the amount of privacy that is right for them, and their specific situation.
It is best to put your ego aside when discussing privacy, or helping someone else to discover and improve their own privacy.
Privacy is not a black & white thing. Every step you take matters. And being entirely private without digital footprint is impossible unless you isolate yourself from the internet entirely.
To answer your question. Yes, they spy on you. To what degree depends on the OS and your settings. But they always cost you some privacy.
But it’s never useless to take other steps just because you don’t want to or can’t switch OS. Because you’ll still give them less data if you do. They might still have info on you. But the less, the better.
Taking easier steps like switching mail provider and other services you use to privacy-minded ones are a good and easy start anyone can do. Replacing apps/programs on your system with FOSS or privacy-minded ones is another good one.
Even the biggest noob can make a Proton account and use it instead of Gmail/Outlook. Use 1Password instead of your device/browser’s password manager. Use LibreOffice instead of MS Office. Check F-droid for apps before Google Play (and perhaps even use Aurora when you do need it). Use FireFox instead of Edge or Chrome. Install a FOSS keyboard on your phone. Get rid of Social Media. Use Signal instead of WhatsApp. Those are just some example of easy my-grandpa-can-do-this level of difficulty options that already greatly improve your privacy (in fact, after I installed it for him, my grandpa does many of these!). Is it as private as an extremely hardened custom device by a security expert? Nah, but it’s definitly much beter than a default device full of big-tech apps. Even if you just do 1 of them!
Since every step counts, I think we should apploud people for caring and starting to take steps instead of deminish them for not going in to the max. Changes like this are slow, especially with a big mass of people. The more people show they care, the more privacy-minded alternatives grow and show up and the more normal it becomes to care about privacy.
For computers, you dont have to switch to linux, I’m currently using ReviOS (a custom version of windows) but I might try AME 10 later. But sure, it’s still messing with installing operating system since it needs a clean windows install, alternatively you can use software like O&O Shutup10 but I noticed that some options doesn’t exist in Windows 11 as compared to Windows 10, I’ve also tried winutil but it caused task manager to close really slowly for me
Mac is less intrusive than Windows. Windows 10 is a whole lot less intrusive than Windows 11. You can lock Windows 10 down even more if you use Shut Up 10. It’s an amazing piece of freeware. Just be aware that Windows will reset a lot of your options after major updates.
Duck Duck Go is more secure than any other search engine and browser. Firefox is next in the list if you’re not on a Mac. Get uBlock Origin and NextDNS.io.
Don’t give your real information to companies when possible. Don’t browse the web logged into Google, Facebook, Reddit, TikTok, etc.
I would say there’s an argument to be made against duckduckgo with how they’re not open source, and the whole allowing Microsoft trackers deal, but it is definitely a better option than google or bing. I don’t understand why you’re mentioning their browser however, as there are definitely much better alternatives.
Their browser runs in permanent privacy mode and blocks all tracking scripts and cookies by default. You can configure Firefox to act the same way, and it’s a better browser overall, but I figured that anyone who knows how to do that wouldn’t be asking the question, so recommending DDG browser is an easy solution. Plus it has a cool window burn animation!
