Nik282000

I have a 2010 Mazda Pickup. It doesn’t even share with me.

They are functionally the same when you are talking about online communications. If your message is not secret it is not private, the operator of the messaging service can see the contents of the message.

Private, in the sense of “contains sensitive information that I don’t want public” is just a feeling. Saying those things in a Snapchat “private” message is no different than posting them in a “private” message board. The number of people who can read those messages is reduced but still contains significantly more than you and your intended recipient.

People think that the word “private” in “private message” means that the messages are ONLY between them and the recipient, I don’t know why so many people believe this but it seems like the majority of user’s think this way.

Not just public posts or stories. private group chats between you and your closest contacts. automated AI. no human reviewed it first, got flagged and reported.

I think people just fundamentally do not understand what the word "private"means. If you are sending a message via centralized service (Snapchat, Facebook, Tiktok, e-mail, etc) it is de-facto not private*. Just because the communication is between two people and not publicly viewable to other users doesn’t give it any special “privacy” status compared the rest of the platform. The operator owns the platform, they can read anything that you type in or upload.

For a message to be actually private it must be encrypted before it leaves your device and decrypted on the recipient’s device, that’s it.

*There are some services that provide end to end encryption of messages but they are not the norm. No e-mail is ever private, even services like Proton only keep things encrypted on their own servers, once that e-mail reaches a gmail inbox it is just as readable as any other.

Any device in your house that has a network connection and requires an online account is spying on you, full stop. The question is how much.

https://gmauthority.com/blog/2025/07/this-little-known-reason-is-why-you-shouldnt-ignore-gm-over-the-air-updates/

First example I could find.

The computer network in your car touches everything, engine control, powertrain, body control, SRS, emtertainment system, stc. If the dealer thinks they can get away with denying a claim because you “damaged” the vehicle by removing the cellular antenna you know they will. And it’s not like you can just pop it back on before you bring it in, new cars are streaming data 24/7 into the manufacture’s network, and is visible to the dealer, whether you pay for car control the app or not.

For some less click-bait-y information, check out any of the “Car Hacking Village” videos from the past 5 DefCons. They go into great detail about what new vehicles actually do.

For example there was an extended period of time where any asshole could make themselves into an admin and get, and change, information on ANY car sold by a particular manufacture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNuS0rvqc8c

It will also void any warantee or service agreement you have with the dealer.

To be 100% un-trackable you need to put your phone in airplane mode or turn it off entirely.

You can track phones by their bluetooth mac even if you dont connect to anything.