I think they’re asking how we can ensure we aren’t compromised by an entity who wants to gain user data and/or influence the advice we share—which is a valid question.
It’s worth mentioning the moderation, rules, and target audience of everything we do is designed to live alongside standard information to keep what we do away from these situations in the first place. This is why we disassociate privacy from illegal activities, do our best to moderate things well, and offer many resources for beginners who just want to avoid basic data collection and other more accessible privacy concerns. I have no idea what there would be to gain from our community, and that’s by design because of the nature of what we cover and how we cover it. (sharing public & freely accessible information for the most common demographics)
Now from a logistics perspective, we do have safety mechanisms:
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We keep everything open source to our best ability, and offer clear protocols so you all can hold us accountable
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We’ll tell you when we fuck up, and actively encourage you all to fact check information we share:
Addressing Almost All Techlore Mistakes—And Why You Shouldn't Solely Trust Techlore. -
Techlore has existed for almost 10 years, and I like to think trust is something we’ve done a good job of building. There’s always a layer of trust you’ll need to have to have with any service/guide/project you choose, and we’re no different.
What we don’t have protocols for:
- We don’t currently have strict systems in place to deal with a situation with an entity 'commandeer’ing us in some way. It’s such an unlikely scenario that it’s just not something that’s hit my radar yet. I’ll chat with @Jonah privately to see if there’s anything worth thinking about & preparing for.
Ultimately I don’t think there’s much more we are able to say to calm your fears @Evolvingprivacytrend — there will always be a layer of trust people will need to have for us. I can’t really convince you otherwise, nor should I have to. We do our thing as best we can, do our best to allow you all to verify what we do—and it’s your decision if you think we’re trustworthy. If we start sharing bad advice you disagree with, then please act accordingly.