About r/privacy
In its own words:
Privacy in the digital age (this is not a SECURITY subreddit, and PUBLIC data, closed source, etc is off-topic)
Community guide
r/privacy (#633, about 1.7 million subscribers) — Privacy in the digital age (this is not a SECURITY subreddit, and PUBLIC data, closed source, etc is off-topic) A recent sample averaged 28 posts a day (~65% text, ~34% link, ~1% video). Its public rules include: No Closed Source Software; Submission Rules for Developers; Don’t Engage In Self Promotion; Only Approved Surveys, Fundraising & Petitions Allowed; Be Nice!.
What belongs here
Stay inside the room’s stated scope rather than adjacent fandoms or general off-topic dumps. Piracy and illegal distribution talk is removed; keep discussion to legitimate viewing/playing options. This is not positioned as a tech-support desk; troubleshooting belongs in dedicated help communities. Low-effort memes or empty shitposts are commonly removed—add context that fits the room’s purpose.
How it differs from lookalikes
If you need install/fix help, prefer a support-oriented sub; keep this room for news, opinion, and on-topic discussion flagged by its rules. The length of the public rule list is itself a signal: skim all of them once before assuming defaults from similar communities.
Practical pointers
Read the current sidebar/rules on Reddit before posting; rules can change. Avoid clickbait titles; say what the post actually is. Common flairs include: question, news, discussion, age verification.
The community was created on Mar 21, 2008, which makes it 18 years old. Since Nov 2, 2026, it has gained 1,957 subscribers (+0.12%). It sits just behind r/JoeRogan (#630) and ahead of r/learnart (#632) in our ranking.
What sets r/privacy apart
r/privacy is far more text-driven than most big subreddits: 65% of its recent posts are text posts, against a median of 35% across the Top 100. It is also one of the faster-growing big communities: its 0.89% gain since Sep 19, 2026 beats 87% of the Top 100. Its rhythm is strongly tied to time zones: the busiest hour (18:00 UTC) sees about 16.0× as many posts as the quietest (04:00 UTC).
Subscriber growth
Between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 9, 2026, r/privacy climbed from 1,668,281 to 1,683,066 subscribers (+14.8K, +0.89%). That is about 290 new members per day. The chart shows 10 weekly subscriber counts.
Top posts on r/privacy this week
What the community upvoted most over the last seven days, as ranked by Reddit (collected Nov 7, 2026).
- Hard drive containing emails about U.S. Postal Service's "iCOP" surveillance program accidentally damaged and made "inoperable" after FOIA requests came inu/EFForg · Nov 4 · link
- Trump administration concedes DOGE team may have misused Social Security data. Some DOGE personnel had more access to data than previously acknowledged, according to a court filing.u/esporx · Nov 2 · link
- Meta Accused of Tracking Patients' Medical Appointments, Prescriptions, and Health Conditions as Judge Certifies Class Actionu/terenscendent · Nov 5 · link
- Lenovo's 'encrypted' fingerprint USB drive is just an unencrypted SD card in a fancy case — AI-assisted follow-up finds a backdoor and hardcoded keys in other ‘secure’ USB productsu/HimikoTogaFromUSSR · Nov 1 · link
- Ring's Little-Known AI Apps Let Landlords Monitor Tenants, Count Guests and Flag 'House Rule Violations'u/terenscendent · Nov 2 · link
- Outgoing speaker Mike Johnson once decried the surveillance state. Then he became one of its top defenders.u/punkthesystem · Nov 6 · link
- Police use facial recognition to scan one million faces in WA trial leading to 122 arrestsu/thinkB4WeSpeak · Nov 3 · link
- 45 Attorneys General Urgently Want Congress to Push Platforms Toward Age Checksu/watchdog-cofagrigus · Nov 5 · link
- UK speech regulator Ofcom asked Meta, WhatsApp, X and TikTok for ongoing data on what people in Britain post, who sees it, how much gets taken down, and how fast, all broken down by age. The companie…u/BigSupermark · Nov 3 · link
- Children’s data leaked in UK schools hack as 320,000 files published on dark web with parents warned to ‘stay vigilant’u/thesun · Nov 4 · link
All-time top posts
The highest-ranked posts in the history of r/privacy, from 2017 to 2026, ranked by Reddit.
- NSA Deletes “Honesty” and “Openness” From Core Values Statement on Their Siteu/btcltcbch · Jan 24, 2018 · 16,606 points · 301 comments · link
- ICE Can Reportedly Access Flock Surveillance Cameras, Now Americans Are Destroying Themu/novagridd · Feb 23, 2026 · link
- Privacy for the rich. In a record setting pace congress quietly passed a bill that makes it impossible to track private jets after billonaires like Elon Musk and Taylor Swift complainu/Timidwolfff · May 25, 2024 · link
- Rep. Thomas Massie Announces Federal Bill to Defund Flock Surveillance Camerasu/Ok-Law-3268 · Jul 31, 2026 · link
- Theresa May says the internet must now be regulated following London Bridge terror attacku/lkewis · Jun 4, 2017 · 10,469 points · 776 comments · link
- I think I accidentally started a movement - Policing the Police by scraping court datau/transtwin · May 26, 2020 · text post
- Canadians are set to lose all digital privacy. No one here is talking about it.u/The_PhilosopherKing · Jun 18, 2026 · text post
- White House Publishes Names, Emails, Phone Numbers, Home Addresses of Criticsu/aNoKneeMoose · Jul 16, 2017 · 9,309 points · 613 comments · link
- Billionaire Larry Ellison says a vast AI-fueled surveillance system can ensure 'citizens will be on their best behavior'u/Candace_Owens_4225 · Jan 2, 2025 · link
- TIL Mark Zuckerberg was sued by 3 reporters from the Crimson, after Zuckerberg hacked into their email accounts to monitor the investigation against him. He used their invalid logins on facebook.com,…u/everychairisequal · Apr 8, 2018 · 7,874 points · 263 comments · link
What r/privacy talks about
Across 167 recent posts (Oct 29–Nov 4), the words that come up most are “data”, “proton”, “social”, “age” and “media”. Other frequent themes are app, verification, surveillance, private, meta and personal. Recurring phrases include “social media”, “manifestos fear”, “loser thinking” and “thinking inside”. By format, 65% are text posts, 34% are links and 1% are videos.
Popular post flairs: question (46), news (43), discussion (37), age verification (12), guide (8), data breach (6).
Activity and best time to post
r/privacy gets about 28 new posts a day. The public archive holds 254,063 posts and 2,649,417 comments in total, about 10.4 comments per post. Last week the busiest day was Tuesday (33 posts) and the quietest was Sunday (12). Posting peaks around 18:00 UTC and is lowest around 04:00 UTC.
Rules of r/privacy
The moderators of r/privacy list 14 rules. In short:
- No Closed Source Software
- Submission Rules for Developers
- Don’t Engage In Self Promotion
- Only Approved Surveys, Fundraising & Petitions Allowed
- Be Nice!
- No Violence
- Topic Already Covered
- Not Tech Support
- Using Editorialized Title
- Original Source
How to join
Open reddit.com/r/privacy and press “Join”. Read the community rules in the sidebar before you post: every subreddit is run by its own volunteer moderators.
Frequently asked questions
How many subscribers does r/privacy have?
r/privacy has 1,683,066 subscribers (Nov 9, 2026), which makes it the #631 safe-for-work subreddit in the SubMouse ranking. It added 14,785 members between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 9, 2026.
When was r/privacy created?
r/privacy was created on Mar 21, 2008, so it has been around for 18 years.
Is r/privacy still active?
Yes. r/privacy gets about 28 new posts a day (average of the last four weeks). Over its lifetime the archive counts 254,063 posts and 2,649,417 comments. In a sample of 167 recent posts we counted 140 different authors.
What is the best time to post in r/privacy?
Based on post counts from Oct 29, 2026 to Nov 4, 2026, the busiest day was Tuesday and the quietest Sunday, and most posts arrive around 18:00 UTC, with the fewest around 04:00 UTC. More posts also means more competition, so a quieter hour can help a post get noticed.
What kind of posts are on r/privacy?
The community describes itself as: “Privacy in the digital age (this is not a SECURITY subreddit, and PUBLIC data, closed source, etc is off-topic)” Recent post titles often mention data, proton, social, age and media. Most posts are text posts (65%).
Is r/privacy SFW?
Yes. Reddit does not mark r/privacy as an 18+ (NSFW) community. SubMouse lists safe-for-work subreddits only.
What are the rules of r/privacy?
Join the community on Reddit first, then use “Create post”. r/privacy accepts both text and link posts. It has 14 posted rules, starting with: “No Closed Source Software”; “Submission Rules for Developers”; “Don’t Engage In Self Promotion”. Moderators remove posts that break the rules, so read them in the sidebar before posting.
What subreddits are similar to r/privacy?
Communities with similar topics include r/marketing (2M) and r/hacking (3M).
Stats from public data (data updated Nov 9, 2026; activity, rules and archive totals via the Arctic Shift archive, Nov 6, 2026; top posts from Reddit’s public feeds). Point and comment counts are archive snapshots and can be lower than on Reddit today. SubMouse is an independent directory and is not affiliated with Reddit or the moderators of r/privacy.