Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

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much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 6 years ago
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Can Android apps use WebRTC, or is WebRTC only available in browsers?

If Android apps can use WebRTC, how can it be blocked per app or system-wide to prevent IP or network leaks?

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cross-posted from: https://lemdro.id/post/35049920

The latest update for the popular Nova Launcher app includes Facebook Ads and Google AdMob.

Compare 8.2.4: https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/698198/

With 8.1.6: https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/673643/

From 2 trackers to 6 trackers. From 30 permissions to 36. And two of the "trackers" are for ad stuff, like Facebook Ads.

I believe the owner also changed. It's no longer Branch, but something called Instabridge Sweden.

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I want to leave my phone at home or not have it on me most of the time. Most calls I get are meaningless spam and I rarely need to answer my phone for real calls outside my home (though it does happen on ocassion). One thing I do want and am accustomed to is having music, however.

I was looking at Amazon and Aliexpress for devices that can play mp3/mp4s, some can do that and even have ebook readers which is great. I don't see any connectivity on them or microphones save for the one that is included on the earbuds or Bluetooth.

And that is one question I have: can Bluetooth compromised your privacy? I know Bluetooth hacking is real but how bad is it?

I guess if it has a microphone it is ok if I dont have any connectivity. What do you guys recommend?

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Translated from German (with DeepL):

The Swiss messenger service Threema is being acquired by the German investment company Comitis Capital. Both the company and Threema itself emphasize that the arrival of the new investor will not lead to any significant changes for the time being. The company headquarters and servers will remain in Switzerland, and the management team will stay unchanged.

A financial investor with a broad portfolio

Comitis Capital is a young private equity firm, not a technology company. It invests in various industries, including a UK-based supplier of vegan meat alternatives and a manufacturer of dog accessories.

Its business model consists of providing financial support to promising companies so that they can grow and establish themselves internationally. “Comitis now clearly sees this potential in Threema too,” says SRF digital editor Tanja Eder.

Data protection as a business model

The strong focus on data protection is considered a key strength of the messenger. Precisely because US tech companies are coming under increasing criticism and digital sovereignty is gaining in importance, Comitis sees this aspect as a clear unique selling point.

Whether this will remain the case in the long term is unclear, according to Eder. If Comitis were to conclude at some point that it would be more profitable to collect Threema customer data or sell the company, no one could prevent them from doing so.

Trust in the authorities remains an issue

In Switzerland, federal authorities and the military also use Threema for internal communication. Even though everyone involved is aware that there is no such thing as absolute security, Threema still has advantages over its competitors.

For example, Threema's source code is openly accessible. Experts in the fields of data protection, IT security, and research regularly check whether the company is keeping its promises. Government agencies can also carry out their own checks.

Hardly any alternatives on the market

Good alternatives to Threema are rare. “Apart from WhatsApp, which dominates the market, there is simply not much room for other messenger services,” notes the digital editor.

Signal is considered another secure messenger alongside Threema. However, it is operated from the US, albeit by a non-profit foundation and financed by donations. In Switzerland, Proton offers encrypted emails, but does not have its own messenger service.

“Given this limited offering, we can only hope that privacy-friendly communication services will gain in importance in the future,” says Eder.

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For some of them I kind of lost access so I would need to write emails to instagram or whatever, for others I would need to remember and to access to each one of them and delete them.

The hardest would be gmail with people having my contacts from like 10 years ago..

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We have no marketing budget and are trying to get as many people away from Big Tech surveillance as possible. Please share this link with friends and family, and on social media.

It contains a full link index of all our Alternatives pages, as well as links to our Big Tech Walkout programme, and a Quick Start section for those who just want to grab the top choices.

Thank you!

Patrick (Rebel Tech Alliance)

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Title

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Data can be transferred using ultrasonic frequencies,

Legit Uses -

Google Tone Google Tez

Bad Thing -

It has been used in the past for malicious activity by governments (if you know, you know).

I can be used to track people, like people's devices screaming their ID and devices receiving other devices IDs.

Imagine a mall with ultrasonic beacons, and for iOS and Google Play Services, hear that.

Reports -

https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/02/some-apps-were-listening-to-you-through-the-smartphones-mic-says-report/

https://thehackernews.com/2017/05/ultrasonic-tracking-signals-apps.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n_8zDIFmQU

Solution ?

How to stop my devices like browsers, Windows PC, macOS, Android, and Android apps, from sending and receiving these frequencies

THis is a dead Chrome extension - https://github.com/ubeacsec/Silverdog

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TL;DR

ID scanning is becoming a more common requirement to access bars and clubs in Australia (and worldwide). A company called ScanTek is used in over 1,000 clubs in Aus and provides tools such as biometric-matching someone's face to an ID, detecting fake IDs, flagging people and sharing data with other venues automatically

As well as verifying ages, ScanTek boasts "collect marketing information from IDs and drivers licences, which business owners can use to target specific demographics with promotions" on its website in a pitch to business owners. Though they claim to not share any of this with third parties

Australia's privacy laws are vague, don't specify what can be collected and how it must be stored, and only say that companies shouldn't keep data for longer than is "reasonable"

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I only want to use it for facebook marketplace, but jeez i didnt know they were taking it this far with this crap...

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cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7371980

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/20716

While New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago have all received significant attention when it comes to police use of surveillance technologies, the small city of New Orleans has for years been the laboratory for a sophisticated surveillance apparatus deployed by the city’s police department and other policing bodies.

Just last year, New Orleans was in the news as the city considered setting a new surveillance precedent in the United States. First, a privately run camera network, Project N.O.L.A., was exposed for deploying facial recognition technology, including “live use” (meaning Project N.O.L.A. was identifying people in real time as they walked through the city). All of this was done in close collaboration with the local police, despite these uses violating a 2022 ordinance that placed narrow limits on the use of facial recognition.

Then the city flirted with formally approving the use of live facial recognition technology, which would have been a first in the United States. If enacted, live facial recognition technology would allow police to identify individuals as they move about New Orleans in real time. All of this occurred in the months before the Trump administration deployed Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, wielding an array of surveillance technologies, to terrorize and kidnap New Orleans residents. Of course, New Orleans residents have organized and actively fought back against the police and their spying, offering lessons for organizers across the country.

Edith Romero, an organizer with Eye on Surveillance (EOS), spoke with Truthout about the history of Eye on Surveillance, Project NOLA, the use of facial recognition technology in New Orleans and why we should all be watching what’s happening there if we’re concerned about the growing surveillance state.

Source


From Truthout via This RSS Feed.

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There are many formats for blocklists for Domain, Subdomain, URL, Filterlist

Like uBlock, Adblock, AdGuard

Which are compatible with which

What are the pros and cons of each

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submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by Onyx376@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
 
 

What do you think of the Nora Android app and desktop browser optimized for social networking services? Does anyone use it? Is it safe and private?

Github link: https://github.com/nonbili/Nora

F-droid link: https://f-droid.org/packages/jp.nonbili.nora

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So I was reading this article about Signal-creator Moxie Marlinspike's new project, Confer , which claims to be a verifiably E2E encrypted LLM chat service. There are a couple of short blog articles that give the gist of it, and some github repos including this one that includes scripts for producing the VM that will run your particular LLM session. But if I'm following this all correctly, it implies that every chat session (or perhaps every logged-in user) would have their own VM running their own LLM to ensure that the chain of trust is complete. This seems impossible from a scalability perspective, as even small LLMs require huge quantities of RAM and compute. Did I miss something fundamental here?

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Built With AI to make a safe space out of its reach!

Demo Video

Source

This privacy tool can be installed on most Linux distros, including my favorite....hosting from termux (android)!

The project was driven by a my desire to create a private space for spreadsheet collaboration with no fluff, tracking ect.

Fully open and free tech stack

  • SQLite Database
  • Gunicorn WSGI Server backend
  • Python for API and Application Routes
  • Pure JS, HTML, CSS Frontend
  • TOR for worldwide encrypted connection to the service.

Formulas

Supported functions include:

  • Math: SUM, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX, COUNT, ABS, - ROUND, SQRT, POWER, MOD
  • Logic: IF, TRUE, FALSE
  • Lookup: VLOOKUP
  • Text: CONCAT, LEFT, RIGHT, MID, LEN, UPPER, LOWER, TRIM
  • Date: TODAY, NOW

Hope you enjoy. While I plan to continue polishing the UI/Expirence, it is not complete but is in a usable state. I will continue to iterate on the application as I continue with real world testing and data processing.

Open to critique and suggestions for improvement!

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Hello! DW is hosting another one of her no-cost 5-week degoogling challenges on Signal.

It's based mainly on the challenge she created here, but will be run by another member as she's slammed right now.

If you're interested, request an invite into the group.

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submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by tdTrX@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
 
 

Pros

Good Filtering and Easy and Free

Cons:

You tell a company your IP changes

Websites and tell your unique DNS

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It's only visible on Android using special apps, not from OpenWRT next to it

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