Note: I prefer Apple over Google and I’m not ready to go full privacy-hardened, I want to find a balance between convenience and privacy protection.

So I'm moving from Samsung to iPhone soon, mainly because I despise Google. Want to cut Google out as much as possible while I'm at it.

What I'm planning so far:

• Mailbox.org instead of Gmail
• DuckDuckGo for search, would prefer something even better
• Safari with all the privacy stuff turned on

Where I'm stuck:

• What about YouTube? Just use the web version?

• Google Drive alternatives that actually work well?

• Best way to store photos that aren't big greedy corps?

Questions:

• Any must-have privacy apps once I get the iPhone?

• Settings I should change immediately out of the box?

• Services I'm forgetting that are probably feeding Google my data?

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/26640050

Got my Minimal Phone about a week ago. It's definitely a niche device, a cross between a e-reader and a smartphone with a QWERTY keyboard. I'll preface this whole "review" by stating that it's not for everyone. For me, though, it's almost perfect as I don't (nor want) to spend all day staring at my phone, doom scrolling, watching video after video, etc. I just need the basics, love e-ink displays and physical keyboards, and this has me covered.

I put each section into spoilers as I didn't want to throw out a full-on wall of text. If I left anything out or if you have any questions about it, just ask.

Overall / TL;DR

It's a solid, well-built device for people who want to minimize distractions and get down to business. The e-ink display is naturally gorgeous, and the keyboard a joy to use. Other than the lackluster camera, most of my gripes can be solved in future software updates.

Specs: https://minimalcompany.com/

I won't spend time going over the specs since they're readily available. Rather, I'll just give my experience with the major features.

Build Quality

Build Quality

Build feels solid but there definitely is a "fragile" feeling to it. It's a pretty thin device, made of plastic, and has corners that seem like they won't take a lot of abuse. That's not to say it feels "cheap" - it doesn't. But it does feel like you'll want to put it in a case (more on that below) and definitely avoid dropping it.

Display

Display

Like any e-ink display, the screen is crisp and easy on the eyes. The refresh rate is also about what you'd expect from and see in other e-ink devices such as a Kindle or a Kobo. The technology is what it is.

Minimal includes a "quick settings" app of their own design that will attempt to increase the refresh rate at the expense of image fidelity, but I've found it to be a bit buggy and leave it turned off.

What I believe it does, when set to either of the "fast" or "extra fast" settings, is only update every 2nd or 3rd line of pixels (not sure if "pixel" is the right word for e-ink, but it will have to suffice). This produces a very grainy image, but does, indeed, increase the apparent refresh rate. What I feel like it is supposed to do, and does at least part of the time, is do a full refresh after the contents on the screen stabilize in order to clear up the display. In practice, though, it doesn't seem to do that; even hitting the manual e-ink refresh button keeps the grainy image. The "fast" setting seems like it clears the image up more often, but not 100% of the time. The "extra fast" setting seems to always keep the grainy image.

So I do see what they're attempting to do here, but it just doesn't work quite right. Yet. This is something I feel they can and will eventually work the kinks out of.

That said, I just leave it on the "normal" refresh rate which keeps the display looking nice.

Other reviews have said they have to hit "refresh" repeatedly, but I've not had that issue. I've also tried to optimize things to reduce the number of things that change on the screen, so maybe that's a difference? It's not that I never have to hit the screen refresh button, but only occasionally.

Of note is that Minimal did so some tweaks to the base Android configuration to maximize performance of the e-ink display:

• Animations are disabled (confirmed in developer options)
• The color correction is set to grayscale
• Navigation mode is set to "3 Button" mode but the on-screen "soft" buttons are hidden (since it has capacative navigation buttons)
• Probably some other subtle config tweaks I may have missed.

Additionally, you will need to say goodbye to dark mode. On an e-ink display, "light" mode isn't the eye-searing problem it is with other displays, so an unusable dark mode isn't much of a loss. While dark mode is perfectly legible, due to the nature of e-ink, it will have to refresh more pixels every time something moves/scrolls. This causes the screen to both update slower and leave more "ghosts" requiring a manual press of the refresh button.

Sadly one place this is unavoidable is in the notification area quick actions. Organizing those was an exercise in frustration since the colors and fill of those buttons are fixed, and dragging things up and down was hindered by the darkness and slow refresh. Granted, organizing the quick actions is always frustrating in Android, but it's even worse here.

Keyboard

Keyboard

I love this keyboard. It took me a minute to get used to it, but that's true for most keyboards on any new gadget. The keys are responsive, have surprisingly decent travel, and a satisfying but quiet 'click' feeling.

I've noticed other reviews calling out the space bar for being "mushy". I can see their point while also not being as harsh in my critique of it. While the spacebar is presented as a 4 key-width single button, it is actually two buttons with a wide keycap. You'll want to hit it on either side rather than in the middle. When you press it in the middle, you're straddling the two keys underneath and hitting neither one fully. Once you get used to that, I've had no issues with it.

Minimal includes a settings app to customize the keyboard. I haven't messed with it too much yet, but one thing I did do was enable the option to switch the alt mode of the voice input button. Normally, to type a period you would need to press Alt+Voice, but enabling that option makes period the default. I appreciated that greatly.

Some common characters, especially the forward slash, are not mapped to physical keys and require hitting the "symbol" button to bring up the on-screen character map. Not a deal-breaker at all, but takes some getting used to. The character map shows where the on-screen keyboard would be with other phones, so it doesn't feel awkward or intrusive, and you can close it with another press of the "Symbol" button.

My only actual gripe with the keyboard is the placment of the Alt and Shift keys. The Alt key is where you would expect Shift to be, and vice-versa. There seems to be a way to re-map those in the keyboard settings app, but I haven't messed with it too much. My first attempt didn't work quite right, and I reset them back to default while I was still playing around and getting it setup to my liking. I'll probably double-back on that later.

Camera

Camera

While I've only taken a few test pictures, the camera on this seems like an afterthought. That, or it's just there to allow scanning QR codes. There are other reviews for the Minimal's camera (none of them particularly flattering), so I'll let those speak for me as well. The main problem is it's incredibly hard to tell if you got a good picture or not because of the e-ink display.

So if you require an excellent camera, this probably isn't for you.

Software

Software

Aside from using the Minimal Launcher as default (more on that later) and a few settings apps specific to the device, the phone runs vanilla Android 14 and has absolutely no bloatware other than what Google mandates (Keep, Meet, YouTube, YouTube Music, et al).

By far, the software is where this phone needs the most work. That's not to say any of it is bad, just a little rough around the edges with room for improvement.

Minimal Launcher

I like the idea of the Minimal Launcher. It's a text-only list of apps with an optional clock and date display. Up to 8 (or maybe 7?) apps can be "pinned" with the rest available by swiping up. It's distraction-free and works very well with the e-ink display. But...that's about it.

It will let you rename apps, but sometimes they'd revert to the original app name. Sometimes my pinned apps would disappear. Sometimes newly installed apps woudln't show up until after a reboot. The launcher's settings panel is supposed to be accessible by swiping left or right on the home screen, but it only registers 4 out of 10 times.

You can install other launchers if you want. At first, I used my old favorite FastDraw but eventually settled on NeatLauncher.

NeatLauncher is what the Minimal Launcher should be, and I kind of wish Minimal would just fund that developer and adopt that as the official one. It does everything Minimal's launcher does, plus more, and is more stable and intuitive. If you're like me and like the idea of the Minimal Launcher, then give NeatLauncher a try.

"Lock" Screen

This quirk caught me by surprise. You would think that when you lock the phone, the lock screen would remain visible on the e-ink display. Maybe it updates the clock every minute, maybe it doesn't, but you'd still think the lock screen would be what's displayed when the phone is in standby.

Nope. It switches to whatever the screensaver is set to. By default, it's the Minimal logo with a white background. It also includes the same but with a dark background and another one with a Panda as alternatives. You can also use Google Photos's screensaver and show images you want.

Okay, so if I turn the screensaver off, it'll show the lock screen in standby, right?

Again, no. If you disable the screensaver, whatever was on your screen last will be what's displayed in standby.

I made a "Screensaver" galery in Photos and assigned that as the screensaver for a while, but when it's on charge, sometimes that causes the backlight to stay on. I also used a clock screensaver, but it doesn't update and shows the time as of when you put the phone to sleep. Not great if you want to just glance and check the time; it won't be right.

It does show the lock screen and notifications as they arrive, so that does fit expectations. If you have the screensaver enabled, it'll return to that after a timeout period (similar to other phones turning the display back off), but if the screensaver is disabled, then the lock screen remains visible.

In the end, I just set it back to the Minimal logo with the white background.

Again, this is a quirk/annoyance that can and hopefully will be addressed in a later software update.

USB-C Port

USB-C Port

The USB-C port is listed as full featured (including video), but I have not been able to get any kind of video output from it. I hooked it to my USB-C dock, and it happily recognized the flash drive, keyboard, mouse, SD card reader, and ethernet port. The phone powered the dock and connected devices just fine, and it properly started charging when I plugged a USB-C charger into the dock. But the HDMI output on the dock never displayed video. I tried also to hook the phone into my USB-C travel monitor. It powered the monitor just fine and detected the USB devices connected to the monitor's hub, but no video.

I'm not sure if this is a software/firmware limitation or the specs on Minimal's website were incorrect about video output. I'm probably going to email support and ask for clarification.

This isn't a deal-breaker for me, but I was hoping to be able to dock it to my travel monitor for more intensive tasks and have it in something of a "Maximal Phone" mode lol.

Call Quality, Data Speeds, and Cellular Performance

Call Quality

I've only done a few test calls with it, but they all came through loud and clear on both sides of the call.

Data Speeds

The radio is only 4G, so that's probably a bit limiting for some people. I knew that going in, but for the use-cases involved with this device, 4G is acceptable for me.

Using speedtest.net in a web browser (which only tests download speeds), I got about 35 Mbps down with what I'm guessing is 3 bars of signal (not that Android's signal indicator is useful in any way).

Cellular Performance and Compatibility

When I installed my SIM card, I got an SMS from T-Mobile that the device wasn't supported and may experience reduced speeds, gaps in coverage, etc. I'm not sure if it's because the radio lacks some bands T-Mobile uses or if it's just because the device isn't in their database and the message was just a "CYA". Regardless, there were no impediments to using it, just that warning text message. It does seem to support all the bands in my area, though. One of my older phones would lose signal when I was downstairs in the basement, but this one switches to the lower 4G band seamlessly.

Cases and Accessories

Cases & Accessories

Cases

Unless AliExpress has some options (I didn't look there), then cases are slim pickings. The official, first-party case is $30 and has the same "ships in batches" delivery as the devices themselves. I sadly opted out of ordering the case assuming I'd find one elsewhere.

Thankfully, I do own a 3D printer and found this case on Printables: https://www.printables.com/model/1336645-minimal-phone-cushy-case

This was the first time I'd printed in TPU, so it took a few iterations to get something usable. The end result is far from perfect, but it's "good enough" until I get better at printing in TPU, some 3rd party cases pop up on Amazon, or I break down and order an official case.

The post photo shows my "best" 3D-printed case. If you think that one looks bad, you should see the reject pile 😂

Sceen Protectors

Amazon does have screen protectors for it, though they're not the tempered glass ones. Will probably pick up a pack of those soon to protect the screen from everyday wear-and-tear.

Tips and Tricks

Tips & Tricks

Launcher

Replace the default Minimal Launcher with NeatLauncher. It's almost functionally identical but better in every way.

• Set Neat's color scheme to Achromic (black and white which looks great on the e-ink display)
• Set the background to transparent (any kind of background image is just "noise" when the screen has to refresh)

Screen Brightness

Note: E-ink displays are illuminated from the front, but saying "front light" sounds weird, so I will call it "backlight". Just in case anyone is feeling pedantic; I hear you, lol, but "backlight" sounds better.

The screen brightness controls could use some help out of the box. While Android and the device do support adaptive brightness, it doesn't take into account that e-ink needs less backlight the brighter the ambient light is. So you'll probably want to leave that off. Hopefully a later software update addresses that.

Minimal's "Quick Settings" app is always accessible by long-pressing the "refresh" button for the display. It's got 3 presets with individual options for screen brightness, color temperature, and keyboard backlight brightness. You can also set custom values and save it to the "custom" slot.

Because I only want the backlight on when the ambient light is insufficient, I found that I was going into the quick settings too often which annoyed me. So I set the brightness to 0 and saved it to the "custom" profile and used KeyMapper to bind the brightness controls to the long-presses of the volume keys. Any brightness above 0 in Quick Settings would act as the minimum brightness when adjusting it with Keymapper. The volume keys also do not "repeat" (holding them down only increases/decreases the volume by one increment), so no functionality was lost by re-mapping them to brightness.

• Install KeyMapper
  • Bind a long press of "Volume Up" to increase the display brightness
  • Bind a long press of "Volume Down" to decrease the display brightness (will go down to 0)

In the end: Single-presses of the volume key adjust the volume. Long pressing the volume up will increase the brightness 20% (can't find a way to control the increments) while long-pressing volume down will decrease the brightness by 20% or turn the backlight off completely.

Termux

What good is a phone with a QWERTY keyboard without installing Termux, am I right? Out of the box, Termux isn't a great match for the e-ink display because it defaults to white on black. Download the Termux Styling add-on and set it to "black on white" theme and your experiece will be MUCH better.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why spend money on this rather than just uninstalling stuff from a regular smartphone?

I've tried that and failed. What ultimately worked for me was when I bought a semi-dumb phone (Cat S22 Flip) that could only really do my bare essentials effectively. Now that I've cut all but the necessary apps out of my life, I really don't want to go back to a regular smartphone. The S22 Flip is also getting a bit long in the tooth with its Android 11 and no manufacturer support. I've flashed newer GSI-based images onto a secondary S22 I bought, but those have their own quirks and issues that aren't present on a stock device and have proven unreliable as a daily driver. I need a successor to my beloved S22 Flip, and this was the primary contender.

More than that, though, I am beyond tired of the "tall, skinny rectangle" form factor. Phones keep getting taller, skinnier (screen width), and thinner (thickness), and I've reached my limit. I miss my old OnePlus 3 with it's 16:9 screen that didn't feel cramped like the CVS-receipt screens on current gen phones.

This one has a portrait-oriented 4:3 display as well as a physical keyboard (something I miss greatly on phones).

Can it run Doom / play YouTube / etc ?

Yes. But you're not going to want to. The refresh rate is way too slow, and the images get all strobe-y.

What's the battery life like?

Honestly, I don't know yet. It's packing a 3,000 mAh battery which is tiny for a smartphone, but with the e-ink display sipping power, it evens out.

This early on, where I'm still setting it up and just seeing what it can do, I'm probably using more battery than I would under normal usage.

That said, I've been trying to use it "correctly" and have seen pretty decent battery life. Using it as an e-reader, for example, it only draws power when I turn a page (minus any Android background tasks). With the backlight off, I've read 5 or 6 long chapters with the battery only going down a percent or two (which is comparable to my Kobo).

Bottom line is: The less the screen changes, the longer the battery will last. I don't know if it'l get days of battery life with actual usage, but I've never obsessed over that; as long as it gets me through the day with normal usage, and so far, that's what I'm seeing (plus some).

Is it your daily driver?

Not yet. I'm still putting it through its paces, getting to know it, customizing it, etc. Unless my primary device meets a catastrophic end, it usually takes me 1-2 weeks to "provision" a successor. For now, I have my second line SIM card in it, so it's something of a secondary device at present. I also really like the S22 Flip I have now, so parting with it is going to be difficult.

Is there anything you hate about it?

I've got a few gripes and have noticed some quirks with the Minimal-specific software, but nothing I truly hate. If I had to choose one thing, and this might just be an Android thing nowadays and not specific to this device, it's that you can no longer configure a long-press of the power button to turn on the flashlight. All my other phones had that, or something similar, but this one does not. The closest I've come is mapping a long-press of the "symbol" button to toggle the flashlight, but due to not being rooted, that only works if the screen is on.

Can the bootloader be unlocked / Can it be rooted?

No idea yet. The developer option to enable OEM unlocking is available, but that may not mean much. I have not (yet) tried to actully issue the fastboot oem unlock command to see if the bootloader is capable of being unlocked or if it requires a code from the manufacturer. AFAIK, all non-shady rooting methods these days rely on unlocking the bootloader first.

Minimal has stated that they do not yet support 3rd party ROMs, but they do seem like they are open to it down the line (take that with a grain of salt, naturally).

I'm pretty conservative when it comes to modding my phones and never attempt anything without recovery tools and images on-hand. Right now, I do not have access to a stock image to restore if something should go wrong.

Grindr won’t allow users to add “no Zionists” to their profiles, but allows any number of other phrases that state political, religious, and ethnic preferences, according to 404 Media’s tests of the platform and user reports.

Several users received an error message that says “The following are not allowed: no zionist, no zionists,” when they tried to add the phrases to their bios on Thursday. I tested this myself on a new Grindr account, and received the same error message. I was able to add “Zionist” to my profile (without “no”), however, and could also add any phrase I could think of: “no Arabs,” “no Blacks,” “no Palestinians,” “no Muslims,” “no Christians,” “no Jews,” “no trans,” “no Republicans,” “no Democrats,” and so on. “No Zionist[s]” was the only phrase that was blocked in my testing.

I have been trying out the different security levels of the Tor Browser. It's set to Standard by default. Some people say that it is best to leave it as it is because most of the Tor users will have the default settings so you will blend in better. However, I decided to look at the other options.

I tested Tor browser with all three security level settings to see which one is the most commonly used through Cover Your Tracks for the most common Tor fingerprint.

On the default security level, Standard

Within our dataset of several hundred thousand visitors tested in the past 45 days, only one in 694.64 browsers have the same fingerprint as yours.

Currently, we estimate that your browser has a fingerprint that conveys 9.44 bits of identifying information.

Be aware that this does not block WebGL unique fingerprinting.

Now the security level in between, Safer

Within our dataset of several hundred thousand visitors tested in the past 45 days, only one in 1804.18 browsers have the same fingerprint as yours.

Currently, we estimate that your browser has a fingerprint that conveys 10.82 bits of identifying

The number is largely tripled from the standard mode. This security level is the least used and the most uncommon, which makes the browser less common with the others. I'm surprised that this is the most uncommon as it blocks WebGL fingerprinting.

The most effective safety level, Safest

Within our dataset of several hundred thousand visitors tested in the past 45 days, only one in 255.02 browsers have the same fingerprint as yours.

Currently, we estimate that your browser has a fingerprint that conveys 7.99 bits of identifying information.

This setting is surprisingly the most common and used one, even though it is not the default setting. It also disables Javascript to prevent the intense fingerprinting.

Disabling Javascript in Tor will not make you stand out, it will make you blend in the most and will block much more effective fingerprinting. Note that most websites will not function properly if JavaScript is disabled.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/16327978

After the British spilled the beans with the Online Safety Act 2023 (Effective today), I wondered if there were any leaks I could use to prove forced verification is not the way the internet should be built, parents need to be liable for such things children do, not the server room hosted in Vietnam, I may not agree what the servers contain but this is not how you solve a problem.

Turns out a 4Chan user leaked hundreds of photos by finding a "public firebase storage bucket". It has now been made private and gives an 403 error, but the damage is done, its already in torrents and there is no way to reverse such action.

Someone has already made a location list based on the photos (allegedly, I could not find such metadata in the photos yet).

Just wanted to make an informational post for fun, I cannot show any "illegal numbers" here, sorry.

Meta announced it will stop selling political, electoral and social issue advertising across its platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and Threads) in the European Union starting in early October 2025[^1][^2].

The decision comes in response to the EU's new Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulation, which takes effect October 10, 2025. Meta called the rules "unworkable," citing "significant operational challenges and legal uncertainties"[^2].

The TTPA requires platforms to:

• Label political ads with transparency information
• Disclose who paid for ads and their costs
• Show which elections or referendums ads target
• Maintain ads in a public database
• Follow strict conditions for user targeting[^3]

Companies face fines of up to 6% of annual global revenue for violations[^2]. Google made a similar move in late 2024, also announcing it would stop serving political ads to EU users before the rules take effect[^4].

Meta emphasized that users can still discuss politics and politicians can share content "organically" on its platforms - they just cannot use paid advertising to amplify their messages[^2].

[^1]: Bloomberg - Meta to Stop Selling Political Ads in the EU, Citing Regulation [^2]: AP News - Meta will cease political ads in European Union by fall [^3]: Euronews - Meta halts political advertising in the EU due to 'unworkable' rules [^4]: Economic Times - Meta to halt political advertising in EU from October

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/us/politics/james-comey-secret-service.html?unlocked_article_code=1.VE8.w55f.rrC8gPirU8SX

Hey, everyone. If you're looking for a fresh privacy podcast, we recently started a new one called Signal Jam.

Here's a bit about why we made Signal Jam and what we're hoping to do differently.

We even have preliminary ways for you to participate in the project, which you can read about here.

Feel free to connect with us on Proton, Tuta, Signal, or here on Lemmy. Looking forward to your feedback and thoughts!

For anyone that might need to hear it. I just installed the flatpak, and when linking it to my Molly app, I saw on the app the option to sync all message history. This is what always bugged me on the desktop client. Seems they finally went ahead to enable this feature.

Privacy.sexy is an open-source privacy tool that helps users implement security and privacy best practices on Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems[^4].

Key features include:

• Hundreds of customizable privacy and security scripts
• Free and transparent codebase
• Reversible changes if issues occur
• Web version requiring no software installation
• Desktop version with additional direct script execution capabilities
• Independent, portable scripts without cross-dependencies
• Extensive testing and community verification[^4]

The tool comes in two versions:

1. An online web version that runs without installing software
2. An offline desktop version with expanded functionality for running scripts directly[^4]

The project is built using TypeScript and Vue.js, with the desktop application created using Electron[^8]. All aspects of the application, including infrastructure and deployments, are open-source and automated through a system called "bump-everywhere"[^4].

[^4]: PrivacyTools - Enforce Privacy & Security Best-Practices on Windows and macOS [^8]: Made with Vue.js - privacy.sexy - Tool to support privacy on Windows, macOS & Linux

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/8611451

Well-said about how the courts treat data privacy and doxxing.

Your thoughts?

It's a nice commentary / news video.

According to a motion the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed in Sacramento Superior Court last week, Nguyen and Decker are only two of more than 33,000 Sacramento-area people who have been flagged to the sheriff’s department by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, the electricity provider for the region. SMUD called the customers out for using what it and department investigators said were suspiciously high amounts of electricity indicative of illegal cannabis farming.

Is it possible to Spoof Android User Agents without rooting? I have found https://github.com/ray-lothian/UserAgent-Switcher but it requires rooting. Since I'm using GOS I don't think rooting my device is a good idea.

thanks a lot for your help

If not, what alternatives can i use?

Linux@mstdn.ca - As a Meta employee, I can honestly tell you what we know, and I do not know how we obtain all of it.

• Your full name
• Your full home address
• Your phone number
• Your e-mail
• Your government ID
• Your consumer report history *  The name of every family member
• The name of every friend
• The name of their family / friends
• Your marital status
• If you are faithful to your partner
• Your work history (all of it)
• Your education history (all of it)
• Your travel history (going back years)
• Your birth gender
• Your gender ID
• Your sexuality
• Your sexual preferences
• How often you're having sex
• Your partner's details (all the above)
• Your political ideology
• Your involvement with any group
• If you protest, we know
• If you're unhappy, we know

The amount of information we collect on you is insane.  And we do it all for supposedly marketing and yes, we help the government since they have access to all this too.

So when someone says they want to avoid META or GOOGLE - respect.

Am using my redmi note 8 with lineageos built in custom recovery. And my device was rooted. Recently i installed a OTA update and i loose my root access. As i don't own a laptop (i used my friend laptop to flash custom rom and magisk) it's cery inconvenient to lose root on every OTA update.

I researched about it and find magisk don't root android in a deeper level but in a surface level, thats why an OTA update wipes root access.

So recently i was looking at custom recovery like orangefox and twrp fir fixing this issue. For my device orangefox dropped development and rwrp have updates only one a year and last one was yeras ago...

What should i do ? How can i really keep root on an OTA update without a PC or Second device with OTG cable ?

Is there any other root manager that don't allow to lose root after OTA updates ? And is this issue caused by updating the recovery along with the OTA update ? Just so confusing!

Or should i avoid rooting at all ?

Hello everyone, I'd like to set up remote desktop for the work computer of a relative of mine (Her employer gave me permission to do so). I am unsure about the best way to go:

• Should I try to enable port forwarding on the router, make them choose a strong password, and use the built-in Windows service?
• Or is it better to use a free (as in price) external program? My main candidate was Rustdesk, but after a bit of searching I found some controversies, what do you think about it?

If necessary I can resort to a closed-source solution.

Thanks to you all in advance.

My question is simple! How to get maximum (Possible) privacy from ISP in case someone can't or don't want to use a vpn ?

Fir example, In some case tor browser is enough for many but they still need from a privacy from isp on other activities on mobile.

I need to start making plans for when I am gone, much sooner than I thought, and I realized our finances are pretty opaque to my spouse. Our bank account is shared, but there are other sites that only I have access to.

The easiest solution would be to physically write down logins and what needs done, put it in an envelope, and tell my family where that envelope is. I'm not thrilled about that, because I would have to shred and rewrite it every time I update a password or a URL changes, and it'd be vulnerable to nosy guests.

Putting it in a shared Google Doc would be easiest for everyone. But then Google has that data. Even supposing I trust a cloud SaaS provider not to misuse the data (which is a big 'if') I do not trust them to never have a data breach.

Self-hosting seems like the next step, except I expect my home server to be the first thing to collapse once I'm gone. Filing login info with an estate attorney would still require frequent updates. Putting a document on a flash drive risks data loss, but is what I'm leaning towards.

Is there a solution I'm missing?

This seems very pointed towards me as I did have a local flight recently so have actually had a boarding pass emailed to me from the airline. How the hell do they know this?