this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2026
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privacy

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I see random websites that aren't open source saying they are "encrypted, safe", when they obviously aren't! Come on!

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[–] armrecords@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago

"Privacyslop" actually fits pretty well. You see more and more services throwing around words like "private" and "encrypted" without explaining anything.

[–] XLE@piefed.social 23 points 5 days ago (2 children)

All the text on this website just screams AI-generated.

Every line of code, every feature improvement, every bug fix

Every list of three...

If something stinks this bad, you shouldn't give it private information. I don't know what you'd call it, but I would stick to things that are impolite.

[–] luciferofastora@feddit.org 7 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Every Tricolon, every overused rhetorical device, every self referential joke

[–] MeowerMisfit817@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago

Slop. In all senses. AI Slop, Privacy Slop...

[–] gemakey@lemmy.world 22 points 5 days ago (3 children)

How do you know they aren't?

[–] XLE@piefed.social 26 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Am I in the wrong community here?

Burden of proof is always on the service to demonstrate that they are private.

[–] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 20 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

My and i assume any software aware persons general assumption for a computer system is that it is insecure until proven otherwise. But even disregarding the whole open source thing, if they dont make you set your own encryption key, then it most likely wont be securely encrypted or they will just also have the key because they generated it for you in the background.

[–] MeowerMisfit817@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago (4 children)

The site doesn't show a "Source Code" option. Neither I can find it by search. Try by yourself, it's here

[–] lime@feddit.nu 8 points 5 days ago (1 children)

that doesn't mean they're not encrypted.

but also this is an online service for something most computers have been able to do locally out of the box for like 15 years, and it hasn't been updated since 2023. it's an obvious red flag even without being unsafe.

[–] monnier@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago

Actually, "is it encrypted" is just the tip of the iceberg: it's all too easy to encrypt in a way that does not provide security against the threats the users want to defend. E.g. maybe the answer to this question is "yes" because the connection is over https, yet the server sees and stores the data in the clear

[–] lIlIlIlIlIlIl@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago

What does encryption have to do with showing source code?

[–] bl4ckp1xx13@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 5 days ago (2 children)

If you can't see it, technically this is a Schrödingers cat problem.

The site is both telling the truth and lying at the same time, in a state of superposition.

Only be observing the code would you fall onto one reality.

Although there are people who can observe the code, which differs from the metaphor slightly.

[–] MeowerMisfit817@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I think one should distrust services that claim to be privacy-respecting without wanting to be opensource. Like, what are they hiding?

[–] iamthetot@piefed.ca 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I understand the ethos here but you have to appreciate the irony in that statement.

[–] luciferofastora@feddit.org 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

To torture the metaphor further, would you trust Schrödinger to sell you a cat if it might not be alive when you open the box?

[–] x00z@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I check it. The image is definitely sent to the server. The OCR does not run on the client side and it's impossible to know what the server does with the image.

[–] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Maybe "FUD slop" that tries to market itself towards people that dont understand software but are vaguely aware of the privacy problems of popular tech and therefore uncertain and scared, making them easy targets for marketing like this.

[–] MeowerMisfit817@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago

Hmmm, makes sense.

[–] coriza@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago

Having an open source code for the server is good for self hosting but it says nothing about the real server. You can only trust a service based on the API you use, and for privacy you better off not trusting anything, if you want privacy you need to send the data encrypted already.

[–] adarza@piefed.ca 6 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

i usually assume the worst of sites like this, and i skip right over them..


tesseract, a very popular foss ocr engine, maintains a list of 3rd party gui interfaces:
https://tesseract-ocr.github.io/tessdoc/User-Projects-%E2%80%93-3rdParty.html

this is where i would start if i couldn't just scan and use my naps2.

Its already called Meta ;D