In sharing this video here I'm preaching to the choir, but I do think it indirectly raised a valuable point which probably doesn't get spoken about enough in privacy communities. That is, in choosing to use even a single product or service that is more privacy-respecting than the equivalent big tech alternative, you are showing that there is a demand for privacy and helping to keep these alternative projects alive so they can continue to improve. Digital privacy is slowly becoming more mainstream and viable because people like you are choosing to fight back instead of giving up.

The example I often think about in my life is email. I used to be a big Google fan back in the early 2010s and the concept of digital privacy wasn't even on my radar. I loved my Gmail account and thought it was incredible that Google offered me this amazing service completely free of charge. However, as I became increasingly concerned about my digital privacy throughout the 2010s, I started looking for alternatives. In 2020 I opened an account with Proton Mail, which had launched all the way back in 2014. A big part of the reason it was available to me 6 years later as a mature service is because people who were clued into digital privacy way before me chose to support it instead of giving up and going back to Gmail. This is my attitude now towards a lot of privacy-respecting and FOSS projects: I choose to support them so that they have the best chance of surviving and improving to the point that the next wave of new privacy-minded people can consider them a viable alternative and make the switch.

I want a bulletproof way to give email sub-addresses, since some websites strip out special characters like + and .. I have an idea for how it could work, let's say my email is TheTwelveYearOld@Reddit.com and I have the following:

• All emails sent to TheTwelveYearOld@ get blocked
• I specify a suffix that would be used instead of +, perhaps "From"
• I whitelist phrases that go after "From": TheTwelveYearOldFromDoorDash, TheTwelveYearOldFromGoogle, TheTwelveYearOldFromReddit

Are there any services that can do this? I'm thinking I should make my own domain for emails that way my email addresses aren't tied to any companies and I can easily switch.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15750986

Danish banks have implemented significant restrictions on how Danish kroner (DKK) used outside Denmark can be repatriated back into Denmark.

Due to these circumstances, which are unfortunately beyond Mullvad’s control, Mullvad will no longer be able to accept DKK from its customers. We will continue to credit DKK received until the end of the month, but considering postal delays, it is best to stop sending it immediately.

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Archive link: https://archive.ph/GJauG

In exchange for selling them repair parts, Samsung requires independent repair shops to give Samsung the name, contact information, phone identifier, and customer complaint details of everyone who gets their phone repaired at these shops, according to a contract obtained by 404 Media. Stunningly, it also requires these nominally independent shops to “immediately disassemble” any phones that customers have brought them that have been previously repaired with aftermarket or third-party parts and to “immediately notify” Samsung that the customer has used third-party parts.

Aaron Perzanowski, a personal property law expert and professor at the University of Michigan Law School, told me “Most consumers would be very surprised to learn that their personal information and details about their devices are being shared with the manufacturer. And I doubt there is any meaningful disclosure of or consent to sharing that data. So this looks like a substantial and unexpected invasion of consumer privacy.”

“This is exactly the kind of onerous, one-sided ‘agreement’ that necessitates the right-to-repair,” Kit Walsh, a staff attorney at the Electronic Freedom Foundation and right to repair expert told me. “The data collection is excessive. I may not have chosen to disclose my address or identity to Samsung, yet an added cost of repair—even at an independent shop—is giving that information up. In addition to the provision you mentioned about dismantling devices with third-party components, these create additional disincentives to getting devices repaired, which can harm both device security and the environment as repairable devices wind up in landfills.”

I'm looking for a tablet to last me at least 4-5 years doing -

• Reading via Linkding, Audiobookshelf and Kavita
• Note taking via Notesnook
• Light media streaming via Jellyfin

I've been looking forward to the Google Pixel Tablet 2 to put "The OS that must not be named" on it and have a highly privacy respecting device. The current Pixel tablet just has a lot of drawbacks - support timeline is limited, speakers aren't good, display is mehh etc. But of course Google didn't announce the new tablet, most likely putting it off until next year.

I've considered a few options -

• iPad Air - don't have an Apple account, and frankly don't want to get into their ecosystem in general.
• Surface Go - Unavailable in the UK and the kernel required has some missing features as well.
• Generic Android tablets from Samsung, Lenovo etc - Don't want a device where I can't fully control what the OS is doing, and I've used LineageOS, and didn't really like it.
• Generic Windows tablets from Dell, Lenovo etc - Is Linux really ready for a tablet use case? I'm not really sure about this. Will I have proper driver and hardware support here?
• Linux tablets such as Pinetab, Starlite etc - These seem to be woefully underpowered and underspec.

So is my only real option to wait until May of 2025 for a Google Pixel Tablet 2? I'd love some input for this dilemma. Thanks!

EDIT: looks like they're back.

As you may know, ChatGPT collects a lot of data on the users for the improvement of their AI, but this poses risks in its own way. I was wondering whether there are privacy alternatives to ChatGPT. Perhaps on F-Droid or Aurora/PlayStore, or for Linux.

Are there any alternatives you know of? Or are there other ways to interact with ChatGPT without giving personal information, such as a privacy focussed front-end?

This may end up being a bit convoluted, so I will do my best to keep it as short as possible and to the point.

I have a US number with Google Fi, have had it for about 8 years.

This is the only reason why I still maintain that one Google account. The benefit is that I only use it when I am in the United States, and when I'm not, I just pause the service and don't get charged.

However, I feel the string need to completely eliminate Google from my life permanently.

Does anyone know of a service similar to this one? It can be an MVNO or VOIP for my phone, and I would like to port my number as well. I found "phoner", but I can't pause the service, so I would be stuck paying a bill I don't use as much or loosing my number.

If the service is private (not to be confused with anonymous, of course) even better.

I have friends that send me tiktok links via whatsapp and then they ask questions about it like "what do you think, scam or not". I used to open them with cookies rejected in ddg browser but now it pretends to freeze after 4 seconds of play, then it says that i must open it in the app and replaces the "play" button with a fake button that leads to google play.

I assume that there's no way to watch it anymore without an account and without the app, right?

Hello, always wanted to know the absolute best to have the most private (and secure) browser, need tips for android and linux. I think Firefox based browser are the best choice but i'm open to recommendations!! THX

Has anyone here used Revolut? How does it compare to privacy.com for EU users?

Can you use the tap to pay on your phone without using Google Wallet?

Anone heard about it? Anything bad about security?

I've checked speeds with my friend, the're quite good, file transfer speed is insane compared to signal.

I am searching for a job and require my phone number to be included on my resume. Is there a service available in the EU (excluding the UK) that can provide this.

What are people using in place of Google docs/sheets/etc? I'm looking for a simple program that syncs with the cloud so I can access my documents on my different computers or my Android phone. I run Windows 10 (don't crucify me). I use libre office for things that can stay on one computer, but for things like school notes, budgeting spreadsheets, or certain reference sheets I've created for work I need to be able to access on my different devices or log in on a web browser and easily have the changes sync. I'm constantly on the go and logging into different devices between work and school and while I want to de-google I've just found the convenience of the google suite has kept me saving non-confidential stuff with them. With some minor searching I found Cryptpad, has anyone used that, or can anyone recommend anything else?

I don't do anything crazy, for docs its mostly just typing and basic formatting, importing pictures into my school notes, very simple tables, etc. With Sheets I just use basic math functions to balance my bank accounts and keep my budget on track, so I don't need anything advanced, it just needs to work and sync with the cloud. I don't even care if I have to pay a few bucks for it if it's worthwhile.

Having used iOS my entire life, the switch to GrapheneOS will be a big change. I have learned over the past year about Android, GrapheneOS, and apps to use. I managed to find most of the apps I was looking for, but there are some I struggled with. I had trouble finding privacy respecting, open source apps for the following categories (I've listed what apps I did find, but want to see if there are better alternatives.)

• Local AI: For AI I was able to find MLC LLM, but the iOS version is a bit broken so I'm unable to confirm if it's what I'm looking for. I want something capable of running Llama 3. This was by far the hardest category to find an app for.

• Backup: I found Neo Backup and Seedvault. I want to be able to backup files, photos, app data, etc.

• IDE: I was only able to find Neovim (which I'm not even sure is an IDE). I primarily code with Python (but also code in Java as well as others), and I want to be able to run quick scripts when I'm out and about.

• Torrent: While torrenting on a phone isn't necessary, it has certain scenarios when it's useful. If this is a major hole in privacy and security, I don't mind leaving this off my list. I found LibreTorrent as an option.

• Local file sharing: This is one I'm most curious about. I want a way to share files between my Linux computer and phone. LocalSend and Warpinator seem to be tied as far as popularity, maybe I can get some insight here. I want it to be strictly over the local network.

• Network monitoring: This is nice to have for a variety of reasons. I want something like Wireshark for Android. I couldn't find many great options, but I found Vernet.

• eBook reader: I'm sure the option I picked here is fine, but I wanted a second opinion about Libera Reader.

• Terminal: I've heard a lot of different opinions for terminal emulators for Android, so please put up a good case for whichever one I should go with. Neovim is apparently (technically?) a terminal emulator. I'm increasingly confused about what Neovim actually is. I also found Termux and I eventually found too many options to find a clear choice.

• Movies: Because many movie streaming services are privacy invasive, I'm looking for an ethical way to watch movies. I found Stremio which I have never heard of before. This isn't a topic that gets covered very often.

I am aware of AlternativeTo, and it's what I used to find some of these trickier apps, but nothing beats hearing first hand experiences. Thank you all for your help!