Using GrapheneOS, my main profile has a handful of apps from PlayStore(Aurora): 1password, ProtonVPN, ProtonMail, etc.

I think I read somewhere that, for an app to appear in PlayStore, it must be compiled with linked libraries that implement check-ins with Google infrastructure... or something like that.

Obviously I'd expect apps like 1password and Proton to be "less evil," but am curious whether everything from playstore leaks telemetry, or if it's just "up to the developer".

(in my case, I don't have Google services or apps in the main profile at all)

In order to curb dissatisfaction the Discord CTO released a blog post. In it a lot of c-suite speak and empty words. They claim 90 percent of users won’t be affected. And with caveats I believe them. Most people’s experience probably won’t change. And they will carry on with their spied on lives.

Where I get upset is this claim that these age verification steps won’t at all infringe on privacy or identity. That Discord won’t read messages and won’t track things. I know this is a flat out lie. They already do all of this. It’s their whole fucking business model! I think it’s sickening in attempt to save face they just further lie. It’s like they pretend oh money just magically appears for us. And we offer this free service with no strings attached.

I fear most people will take that post at face value. They will move on and take a blatant lie and accept it. Further reinforcing they can do whatever they want and you’ll comply.

Discord arguably just doubled down on what they are doing hoping you will calm down and forget by launch. While I know the majority of people simply don’t care enough about this stuff. I still fully and emphatically advise everyone get off Discord asap.

This is a list for facilitate donations at creators/sites/apps which promote privacy, anonymity and opensource (or just interesting thing on internet) who accept monero (or bitcoin)

If you have any suggest, you are welcome!

cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/technology/p/1812149/this-app-warns-you-if-someone-is-wearing-smart-glasses-nearby-404media

The creator of Nearby Glasses made the app after reading 404 Media's coverage of how people are using Meta's Ray-Bans smartglasses to film people without their knowledge or consent. “I consider it to be a tiny part of resistance against surveillance tech.”

more at: @feed@404media.co

Israeli companies have developed and are selling advanced cyber tools that can hack into the tech of your car and use it to collect intelligence on you.

These tools can also assist in a cross-referencing of data to identify an intelligence target among tens of thousands of cars on the road. This technology can track the vehicle's movements in real time and potentially eavesdrop on the people inside.

archive: https://archive.is/tDOFi

I feel like everyone I know has been lookin for cryptpad alternatives (upon ditching google) as it's incredibly slow, clunky, and inconsistantly mobile-friendly. this ... seems good??

anyone tried it? what are yr experiences? other decent, private form builders you would recommend?

tysm!!

cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/59613920

Mullvad also pointed to other instances of alleged attempts to “escalate censorship and mass surveillance” in the UK, citing efforts to force Apple to install backdoors in its end-to-end encrypted cloud service, proposals that could introduce “client-side scanning and government spyware on all UK phones”, and government plans to fast-track legislation requiring identity verification for VPN use.

• Mullvad;
• Mastodon.

Does anyone know more about these devices? Some are obviously cameras, but the others are likely some radio scanning, potentially BLE, but I don't know. Anyone know?

I use X, Instagram, and Pinterest for thirst content. Sadly, the former two are unsafe (unsure about Pinterest but it is American and not FOSS so I'd assume the same).

I'd really like to shift off these platforms, but I'm having trouble finding anything with a reliable search and algo that isn't a dry well.

Surveillance strategies in the UK and Israel often go global

I am harassed by numbers starting with +870 (Satellite calls). How can I ban them?

I have an Android phone. I can't find an app on f-droid, ...

I tried logging into Imgur recently, but they now block all UK traffic and redirect you to a GDPR deletion form, which I was happy to fill in.

Note that I was responding from the email registered to my account, and even though they could verify it, they still demanded:

• A description of any private images (I cannot recall, it's a 10+ year old account I barely used)
• My last login location (no idea either as it was probably years ago. Was I on VPN?)

I made a real effort to answer, giving my best guesses for both, but their responses were consistently passive-aggressive, as if I was the one being unreasonable! And all that friction just for them to delete my email address and a couple of images that I may or may not have uploaded to Imgur over the last 10 years.

After going back and forth, they left me no choice but to file an ICO complaint.

Has anyone else experienced this with Imgur?

Do you prefer XMPP or Matrix, or are you using something else entirely?

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/10786494

That's lovely honestly, I feel much safer now that we have reassurance about the purpose of age verification :)

For some of us sadly proton and Linux still isn’t a viable option for daily gaming on PC. While that means you’re stuck on Windows it doesn’t mean your experience truly has to suck.

I went down the rabbit hole of Windows Debloating and to me the most viable option was Atlas OS. Not technically a new OS but rather an (overall) easy to use tool that will automatically remove and disable windows worst features. This is my honest opinion on it after using for 3 months !

Installation honestly was the worst part of the experience for me. I had additional issues due to technical problems with the motherboard. For most people it won’t be nearly as hard. The problem is many of the steps are decoupled from the Atlas provided software. In other words the process asks you to go to other websites to download other files. If you follow the steps perfectly you shouldn’t have issues. If you do and the errors are unrelated, things may get painful.

The key selling point of Atlas OS is increased performance for gaming. And to be honest this wasn’t a thing for me. My games ran as good and no better. CPU usages were exactly the same. What was better was the Windows experience. No more pop up ads. No more needing to delete 3rd party software I never installed. And best yet no Co-Pilot! It’s unclear to me if these are just disabled or entirely uninstalled. From what I can see most telemetry has been disabled. In short it’s the windows experience I’ve been expecting. Less hiccups and less crashing.

If you look you will find critics who say this takes away control to remove every thing you could want. But personally I can’t think of anything else I would want to remove. Is it still windows ? Well yeah. Is it entirely free of garbage, probably not but it’s sure a lot less noticeable.

For me and I imagine for many Atlas OS might be the “good enough” to keep dealing with Windows. And If you are curious I suggest taking a look. I do hope eventually we do get the full gaming Linux revolution. But for now. Atlas will do.

Can’t access Lemmy.ml anymore even after changing servers. Using ProtonVPN everything loads fine suddenly.

Android users have a tonne of options, but is there anything an iOS user can do to make their phones more private. It was not my choice to get an iPhone but it’s what was provided to me so I’m rolling with it.

I am trying to get better with my privacy, and I specifically want to try and avoid big US tech where possible. I know they there are many people saying you should use multiple browsers for better privacy and all that stuff, but I’m also being realistic with myself - I just want a solid browser experience that has decent privacy and i can live with that for the most part. Not opposed to maybe 2 browsers, but I’d like one daily driver, especially for work.

I do a lot of social media management and am using the Steam backend daily as I work for a game studio. I need to use YouTube and Bluesky and all those things, so it needs to handle media.

I’m running Vivaldi at the moment after jumping off Chrome. I don’t need to use Chromium. I was trialing Orion on my Mac but I use a Linux machine at home, a windows PC sometimes at work, having something across all would be nice and once again I know that is not 100% privacy, but it’s better than the average user.

Advice would be super appreciate.