Good example why it is important to avoid private Photos on internet, a lot of crap like this app out there.

Optery advertises themselves as a privacy oriented service that helps you remove data from data brokers.

In the policy they mention they send your profile data to Advertising Partners with the purpose of

• Providing, Customizing and Improving the Services • Marketing the Services

Isn't this almost opposite of the whole purpose of their service? Or am I reading this wrong and this is just because they have to send your data to the brokers to process deletions?

Are there recommended alternatives?

P.S. I reached out to them about this but they haven't gotten back to me yet

Closed my account and left feedback. They replied: Thank you for sharing your feedback regarding your account cancellation. We acknowledge your decision to delete your account and want to address any concerns you have raised.

We understand your questions about privacy, and we want to reassure you that Optery is committed to protecting your personal information. Our core mission is to remove your data from data broker sites, not to exploit or misuse it. Here’s how we prioritize your privacy:

1. We do not sell your personal data. Optery has no involvement with companies that post or sell personal information online. Our sole purpose is to help remove your personal information from people search sites and data brokers. If you see your information online, it is unrelated to Optery's operations.

2. Google Analytics and Advertising. While our privacy policy mentions advertising partnerships, this typically involves anonymized or aggregated data, not personal details. We use tools like Google Analytics to analyze website traffic and improve user experience. Rest assured, personal information is not stored in these tools. Google uses collected data for web analytics, and while this may influence ad targeting, it is not tied to any personal data.

For more on how Google handles data: Google Privacy Terms and Google’s Data Protection.

We also encourage you to explore Google’s privacy practices: Google Analytics Privacy Safeguards.

We aim to follow a privacy-first model, taking inspiration from companies like Proton. Your feedback is invaluable, as it helps us ensure we align with the trust our customers place in us.

You can learn more here - How Optery Secures Your Data

Transparency and user trust are at the heart of everything we do. If you have more questions or need further clarification about our privacy practices, feel free to reach out.

With Mull no longer being developed I've decided to just use vanadium since im on grapheneos. I use librewolf on desktop and would like input on how people manage bookmarks. Floccus seemed good until i saw it doesnt actually import bookmarks into browser on android.

I want a security camera system that I can trust to be only my own. My requirements are not hugely unreasonable, but I can't find them the way search engines suck shit these days. I want a camera system with:

Local storage

No internet connection

No phone connection

No cables

No cloud storage option

No router necessary

And the option that seems impossible with the others: No option of remote connections

I don't want to see whats going on in real time on my phone, I want a completely private recording saved if I ever need to see if I got robbed. I don't want offline ability, I want cameras that can not connect to the internet at all, even through another device. I'm not worried about local network hacking, I want saved video that can only be viewed directly from the local storage. Longish life batteries so I don't have to route power, and no cables that can be unplugged. Solar powered would be nice, but isn't necessary.

Why is that so hard to find?

While I once hoped 2017 would be the year of privacy, 2024 closes on a troubling note, a likely decrease in privacy standards across the web. I was surprised by the recent Information Commissioner’s Office post, which criticized Google’s decision to introduce device fingerprinting for advertising purposes from February 2025. According to ICO, this change risks undermining user control and transparency in how personal data is collected and used.

from the this-is-why-we-can't-have-nice-things dept

firstly happy new year for all.

I need to start use Matrix to talk with my biggest friends and colleagues of my university, but i read is good not create an account on matrix.org and create an account in others public servers , to not centralize the matrix protocol. My question is if anyone has a good experience with others public servers, besides matrix.org. Any tip or advice?

I found this servers on joinmatrix with longstanding: https://tchncs.de/en/matrix | https://syscom.utwente.io/info/matrix/homeserver/ | https://matrix-help.envs.net/ | https://tedomum.net/service/matrix/ | https://rollenspiel.chat/ ...

Which one should i choose, any tip?

TYIA

Is it just me, or the government of India is cracking down of all end to end encryption apps like signal and element.

Cause I guy who works for the police came to my house and asked whether I use signal and element

I recently came up with a new way to get people involved in Matrix.

You know how people tend to make new group chats to keep in touch with people they met under specific circumstances, like holidays or conferences etc.

Some people even have specific group chats from their gym or sports team.

I thought this can be an opportunity to spread Matrix.

You can recommend going on Matrix when this moment comes up, and help people get set up on the spot.

Or if you are friends you can just pop over and say "let's set you up for this group chat I have going."

Don't get me wrong, it might sound shady and weird at times, especially if you seem too eager to interact with their phones.

But in principle I think it might be a time and place that people might be motivated to procrastinate less, and be more likely to use it. After all such group chats are always silly.

Downsides I already forsee

• Don't forget to make them store the secret key somewhere safe, where they will also remember storing after the hangover.
• You have to be well-prepared, know exactly what client and homeserver you will point people to, create the group chat yourself, and have the QR-code handy.
• You have to avoid talking points about all the technical advantages and privacy aspect, and stay with the silliness, so choose a client that has an abundance of pre-installed stickers.

On their website, go to the sign in screen and click “Need help signing in”. Go through the prompts and watch the person’s username, and the legal name of all their employers (who have ever used ADP) appear on the screen.

Note: Whether or not you select “my current employer uses ADP”, it will still show you the full list of both current and previous employers (who use ADP).

From there, it is remarkably easy to gain access to paycheck information if you are ~~a grocer, a landlord, a retailer, or anyone of the 2737429193 entities who may~~ have a little extra data on them.

Edit: To address some of the comments, I feel I need to clear something up. I’m not saying this is some authoritarian configuration error ADP messed up on. It’s a standard login that works conveniently for ADP and also happens to be negligent in privacy protection. And it’s most likely completely legal for most people in the U.S.

Greetings. I am making a Facebook account. But I want it free and clean of all data. Not attached to me and private. Made an outlook account and creating the account got flagged.

Tried to make a google account and it wants a phone number. I tried even emulation android. Nothing.

Any advice?

Many YT privacy frontends are down it seems. YouTube is cracking down on these servers fast. Both Invidious and Piped services are not working now.

So how are you watching videos now? Just plain youtube[dot]com with unblock and VPN?

So i am installing GrapheneOS rn and i need help:

1. i want app tracking protection to every app something like duckduckgo's app tracking protection if there is something better?!

2. someone explain me (with simple words) what is auditor cause i can't understand even if i read about it on GrapheneOS' website (i am like 50% noob with these things)

3. is my wifi masked automatically with GrapheneOS or should i 100% use a vpn? is there a setting in the OS somewherere? i need a lot of privacy and security to my phone!!!

also tell me additional tips for privacy/security for GrapheneOS if u have any!

thanks a lot!

I went on amiunique.com, and it says that I'm unique.

Lowest scores: list of fonts JS (0.01%), canvas (0.00%), media devices (0.00%), user agent (0.11%), and audio data (0.80%)

I use Linux Mint Debian edition, Librewolf browser, and Mullvad VPN. How do I become less unique?

I've been using one but I'm not sure what benefits I'm getting from it. I feel like the only thing happening is I'm adding a little bit of latency to all my requests for no reason.

So, for privacy and security reasons, I use a VPN. This is normally Mullvad (with DAITA and quantum resistance enabled), but I have ProtonVPN, Windscribe, and Orbot handy in case something doesn't work.

However, lately I've noticed my connections being blocked. This is across three different ISPs: Sky, Virgin, and Wifinity. I have tried all three VPNs and Orbot, and I have tried several protocols (WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2, Stealth, and of course SOCKS5) to no avail.

The logical solution would be to use a bridge in Orbot, but the button seems to have been removed. Also, by using Orbot, I will not be protected by my DNS.

I am currently using iOS, but my other machines run Linux and I will be getting a GrapheneOS phone in the near future.

Can anyone help?

I’m looking into getting a flip phone with a separate number so that I can sign up for a few apps that without associating them with ~~the complete identity profile in the data marketplace that is linked to~~ my actual phone number.

To be clear, the apps will still be downloaded and utilized on my primary smartphone. But the phone number through which I receive verification codes during registration will be a separate device.

Has any one done this? Tips for selecting a cheapo phone and prepaid service?

I am in the privacy game for about 2 years now and I've become the go-to on privacy questions in my family (which makes me proud, cuz this means, I am not just this privacy nut that cant be reached on whatsapp :D). I was asked about a browser for Graphene OS. Clearly I recommended the one I use atm, which is Waterfox (was recommended once in this comm). The person who asked me is using bromite (which looks good too). After thinking about the recommendation, there is one open question:

Does it really matter which alternate browser you choose, if it is of course not something like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or Safari (especially regarding the outcome in this comm, where someone compared Chromium and Firefox without any real conclusion)? Also doesnt it also come down to the plugins? Like, what difference does it make, if I use Waterfox or Bromite, if I also use Privacy Badger, uBlock Origin and maybe JShelter?

Hope too read a lot of your toughts on this :)

Update 1: Thanks for your replies so far. It's always amazing to get the greater picture on something. Good point with the plug-ins. Also I might give Vanadium another chance.

For me, the browser is by far the most important software on my computer. After all, I use it about 80% of the time on my PC. At the moment, it's more difficult than ever to find the right browser, at least for me. Until about a year ago, it was usually using Firefox. But for some time now I have lost all trust in Firefox. What the vendor promises is in complete contrast to what the software does by default. User tracking in various forms, unsolicited telemetry, remote installation of add-ons are just the very top reasons why I no longer want to use Firefox. Brave is an alternative, but I don't feel very comfortable with it. The default settings are not ideal here either. What's more, it's packed with extras that nobody needs. In the end, I currently use Ungoogled Chromium, fully aware that I don't always have the latest version installed.

Now there's also Midori. I can't figure it out. What should I make of it? To me it looks like a forked Firefox that lags far behind the current version. I think it's currently Firefox 128.xxx. Doesn't this mean I'm getting the same problems as with Firefox itself, plus an outdated version? What about tracking, telemetry and security problems? What do you think of this browser? In Wikipedia, i read that Midori uses WebKit? Is it not Gecko? And what is a Floorp? The Infos about this browser are really confusing.

I’m timid about this and might be late to a party where others already had this idea, so please, no haters.

I can’t get over how facile and stupid the identification of LM was at a McDoballs. This is someone who fell off the entire grid for three months??

Just asking… but couldn’t an organization trying to conceal its reach and inevitability track a fella… and then… force an identification?

I do not have any idea about details… it’s broad strokes. Could it be? How many other privacy lovers heard about these three months completely off the grid somehow and also wondered… how?

Please pardon if this isn’t the appropriate place but the real theme is privacy. What if the watchers are always watching even when a person might believe they have made themself completely digitally invisible?