I have noticed recently (perhaps within the last 6-12 months?) that I can hit many major sites via Tor with JavaScript off. there are a few that reject Tor connections or render illegibly - but, for many mainstream sites, things are actually pretty reasonable. fingerprinting and personal threat models aside, this seems like a positive move and feels different from e.g. 2 years ago.

am I slowly going insane? has anyone else noticed this? tested over time via orbot and classic Tor nodes with various hardened and non-hardened browsers and DNS resolvers.

I was posting some comments on Reddit, in the "Privacy" subreddit, about better privacy options than Android or iOS—like GrapheneOS. I just received a message from the bot deleting my posts that mentioned GrapheneOS or other privacy-friendly operating systems. I accept this, since I'm not the owner of the subreddit. But with all due respect, what's the point of having a place to discuss privacy if comments recommending great privacy-focused OS alternatives get deleted? I don’t get it.

It seems like people in that community want privacy, but apparently not enough to have an open discussion about alternatives. Sure, some people might disagree—that's normal in any discussion! Should we stop talking about the NSA because some people support what they do? I doubt anyone would suggest that.

Am I missing something here? Maybe I just don’t understand the reasoning.

Do you know of a way to share your location with family members. I currently use Google maps because my family has both Android and iOS devices so preferably something cross platform. Thanks for your help.

Hi there! A little background: I write down notes a lot to make up for my bad memory. I’ve been doing this for a few years, and it’s usually a few thousand words a day: some professional, some deeply personal. Because of this, I’m trying to be conscious about keeping these notes private. While I’ve made a few changes along the way to follow better privacy practices, I thought I’d post here and see what other ideas are out there.

Right now, I have a few thousand markdown files stored in iCloud with end to end encryption. It’s far from a perfect system: ideally I would get away from cloud storage, iCloud is closed source, and there’s no native linux client. While it’s more private, writing entirely on paper isn’t an option: typing is much faster, it’s easier to query, and I can do fun things with this data. I think my next shift is towards using syncthing to maintain copies of these notes across devices, as I often edit from various machines and want to maintain multiple backups.

Rather than asking directly for proposed solutions, I’ll ask: What should I be considering? Does the editor I use matter? Does this go down to operating system level? I think the answers are both of these are yes, but I don’t know what else I should be asking myself.

I've been working in infographics that sum up some of the advice in DISENGAGE: Opting Out—and Finding New Options—to Reclaim Your Life from Spammers, Scammers, Intrusive Marketers and Big Tech. I hope it's helpful!

I'm guessing there is no way to use Lemmy without having javascript enabled?

Trying to setup a new and better network in the house. Ditching my ISP router because its just a mess and I want better security.

I keep being suggested Unifi as a setup. Its pricey but I am told its well worth the cost.

My main concern is the privacy side.

How reputable is Ubiquity when it comes to handling data? Any ideas?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/2694719

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/2685916

OK, c’est pas vraiment "l’image du jour". Elle correspond plus à la période troublée que nous traversons actuellement.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/2180929

Meta sneakily introduced "Platform Integrity Attestation API" which basically calls home to see whether the user has a valid license to play.

This means that to run apps user has to have online connection to perform an integrity test. Whether it's only a test on launch or continues call home like Denuvo-like DRMs is not yet clear. This could also mean that modified headsets could fail to pass this test essentially closing down the device for modifications that could damage "platform integrity". Not all details are clear yet but this doesn't look good.

Currently it's optional and up to app developers to enable it.

Privacy gives you the freedom to live your life in a way that best suits your personal goals and needs, without having to constantly balance every action between "the private game" (your own needs) and "the public game" (how all kinds of other people, intermediated by all kinds of mechanisms including social media cascades, commercial incentives, politics, institutions, etc, will perceive and respond to your behavior)

Without privacy, everything becomes a constant battle of "what will other people (and bots) think of what I'm doing" - powerful people, companies, and peers, people today and in the future. With privacy, we can preserve a balance.

I replaced my iPhone with a Pixel 7a running Graphene OS.

Everything I see online says I should be able to easily connect my Airpods by opening up the Bluetooth settings and clicking "Pair" on the phone while the case is open...but it never seems to find my Airpods.

It does find my partner's Mac and other nearby Apple products, including what I think are my neighbors'!

The Airpods are fully charged. The old iPhone now belongs to my kid, which I wiped before giving it to them.

Any suggestions?

A chart titled "What Kind of Data Do AI Chatbots Collect?" lists and compares seven AI chatbots—Gemini, Claude, CoPilot, Deepseek, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Grok—based on the types and number of data points they collect as of February 2025. The categories of data include: Contact Info, Location, Contacts, User Content, History, Identifiers, Diagnostics, Usage Data, Purchases, Other Data.

• Gemini: Collects all 10 data types; highest total at 22 data points
• Claude: Collects 7 types; 13 data points
• CoPilot: Collects 7 types; 12 data points
• Deepseek: Collects 6 types; 11 data points
• ChatGPT: Collects 6 types; 10 data points
• Perplexity: Collects 6 types; 10 data points
• Grok: Collects 4 types; 7 data points

The best way to install them is through the F-Droid store, which is a catalogue of FOSS software for Android. It's installable by downloading the .apk file linked on the front page of the F-Droid projec'ts website. The mentioned apps from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology can then be found by searching for "SECUSO", which is the name of the research project behind them all.

Alternatively, you can also get them through the Google Play Store under this link or again by searching for "SECUSO".

In particular, I recommend getting the QR code reader, because many of the free-to-use scanners route everything you scan through their servers, so they're obviously collecting your data.

How could anyone find out which sites are you following using an RSS feed? And I mean in a broad way: can the site track you? Can ISP? Network managers?

Let's say you want to follow a bunch of political sites that you don't want to be easily attached to, is RSS a good way to do it? Are there extra precautions to take?

My first thought would be that it's the same as using any other browser, so not a great way to be private. Am I wrong?

Hi guys. Basically what title says I have been using YouTube revanced since the beginning but now I'm looking for replacements so that I can get rid of the last Google app on my phone and microg all together but I really hate sensational thumbnails and titles on YouTube and kinda got used to DeArrowed thumbnails

Edit: link for the people who might not know what DeArrow is and might be interested

MEGA, the "privacy company," is now based in Hungary, via MEGA Privacy Kft in Csomád. Found this out on their "About us" page.

While browsing through the privacy community, I read about the BraX3. A new privacy centric phone developed by YouTube content creator Robert Braxman.

Before I support their IndyGoGo, I'd like to get your opinions about the company and their last phone, the BraX2, which apparently didn't get the most glowing reviews.

"The Transit App" is probably not that privacy friendly right? Are there any open source and privacy respecting apps for getting bus/train times by location?

Passengers will also be able to upload their passports to their phone and travel through airports using their face for verification. Instead of manually checking in, which would let airlines know who intends to board their flights, airlines will instead be alerted when passengers arrive at the airport and their face is scanned.

🤔