Contact your local MP and spread this far and wide:

Subject: Urgent Action Required – Online Safety Act Harms

Dear [MP’s Name],

I am writing to you as a concerned constituent to demand urgent review and amendment of the Online Safety Act (OSA). While its stated aim is to protect users, it has already created serious harm to privacy, freedom of expression, and access to public knowledge.

The Government’s response to the Change.org petition failed to meaningfully address any of these widely raised concerns, offering vague assurances instead of evidence or concrete changes. This is unacceptable in a democracy.

Key problems now being reported: • Excessive censorship – Vague definitions of “harm” are silencing lawful speech, political debate, and online communities. • Privacy risks from mandatory age verification – Requires intrusive ID checks (including facial recognition), creating huge data breach risks. • Threat to public-interest platforms – Wikipedia and similar sites could face UK restrictions if forced to verify all contributors. • Erosion of encryption – Weakening secure communication systems in a way experts call “authoritarian” and “technically incoherent.” • Ineffectiveness – VPN use has surged by over 500%, making the law easy to bypass while still harming UK-based platforms. • Harm to vulnerable communities – Risks “outing” LGBTQ+ individuals and deterring use of safe online support spaces.

Recent events highlight the urgency: • High Court ruling (Aug 2025) dismissed Wikimedia’s challenge, but confirmed Ofcom must act proportionately. • Major online communities and platforms have blocked UK users or imposed invasive checks. • Civil rights groups and tech experts continue to warn the OSA is fundamentally flawed.

I am asking you to: 1. Support a full Parliamentary review of the OSA’s harms and unintended consequences. 2. Press for immediate amendments to protect privacy, encryption, and public-interest platforms. 3. Suspend or repeal the most damaging provisions until they can be replaced with proportionate, evidence-based measures.

This is not a partisan matter — it is about protecting fundamental rights, digital freedoms, and public trust. I request a written reply outlining your position and the actions you will take.

Yours sincerely, [Your Name] [Your Address]

This video explains how your medical data is shared without your consent.

This is not to promote the product. I merely came across it and couldnt find any reviews except for those from Google Play. I use Android and as much as I hate iOS, their Email app is very consistent regardless if you use their .mac email or Gmail. On Android, it is very difficult to find an email app that is decent. I've been on Fairmail for quite a while until recently when I have sync problems.

So I dig around and found "EPRIVO - Encrypted email and chat". It was a surprise because I am constantly on the look for a good email app (and browser !) on Android. Usually, on Google Play, you will see: Gmail, Thunderbird, Proton, Outlook, Edison Fairmail...etc. I never see Eprivo before.

Anyway, I tested it out on a Gmail account. The app works quite well, here is what I learn:

1. You are forced to create a blanket Eprivo account. This takes like 10 seconds. Then this Eprivo account is then used to get you access to the email app. You can use any email account within it: Gmail, Yahoo. I use Gmail and it works well.

2. The privacy features are interesting. You can do a lot of stuff like prevent forwarding, set timer so email can only be read once, password protect...etc. Now I also used Proton in the past and these features are exclusive to a .proton account. In this app, I can do some of them such as setting the timer on an email. To get the full private features, you need to create a Eprivo email (very easy to create within the app). So, you will have something like abc@eprivovip.com.

3. Prices are surprisingly cheap: 5 bucks / year.

4. They advertise themselves as not an email service but to my understanding a "privatized email service". So it is like a private layer on top of your existing email.

Any thoughts?

TLDR: Techbros in SF are wearing AI pins that record everything everyone says around them.

“My general sense is that we should assume we are being recorded at all times,” said Clara Brenner, a partner at venture capital firm Urban Innovation Fund. “Of course, this is a horrible way to live your life.”

Damn right it is. Every day one step closer to dystopia. Fuck this shit.

(Above link with skipped Paywall)

Summary by Andi:

A teenage hacker named Reynaldo Vasquez-Garcia discovered that the Halo 3C vape detector, which looks like a standard smoke detector in school bathrooms, contained hidden microphones and security flaws that allowed it to be turned into a secret listening device[^1].

Working with another hacker known as "Nyx," Vasquez-Garcia found the device could be hacked by exploiting weak password controls and firmware update vulnerabilities. Once compromised, attackers could use it to eavesdrop on conversations in real-time, disable its detection capabilities, create fake alerts, or play audio through its speaker[^1].

The researchers revealed these findings at the 2025 Defcon hacker conference, demonstrating how any hacker on the same network could hijack a Halo 3C by brute-forcing passwords at 3,000 attempts per minute. The device's firmware could also be modified since its encryption key was publicly available in updates on the manufacturer's website[^1].

Motorola, which owns the Halo 3C's manufacturer IPVideo Corporation, said it developed a firmware update to address the security flaws. However, the researchers argue this doesn't solve the fundamental privacy concern of having microphone-equipped devices installed in sensitive locations like school bathrooms and public housing[^1].

[^1]: Wired - It Looks Like a School Bathroom Smoke Detector. A Teen Hacker Showed It Could Be an Audio Bug

Instagram’s new location-sharing update is raising privacy concerns, with users reporting their whereabouts were shared without their knowledge despite Meta saying the update is opt-in.

Experts warn that location-sharing features are linked to a higher risk of tech-based coercive control.

The controversy follows other recent privacy issues for Meta, including a lawsuit over the misuse of sensitive health data from a women’s health tracking app.

so now proton completely blocking account creation through their onion adress? I have standard protection, javascript enabled. Time to swith for those who use this service as they are ditching tor and switzerland?

Hello ,

As the title says what happens if theUK requires age verification for VPN’s or makes it illegal to use them?

Does that mean everyone will move to tor or I2P?

It seems if the UK gov keep pushing their agenda under the guise of protecting children people will increasingly go dark .

I guess what I’m asking is how does everyone think this will unfold?

M

Dropsitenews published a list of websites Facebook uses to train its AI on. Multiple Lemmy instances are on the list as noticed by user BlueAEther

Hexbear is on there too. Also Facebook is very interested in people uploading their massive dongs to lemmynsfw.

Full article here.

Link to the full leaked list download: Meta leaked list pdf

Site: https://anonymousplanet.org/guide/

Re-reading this for about the 20th time, lol. I always learn something I may have glossed over. I got to thinking, there are probably other comprehensive guides just like the Hitchhiker's Guide. I have searched, and most of what I find is general info. Secure your router, harden Linux and Windows, etc, but never really getting into the meat n' taters.

So, I turn to the pros here to see if perhaps I have missed some resource somewhere. I generally tend to stay away from video and podcast tuts, preferring to read instead. I feel I get a better understanding that way.

Inundate me with info!

Aurora store is starting to not work by days in the last weeks.

What is the plan team, how to get proprietary apps if Aurora store went down one day and never went up again?

I was contemplating whether to invest in services like Deleteme or Incogni to erase my data from data broker websites. But I’m curious if I could have AI develop a software that handles those opt-out requests for me. That would save me some money!

I couldn't find any when I looked around a couple of years ago. Anything these days? And if none are floating on the market, are there any decent wrist watches that respect your privacy and don't send all the dam data home?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/50693956

Transcript

A post by [object Object] (@zzt@mas.to) saying: courtesy of @davidgerard@circumstances.run, Proton is now the only privacy vendor I know of that vibe codes its apps: In the single most damning thing I can say about Proton in 2025, the Proton GitHub repository has a “cursorrules” file. They’re vibe-coding their public systems. Much secure! I am once again begging anyone who will listen to get off of Proton as soon as reasonably possible, and to avoid their new (terrible) apps in any case. https://circumstances.run/@davidgerard/114961415946154957

It has a reply by the author saying: in an unsurprising update for those familiar with how Proton operates, they silently rewrote their monorepo’s history to purge .cursor and hide that they were vibe coding: https://github.com/ProtonMail/WebClients/tree/2a5e2ad4db0c84f39050bf2353c944a96d38e07f

given the utter lack of communication from Proton on this, I can only guess they’ve extracted .cursor into an external repository and continue to use it out of sight of the public

cross-posted from: https://reddthat.com/post/47032660

Discover Hidden Gems: Open-Source Software You Should Know About

We all love open-source software, but there are so many amazing projects out there that often go unnoticed. Let's change that! Share your favorite open-source software that you think more people should know about. Here’s how you can contribute:

1. Single Option Per Comment: Mention one open-source software per comment to be able to easily find the most popular software.
2. No Duplicates: Avoid duplicating software that has already been mentioned to ensure a wide variety of options.
3. Upvote What You Love: If you see a software that you also appreciate, upvote it to help others discover it more easily.

Check out last year's post for more inspiration: Last Year's Post

Let's create a comprehensive list of open-source software that everyone should know about!

I advise you to post any recommendations to the original post, I was just sharing it here so others can find it! I also wanna see those recs myself so that's the motive for posting this 😅

Hi everyone. Probably not everyone knows but EU has CLOUD Act analogue too - it has a name "e-evidence - cross border access". so this is a description of framework from the official site - "create a European Production Order: this will allow a judicial authority in one Member State to obtain electronic evidence (such as emails, text or messages in apps, as well as information to identify a perpetrator as a first step) directly from a service provider or its legal representative in another Member State, which will be obliged to respond within 10 days, and within 8 hours in cases of emergency (compared to up to 120 days for the existing European Investigation Order or an average of 10 months for a Mutual Legal Assistance procedure);"

basically it means that the national authorities of the country where companies are registered no longer has juducial control over law protection of their companies - so for example if extreme right government of Poland will be dissappointed with your post on Mastodon about Pegasus surveillance used by them against political journalists by new Framework they will issue juicial order to obtain your mastodon account details, ip, email etc and will electronically request your mastodon provider (which reside for example in Belgium) to give this data to them withis 8 hours or 10 days (without possibility to make appelation) basically overriding national courts of country of registration of the provider.

Do you believe that EU goverment respect right to privacy and national souvereginity as a fundamental right?

Google keeps asking about turning on my location timeline, trying to push for me to turn ON Ad tracking.

Are they stupid? If I'm the type of person who went out of his way to turn this crap off ...do they really think saying "Your in Control" is going to encourage me to turn this s*** back on?

Are there any FOSS alternatives to privacy.com? I want to conceal my actual card information when registering with a new account on different platforms so I can create limits, but I can't shake the feeling that privacy.com probably just sells my transaction history. If there's any alternatives to privacy.com that are more transparent, I'd love to know!