Cloudflare just revealed on their blog that back in November a sophisticated hacker, likely a nation state, got access to some of their servers. This comes after a security firm identified a different vulnerability months earlier. This shows the true dangers of them overseeing all traffic and all cryptocurrency on all centralized exchanges. It's critically important you understand this:

https://simplifiedprivacy.com/cloudflarehack/

Tor Browser Onion: http://privacypkybrxebcjicfhgwsb3coatqechwnc5xow4udxwa6jemylmyd.onion/cloudflarehack/

I question that GetMonero.org is on Cloudflare. We should strongly reconsider this as we're downloading XMR wallet binaries from an organization not friendly to privacy. And the PGP public key to verify it is on the same Cloudflare website.

I do not have much say in this community as I’m new, but I ask you to bring it to the attention of those who do.

This covers 17 Huge, Suppressed, or Wicked Stories of the Year

(fast, light, and fun read with just 2-3 sentences on each)

Clearweb: https://simplifiedprivacy.com/cypherpunk2023/

Tor Browser Onion: http://privacypkybrxebcjicfhgwsb3coatqechwnc5xow4udxwa6jemylmyd.onion/cypherpunk2023/

We highly recommend you read this even if you already agree or don't particularly care about foreign policy, because it arms you with the facts to be able to convince others on this critical issue.

Elizabeth Warren says "Ban Crypto" to stop terrorism financing, but it’s Israel’s Netanyahu that funded Hamas:

https://SimplifiedPrivacy.com/BanBitcoin

Monero not mentioned, but that's keeping it out the public discussion on bans.

This is both a review and a petition to the XMR community.

Here’s an overview with some of the pros and cons of 8 VPS hosts: https://simplifiedprivacy.com/vps/

7 of the 8 accept Monero. Only ones personally used by the author were evaluated.

The 8th is Shinjiru and could maybe be convinced into it if they felt there was enough demand to do so. This is Shinjiru’s email below, they offer low prices, good customer service, and have good censorship policies, but only accept fiat or Bitcoin/Ethereum. They’re Malaysian but offer servers all over. Most companies that aren’t US or EU charge more. The general rule is the less developed the area, the MORE expensive the servers because of the infrastructure.

If you’re looking for a neutral country that wants business bad enough to not harass you, while having good enough infrastructure for speed. Then Malaysia is a good choice in my opinion. When you compare them against the 7 other choices on that list, you'll see the point. Especially if you want no KYC crypto, no-US no-EU, unblocked email ports that are kept off spam lists and offer domains too.

I want you to send them 1 polite email kindly asking them to accept Monero:

support@247livesupport.biz

Do not spam them or harass them, then they’ll look down on us. Just send 1 sincere message that you’d love to buy service if they offer Monero and your reasons. Then please upvote this so we get more people involved.

Huge win for Epic Games in their court case against Google. The court decided that Google’s Play app store operated as an illegal monopoly and the case also challenged the transaction fees of up to 30% that Google imposes on Android app developers.

Fast Key Highlights:

1. It’s still unclear what the penalty will be, court won’t rule on this till January
2. There’s speculation in the media that this could lead to forcing Google to offer alternative app stores
3. Google ironically used privacy measures (self-deleting messages) to hide the anti-competative behavior internally. (see below)
4. Epic filed a similar antitrust case against Apple in 2020, but a US judge ruled in favor of Apple in 2021

Very Brief Background: The court case originally began when Epic Games began collecting payments from users directly, bypassing Apple and Google’s steep fees. As backlash, the two companies banned Epic’s apps from their respective app stores. So Epic took it to court. First the Apple ruling went against them, but now the Google one is in their favor.

Why Google but Not Apple? The big difference between the Google case and the Apple one was revenue sharing deals between Google and various other gaming industry participants such as the game developers and even the smartphone makers themselves. Epic’s lawyers were able to clearly demonstrate that “Project Hug”, which involved both direct investment in games and promotional benefits, was designed to shut out competition. This was the key evidence and arguments missing from the Apple case.

Ultimately, the full effects of this ruling are still unclear and most of the internet talk is now just speculation.

Kicker: The judge in the California court case scolded Google during the trial for deleting many internal chats that would have incriminated the company. The ultimate ironic move for a company whose past CEO Eric Schmidt claimed “if you have nothing to hide, you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”

Source: https://simplifiedprivacy.com/epicgoogle/

In our article on Monero on nov 28, we mentioned our OPINION that Bitcoin mixers were less legal than Monero due to the third party actor nature that in our subjective opinion of the law would be more likely to trigger US KYC laws or political authority. This hypothetical guess has become more than a guess as only 5 days later, BitcoinTalk official bans links to BTC mixers following heat from a US Treasury press conference, but they ALLOW Monero:

Official Source: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5476162.0

Our original article: https://simplifiedprivacy.com/moneroflaws/

Today we ask, how many more of the predictions will come true?

These "fake monero" derivatives are used to dance around listing it. Remember, if crypto exchanges allow short sellers of Monero to sell something that none of them even own, this is called interest rate suppression. This has a history of only ending one way.

I say, pull it off the exchange. Bring the pain.

In the movie 8 Mile, the rapper Eminem attacks himself first, to leave his enemy speechless after. We replicate this strategy by openly pointing out Monero’s vulnerabilities to deprive our enemies of criticism and then weaponize their ideas against them.

We tackle Monero’s sore points including delistings, end-to-end attacks, crime, and the risk of a ban. Enjoy: https://SimplifiedPrivacy.com/MoneroFlaws/

SimpleX is a private encrypted messenger that creates new identities for each conversation. However, when you first install the app, it’s all the developer’s own servers. This has metadata and centralization risks. This can help...

SimplifiedPrivacy is completely different than SimpleX (although sharing the same start). They just released a tutorial video with a self-host script for any Debian/Ubuntu VPS that you can use to easily self-host a SimpleX server: https://video.simplifiedprivacy.com/simplex/

Here is the script on their self-hosted gitlab: https://git.simplifiedprivacy.is/publicgroup/simplex-self-host/

If you do not wish to self-host, you can add their SimpleX servers to your app for free:

smp://BgQRXMpC_pOpm2eAWvwFAvz6o1pJMu8y6_LaxZYxAFg=@smp.simplifiedprivacy.com

xftp://YLfpIjjRjJdOHKSPHCxhHMUmB_auPkxSIkfo76cH7F8=@xftp.simplifiedprivacy.com:5443

Also consider joining their SimpleX chat room where people talk about Linux and privacy in general:

https://simplex.chat/contact#/?v=1-4&smp=smp%3A%2F%2Fhpq7_4gGJiilmz5Rf-CswuU5kZGkm_zOIooSw6yALRg%3D%40smp5.simplex.im%2FXVf2UZLG2NxirJJlkO-yjU3BjbnK-QBo%23%2F%3Fv%3D1-2%26dh%3DMCowBQYDK2VuAyEAy8t1QqQ_sOovdEAfXlWvWKH9dw-7kwl5menGf4JI8hU%253D%26srv%3Djjbyvoemxysm7qxap7m5d5m35jzv5qq6gnlv7s4rsn7tdwwmuqciwpid.onion&data=%7B%22type%22%3A%22group%22%2C%22groupLinkId%22%3A%225tJ0uL-PgZB4UjSIsbnyJQ%3D%3D%22%7D

I sincerely hope the moderator will not suppress this knowledge, as some may wish to learn. I am excited about sharing technology independence.

Google has abandoned the “Web Environment Integrity” API that was supposed to allow websites to only allow approved and verified browser environments. The plan would allow websites to reject browser or even OS modifications that were “unattested” for the purpose of supposedly stopping bots, piracy, ad-blocking, and other activity Google deemed to be malicious. However, critics of the plan called it corrupt tyranny in which Google flexes it’s muscles to control the entire internet.

The plan was rejected from Firefox and Brave browsers, and could potentially shut Linux users out of many websites as there would be no telemetry company to “verify” the operating system was not modified. Further, some said it was an outright attempt by Google to force people to submit to the API even if they didn’t want to use Chrome browser.

Now this horrible tyrannical plan from Google was abandoned after severe “community backlash”, however it could see a limited version for Android Chrome only when embedded into apps themselves. Some privacy advocates criticize this move as merely a trial testing ground, where they can prove to websites and services that the concept works and then try to push it to a larger audience. These critics call for a boycott of the apps that use this functionality.

We can only hope these rotten Google executives can abandon their plans for world domination and the submission of all knowledge to pass through their ad tracking software.

https://simplifiedprivacy.com/google-abandons-web-environment-integrity/

Some will curse me out for discussing decentralization and freedom. I am NOT saying the average person should be concerned with CIA spying. What I’m saying is that one should promote decentralized internet infrastructures that empower the individual over corrupt institutions, even though this threat model likely does not apply to you. XMPP is just as easy to use use as Signal. This is the same as saying you prefer Monero over Bitcoin.

If you use Signal messenger, you have to trust the Signal foundation, which uses Amazon’s AWS for the cloud. So you’re trusting CIA military contractors. I am NOT saying that Signal is a CIA tool. What I’m saying is that you are trusting and obeying a centralized authority, as opposed to being able to run code on your own server. And this contributes to the centralization of the internet and a loss of freedom.

Signal supposedly hides metadata or who talks to whom, with a system called “sealed sender”, where it puts who sent it inside the encrypted packet. However, in a paper published by NDSS, headed by Ian Martiny, these university researchers found that Signal’s “read receipts”, which lets the sender know that the receiver got the message can be used as an attack vector to analyze traffic because it sends data packets right back to the sender. In as few as 5 messages, their team identified both participants in a conversation with a replicated version of Signal’s client.

The US Military funded Signal and Briar’s development, but yet they use XMPP. XMPP is often neglected even though it’s the most secure, private, fast, and reliable framework for end-to-end encrypted messengers.

In this animated video, it discusses how XMPP works, and why it’s the best: https://video.simplifiedprivacy.com/xmpp/

Monero's official chats are on Matrix and IRC. Some will curse me out for posting this as they prefer the commercially backed project Matrix, but the Element Matrix client is objectively slower, and it’s harder and more expensive to setup your own server. We should discuss concepts and ideas without attacking me as a person. If you disagree, state what facts you’re disputing.

Monero and Tor go hand in hand. But some use Tor and think they are invincible. There are actually a number of ways you can be de-anonymized through Tor. This article for some will be like finding out there is no Santa Clause: https://simplifiedprivacy.com/how-you-can-be-deanonymized-through-tor/