Privacy
Found a great site with info about privacy focused OSes written for non-technical readers. It lists basic things to know about several different mobile os options, and there are also pages that list what open source and privacy focused apps from F droid (the alternative to play store) are good to use.
There is also, wonderfully, a page that specifically lists user friendly and nice looking ones. This site is a goldmine. Had to post as I was looking for this exact thing yesterday and I know I am not the only person on lemmy looking for alternatives.
- themarkup.org Project 2025 targets California’s abortion data privacy protections – The Markup
A Republican presidency could require California to monitor abortions and send sensitive data to the CDC
I've had a Galaxy S22+ for 2 years and still want to use it. When I look up how to maximize privacy on Android, many results say to install custom ROMs which I can't since its a US model and the bootloader is locked. I just want to minimize tracking and sharing of personal information. I could use a firewall app like RethinkDNS to block trackers, but could I completely block tracking from Google and Samsung? Are there any lists of packages to uninstall to improve privacy? (I've used ADB to remove a bunch of bloatware. Ex:
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.arzone)- • 99%www.techspot.com US government takes Google to court over $31 billion digital ad monopoly, trial starts today
Opening statements before District Judge Leonie Brinkema of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia start later today. The BBC notes that the Justice...
Opening statements before District Judge Leonie Brinkema of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia start later today. The BBC notes that the Justice Department plans to argue that Google's parent company, Alphabet, illegally operates a monopoly in the online advertising market. However, Alphabet denies the allegations, claiming that its success is due to the "effectiveness" of its services.
The Justice Department claims Google established its monopoly through the anti-competitive acquisitions of smaller ad-tech rivals and even bullying website publishers into using its ad products. Google is also said to have unethically controlled key businesses in each part of the advertising supply chain, thereby driving up ad rates for advertisers while reducing the payouts to website owners.
Pointing out Google's systematic abuse of the online ad business, the DoJ will ask the court to break up the company's ad-tech monopoly. The agency believes a breakup would create new opportunities for Google's smaller competitors and incentivize new players to enter the market. It will also be better for both advertisers and publishers.
- • 100%arstechnica.com Europe’s privacy watchdog probes Google over data used for AI training
Meta and X have already paused some AI training over same set of concerns.
Google is under investigation by Europe’s privacy watchdog over its processing of personal data in the development of one of its artificial intelligence models, as regulators ramp up their scrutiny of Big Tech’s AI ambitions.
Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, which is responsible for enforcing the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, said it had launched a statutory inquiry into the tech giant’s Pathways Language Model 2, or PaLM 2.
PaLM 2 was launched in May 2023 and predates Google’s latest Gemini models, which power its AI products. Gemini, which was launched in December of the same year, is now the core model behind its text and image-generation offering.
The inquiry will assess whether the company has breached its obligations under GDPR on the processing of the personal data of citizens of the EU and European Economic Area.
Under the framework, companies must conduct a data protection impact assessment before embarking on handling such information when the nature of the way it is used is likely to pose a high risk to the rights and freedoms of individuals.
- digitalcourage.social Patrick Breyer (@echo_pbreyer@digitalcourage.social)
🇬🇧New EU #ChatControl proposal leaked +++ Governments to position themselves by 23 September, will be very tight... +++ Will messenger services be blocked in Europe? https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/new-eu-push-for-chat-control-will-messenger-services-be-blocked-in-europe/ Help pressure your gove...
New EU #ChatControl proposal leaked +++ Governments to position themselves by 23 September, will be very tight... +++ Will messenger services be blocked in Europe? https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/new-eu-push-for-chat-control-will-messenger-services-be-blocked-in-europe/
Help pressure your government now to defend privacy and secure encryption: https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/take-action-to-stop-chat-control-now/
- • 98%abcnews.go.com Google loses final EU court appeal against 2.4 billion euro fine in antitrust shopping case
Google lost its final legal challenge against a European Union penalty for giving its own shopping recommendations an illegal advantage over rivals in search results, ending a long-running antitrust case that came with a whopping fine
The commission's punished the Silicon Valley giant in 2017 for unfairly directing visitors to its own Google Shopping service to the detriment of competitors. It was one of three multibillion-euro fines that the commission imposed on Google in the previous decade as Brussels started ramping up its crackdown on the tech industry.
“We are disappointed with the decision of the Court, which relates to a very specific set of facts,” Google said in a brief statement.
The company said it made changes in 2017 to comply with the commission’s decision requiring it to treat competitors equally. It started holding auctions for shopping search listings that it would bid for alongside other comparison shopping services.
“Our approach has worked successfully for more than seven years, generating billions of clicks for more than 800 comparison shopping services,” Google said.
European consumer group BEUC hailed the court's decision, saying it shows how the bloc's competition law “remains highly relevant" in digital markets.
"Google harmed millions of European consumers by ensuring that rival comparison shopping services were virtually invisible," director general Agustín Reyna said. “Google’s illegal practices prevented consumers from accessing potentially cheaper prices and useful product information from rival comparison shopping services on all sorts of products, from clothes to washing machines.”
Google is still appealing the other two EU antitrust penalties, which involved its Android mobile operating system and AdSense advertising platform. The company was dealt a setback in the Android case when the EU General Court upheld the commission's 4.125 billion euro fine in a 2022 decision. Its initial appeal against a 1.49 billion euro fine in the AdSense case has yet to be decided.
- www.eff.org School Monitoring Software Sacrifices Student Privacy for Unproven Promises of Safety
Imagine your search terms, key-strokes, private chats and photographs are being monitored every time they are sent. Millions of students across the country don’t have to imagine this deep surveillance of their most private communications: it’s a reality that comes with their school districts’...
cross-posted from: https://reddthat.com/post/25352295
- digitalcourage.social Patrick Breyer (@echo_pbreyer@digitalcourage.social)
🇬🇧🚨#ChatControl is back on the agenda: As soon as next Wednesday representatives of EU governments will resume work based on a secret document. https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/documents-publications/public-register/public-register-search/?DocumentNumber=12319%2F24 This is what you can do now ...
🇬🇧🚨#ChatControl is back on the agenda: As soon as next Wednesday representatives of EU governments will resume work based on a secret document. https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/documents-publications/public-register/public-register-search/?DocumentNumber=12319%2F24
This is what you can do now to help: https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/take-action-to-stop-chat-control-now/
Git records the local timezone when a commit is made [1]. Knowledge of the timezone in which a commit was made could be used as a bit of identifying information to de-anonymize the committer.
Setting one's timezone to UTC can help mitigate this issue [2][3] (though, ofc, one must still be wary of time-of-day commit patterns being used to deduce a timezone).
References
- Git documentation. git-commit. "Date Formats: Git internal format". Accessed: 2024-08-31T07:52Z. https://git-scm.com/docs/git-commit#Documentation/git-commit.txt-Gitinternalformat.
> It is
<unix-timestamp> <time-zone-offset>, where<unix-timestamp>is the number of seconds since the UNIX epoch.<time-zone-offset>is a positive or negative offset from UTC. For example CET (which is 1 hour ahead of UTC) is+0100. - jthill. "How can I ignore committing timezone information in my commit?". Stack Overflow. Published: 2014-05-26T16:57:37Z. (Accessed: 2024-08-31T08:27Z). https://stackoverflow.com/questions/23874208/how-can-i-ignore-committing-timezone-information-in-my-commit#comment36750060_23874208.
> to set the timezone for a specific command, say e.g.
TZ=UTC git commit - Oliver. "How can I ignore committing timezone information in my commit?". Stack Overflow. Published: 2022-05-22T08:56:38Z (Accessed: 2024-08-31T08:30Z). https://stackoverflow.com/a/72336094/7934600 > each commit Git stores a author date and a commit date. So you have to omit the timezone for both dates. > > I solved this for my self with the help of the following Git alias: > > ``` > [alias] > co = "!f() { \ > export GIT_AUTHOR_DATE=\"$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%z)\"; \ > export GIT_COMMITTER_DATE=\"$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%z)\"; \ > git commit $@; \ > git log -n 1 --pretty=\"Autor: %an <%ae> (%ai)\"; \ > git log -n 1 --pretty=\"Committer: %cn <%ce> (%ci)\"; \ > }; f"
---
Cross-posts:
- https://sh.itjust.works/post/24495692
- https://sh.itjust.works/post/24495795
- Git documentation. git-commit. "Date Formats: Git internal format". Accessed: 2024-08-31T07:52Z. https://git-scm.com/docs/git-commit#Documentation/git-commit.txt-Gitinternalformat.
> It is
- blog.thunderbird.net Plan Less, Do More: Introducing Appointment By Thunderbird - The Thunderbird Blog
Thunderbird has a new project under its wing: Appointment. Learn all about our approach to appointment scheduling, and try it yourself.
cross-posted from: https://fedia.io/m/Thunderbird/t/1140808
> Plan Less, Do More: Introducing Appointment By Thunderbird - The Thunderbird Blog > > Thunderbird has a new project under its wing: Appointment. Learn all about our approach to appointment scheduling, and try it yourself.
- • 94%arstechnica.com Hackers infect ISPs with malware that steals customers’ credentials
Zero-day that was exploited since June to infect ISPs finally gets fixed.
cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/12736887 >Just stumbled upon this project, seems rather new as my DNS blocked its domain by default for being too new hehe.. Anyone had a chance to try it yet? Its got some hefty promises, like having equally strong privacy features as Librewolf. I'll be giving it ago at least, almost sounds a bit too good to be true... > > ! > >
I'm starting to like this news outlet.
Hi all, I'm looking into ways to protect my privacy while using WhatsApp, particularly in a professional setting where separating personal and work-related communications is crucial. I'm thinking of buying a dual SIM phone and am considering strategies to sandbox my personal contacts, pictures, and media from those associated with my work profile on WhatsApp.
Has anyone successfully done this using two SIM cards on the same device? I'm staunchly anti-Facebook and its obtrusive privacy-related practices, so ideally I want to prevent cross-contamination of personal and work-related data, including contacts, photos, and media shared through the app. Will this be a good strategy? Are there any known risks or precautions I should take to minimize the risk of my data being shared or accessed by third parties? - Thanks all, I'd appreciate any comments.
Just found out about Zen Browser, has someone used it already? Its Github repository looks to be under very active development and growing fast in popularity.
Zen Browser's website claims to have features that Floorp and LibreWolf do not. I'm not that tech savy so I would know how to evaluate the browser fairly, does anyone here knows something about it?
noyb files two complaints against EU Parliament over massive data breach
In early May 2024, the European Parliament informed its staff of a massive data breach in the institution’s recruiting platform (called “PEOPLE”). The breach affected the personal data of more than 8,000 staff.
https://noyb.eu/en/noyb-complaints-against-eu-parliament-over-data-breach
- proton.me Proton is transitioning towards a non-profit structure | Proton
To ensure our mission always comes first, Proton is transitioning to a non-profit structure and formalizing our promise of people before profits.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18741586
- eucrim.eu Law Enforcement Experts: Action against End-to-End Encryption Needed
European police chiefs called on industry and governments to take urgent action to ensure public safety on social media platforms. The privacy measures currently in place, such as end-to-end encryption, prevent technology companies from identifying and reporting all offences on…
Recently looking into the multiple android alternative offerings like CalyxOS, e/OS/, etc and came across these few issues which point towards privacy/security concerns.
-
microG Push notifications still go through Google's servers just like with Play Services
-
microG uses proprietary Google Binaries for some of its components such as DroidGuard
-
Choosing a network location like Mozilla to use with microG provides little to no privacy benefit over Google because you are still submitting the same data and trusting them to not profile you.
Are they true and how can I circumvent them?
-
- • 99%www.eff.org Federal Appeals Court Finds Geofence Warrants Are “Categorically” Unconstitutional
In a major decision on Friday, the federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that geofence warrants are “categorically prohibited by the Fourth Amendment.” Closely following arguments EFF has made in a number of cases, the court found that geofence warrants constitute the sort of “general,...
Using cheap samsung android phone, ive noticed for the last few years and so have my friends, that whatever we discuss during out signall phonecall, appears very blatantly obvious on my youtube recommended feeds.
I thought Signal was supposed to be private and automatically sandboxed?
If it is, then google clearly bend their own rules and peer into the app.
Does this happen to you? what is the explanation?
PS The Official Signal Reddit sub removed my post thread when I asked this question there.
Im not keen on trying to deGoogle only by purchasing a Google pixel... -_-
Please provide other options with nothing to do with google or microsoft., Such as Fairphone, etc.
As you know(or may not), new CPU's from intel have remote access hardwired, regardless of the OS you are using. I suspect Google outsmarted the GrapheneOS userbase and went one step ahead.
- apnews.com Utility company's proposal to rat out hidden marijuana operations to police raises privacy concerns
A Maine utility wants to be an ally with law enforcement in the crackdown on illegal marijuana grow operations — if it can overcome privacy concerns.
Like when I read 3 Billion National Public Data Records with SSNs, Addresses Dumped Online, am I supposed to access that data dump or something to see if I got pwned? Are there equivalents to haveibeenpwned.com for this type of stuff? Any guides on what to do when these happen? I feel like I'm doomscrolling or watching the news, and feeling depressed about the world as a result because I should be doing something but I can't or it seems like I can't.
Even though I know better than to put such personal info online, but that doesn't eliminate the odds of them getting into breaches like these, and having started to be careful about digital privacy has opened my eyes to the sad state of privacy.
- • 100%www.404media.co Cops Used Facial Recognition on Lost iPhone Lock Screen to Find Post Office Robbers
Two men face felony charges after allegedly losing an iPhone in the snow after a break-in at a post office.
Join the Webinar How to Protect Your Data on the Internet.
I tried looking for lists but didn't find any.
The Work Number is US-specific and where your employers input your salary data for future employers to see. You can opt out here: https://employees.theworknumber.com/employee-data-freeze/.
- • 99%www.hackster.io Matt Brown Digs Deep Into an IP Camera's Firmware — and Finds a Hard-Coded Root Password
The VStarcam CB73 is an attractive-looking compact IP camera, but it comes with some security drawbacks.
One example would be state disability programs, they already need my real name and identity to work with me. Are there any downsides to sharing a simplelogin alias containing my real name vs no containing my real name? I just think it would be easier record keeping for them.
- https:// proton.me /blog/proton-wallet-launch
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/18390499
> For those of you using Proton services to protect your privacy, a new feature is being rolled out which is a self-custody Bitcoin wallet. If you have a proton e-mail address, you can now send and receive Bitcoin automatically. This is in tradition with their long-standing policy of accepting Bitcoin payments for their services. > > A few key points to know: > - You and only you have access to the Bitcoin, it is a self-custody wallet. You are not dependent on proton's cooperation to access your funds and they do not hold onto the funds for you. > - Proton automatically translates e-mail addresses to Bitcoin addresses. This means you can send/receive BTC to/from any Proton user by just knowing their e-mail address > - Proton does not support Bitcoin lightning. This means transactions will take an average of 10 minutes for an average fee of 75c. Hopefully they will add lightning in the future so that can drop to under a second for pennies in fees. Lightning would also enhance privacy > - Note that using Bitcoin is pseudonymous. Using it privately and anonymously requires some effort. > - Proton has also put together a good primer on Bitcoin here. > > from their blog post: > > Early in our journey, we experienced first-hand what it’s like being cut off from the financial system and at the mercy of large banks and institutions — an ordeal that affects millions of people across the globe. In the summer of 2014, as the original Proton Mail crowdfunding campaign was in progress, Proton had a near-death experience when PayPal froze our funds, questioned whether encryption was legal, and whether Proton had government approval to encrypt emails. > > Fortunately, in that instance PayPal returned the blocked funds, and Proton was able to start the journey that we’ve been on for the past decade. However, that dangerous moment has always stayed in our minds, and we still keep a proportion of Proton’s financial reserves in Bitcoin. > > Having experienced firsthand the unreliability of the traditional financial sector, building Proton Wallet is an important strategic move to make Proton more resilient and independent in the future. By enabling us and the entire Proton community to more easily adopt means of payment that deliver on the promise of financial freedom for all, we better insulate Proton from the risks posed by traditional finance.
- https:// www.bedfordindependent.co.uk /live-facial-recognition-at-bedford-river-festival-leads-to-two-arrests/
cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/15132091
> Bedfordshire Police have said just ten arrests were made over the Bedford River Festival this weekend (20/21 July) with Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology responsible...
I just tried changing my email on studentaid.gov to a simplelogin alias (using SL is a habit at this point) and I got notifications that emails from it were bounced while trying to verify the email change with sent codes. I looked it up and found a bunch of Reddit posts about issues with SL and iCloud.
I want to keep a timeline of the places I go like Google Maps can, and export it to mac for my diary*. The maps app doesn't have to be great, it just needs to keep a timeline in the background, I would still use Apple Maps as my main navigation app.
*(ideally I can automatically export it somehow, perhaps with the Shortcuts and Scriptable app but just tell me any apps with a timeline and export feature)
Hiya, just switched to LibreWolf due to Mozilla's recent actions... Just quickly wondering why these two "privacy preferences" are off by default? Are they not worth ticking off? Or is this another "part" of ones fingerprint that makes it more unique?
