I've been reading through Signal's government requests and couldn't find a similar section on Mullvad's website. I'd be curious to read about them if there are any. It would seem unlikely to me that Mullvad has never received any kind of court order for information about a user.

(Please don't downvote just because I need some help.)

I was once a privacy nut. But it's getting so hard nowadays, and there are so many more important problems -- global warming, AI, the inevitable collapse of the current world order... how does privacy improve the world? Please help remind me.

I do approve of privacy, of course. All this protect-the-children flak is bullshit. I just can't remember why I thought it was something worth fighting for and preaching about.

I'll start by stating my threat model is avoiding corporate tracking, profiling, and analytics. For anything beyond that scope I believe tor is ideal.

Correct me if I'm wrong but my understanding is that Newpipe is a frontend to provide an alternative to the awful YouTube app and/or youtube account. However, your IP along with other device information may still be exposed to google servers. Any ideas as to what info beyond IP is sent to google?

Whereas invidious instances act as a proxy in addition to what is offered by Newpipe, but you are trusting your privacy to the instance owner.

My idea for utilizing these services is the following: Newpipe for managing subscription based YouTube viewing. Google would have my IP, but this IP would be a VPN IP address that periodically changes. Much more reliable than invidious and better quality. App is great.

Invidious for random video searches as well as content I may want to be slightly more cautious about associating with.

I'm looking for feedback on this conceptual setup. I've also been considering making a public invidious instance that I can use but hopefully obfuscates my viewing through its usage by others.

Hey guys, it's pretty much the tittle. I've been using Lineage with microg for a year now and despite using the majority of FOSS apps in my routine I still feel like I have to struggle to preserve my privacy and keep Google away from my data. Do you guys feel the same sometimes?

Every time I have to use a banking app is a pain ..I kept changing banks to the ones who I could use with Magisk but every app update breaks my setup and I have to find a workaround or change to another app. I just quit using banking apps and passed them all to the wife.Now even home brokers have been blocking me asking to use a "official android version"

Today even a government app we must use to get access to services and information started complaining about my play store.

I self host a nextcloud service on my old desktop that serves as a server but every now and then the updates crash something. Sharing calendar and notes is too complicated if you don't have a vps or a domain. I keep getting complains from the wife about how come I just don't use google keep and Google drive anymore.

After a year I'm starting to think that maybe my data is not worth the hassle just to keep big tech out of my digital life.. I guess Big Brother wins

What do you say? Am I too lazy or it is unpractical to stay away from big tech?

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.

From what I understand privacy.com does not have a method of ensuring your identity is separate from your card, but IronVest does. Been using IV for a while now, but earlier this year they put their masked cards under construction

Which is kind of a shame because I had online purchases in mind.

Is there any alternative people have found?

Thanks!

"Last month, Mozilla made a quiet change in Firefox that caused some diehard users to revolt..."

The video is not new, but exurb1a summarises how privacy came to be and what privacy is for in a very entertaining way imo

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18385943

I'm on MacOS and typically use Safari as my main browser. I have several other browsers installed on my computer which I use for different things or just to try out from time to time. Orion is one I haven't tried in a while.

I've launched Orion and found that when I previously used it I saved some tabs - one of them being Ebay. I am not signed into my Ebay account in Orion but when I open this tab I'm seeing "Your Recently Viewed Items" and it's very much showing me the items I viewed in Safari just moments earlier.

Orion promotes itself as a privacy focused web browser.

Privacy by design, like no other browser.
Orion has been engineered from ground up as a truly privacy-respecting browser. We did it by embracing a simple principle - Orion is a zero telemetry browser. Your private information will never leave Orion by default.
And to protect your privacy on the web, Orion comes with industry-leading anti-tracking technology as well as a powerful built-in ad-blocker.

How does one browser know what the other browser is doing regardless if I'm, signed into my account on a particular website?

Not sure how long this has been a thing but I was surprised to see that you cannot view the content without either agreeing to all or paying to reject.

Despite the massive breach where we found out that notes (where lots of people stored previous passwords) were not stored encrypted by Lastpass, I have stuck with them for years because its hard to switch services.

Recently I realized that both my wife and I were paying for 2 separate password manager services and we need to consolidate down to one.

Staying with LastPass and moving to a family account would only cost $4/m which is still 1/2 what we were paying combined.

Is there another manager that offers Apple, Android, and Browser based applications/plugins? Ideally also with an authentication app, though I can swap to any authentication if I need to so its just a nice to have.

Genuine question as I'm having a dilemma.

I've seen many of my friends using Chrome without any ad blockers. Most of them don't even know that there are things called extensions that can be installed. Whenever I use their laptops, I want to throw them away. I want to tell them about extensions and ad blockers.

But as much as we hate ads, they fuel the internet. Without them, the internet wouldn't be what it is today. If ad blocker users increase, there would be a massive change in the web, and everything may be paywalled.

So should we gatekeep ad blockers and enjoy an ad-free internet as a minority? It's not like they know what they're missing.

I advocate for FOSS, though. I will tell my friends to try Linux and dual-boot it, and suggest alternatives.

Last year I did a major fuckup and bought a .us domain without noticing that they don't support WhoIs privacy, so my name number and address became part of the public WhoIs database scrapes. Since then my spam texts and calls have vastly multiplied. I'm realistic about the fact that the damage is done and it'll always exist out there, but I would happily pay some money to a service that sends takedown requests for the data in the public databases like LexisNexis etc. to lessen the damage. Do you know of any services that do this somewhat reliably? Or even a guide or something about doing this manually?

My first request was around June. My second request, followed by an addition support ticket was at the end of July. In both these situations, I've been left without any response - no "hi"s, no re-assurances, nothing.

Unfortunately, I am not from the EU region, neither do I live in one, but given how this also affects the citizens of countries under EU, how should I proceed further? Is there a webpage online, where I can just file them? Or is it only possible through the local DPA/court?

I recently acquired a pixel phone and set up gos. Prior to trying gos I was using an iPhone hardened as much as possible based off of recommendations and guides from respected OSINT experts.

It’s only been a week but I’ve found gos extremely frustrating and mostly useless except for web browsing.

I can’t seem to get my Yubikey to work so my 2FA is borked. Works fine on my iPhone.

I’ve previously managed to degoogle my life but now certain apps require me to use sandboxed google apps just to run.

I’m facing the nearly insurmountable task of convincing my friends, family, and colleagues to download and use signal when they are all using encrypted iMessage.

Most of my banking apps just simply do not work. Mobile banking is unfortunately something important that I need in my occupation. A part of the appeal of gos was being able to have an isolated dedicated profile for banking.

There’s also a few features that I’m assuming are iPhone exclusive that it really sucks to have without. Double tapping the bottom of the screen to shift everything down so you can reach the top of the screen with your finger when using one hand. Holding down on the space bar to move the text cursor between characters. Maybe these exist on gos though?

I understand most of the issues lay on the shoulders of the app developers. I’m grateful for the devs for creating and working on this project. I’m not bashing anyone here. I’m simply asking for some guidance on how I can break through the hurdles and make this work for me, from the mouth of those who were once in my position.

"WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge on Monday ruled that Google’s ubiquitous search engine has been illegally exploiting its dominance to squash competition and stifle innovation in a seismic decision that could shake up the internet and hobble one of the world’s best-known companies..."

I am a firm believer that there are many privacy techniques you should focus on before encrypted messaging because they will offer you much more “bang for your buck,” things like good passwords, two-factor authentication, and even encrypted email. That said, I still believe that encrypted messaging is a critical part of a well-rounded privacy and security strategy. While the vast majority of our day-to-day conversations may be benign, it can still offer a lot of insight into who we are as people – our routines, likes, and personal thoughts. This information – mundane or not – is worth protecting.

There are many corrupt people in the government, both elected politicians and unelected officials. Many are p#do***les, other launder money, some rig elections, while others surveil and harass innocent people.

To protect our Parliament, and Constitution, all these politicians and their families should come under public scrutiny. All their financial records, their communications, their online search histories, should be in the public domain.

In other words, we need parity of privacy between the State and its People.

This sounds hair-brained and extreme, but the public is already under intensive surveillance. I think experience needs to be felt by the officials as well so they finally begin to value the fundamental right to privacy.

So I came across this Browser, it's Firefox based, has some useful features and disable the telemetry by default. The privacy policy seems good to. It is still in alpha but I was curious if anybody knows anything about the project that would speak against it privacy wise?

I wanted to get others' takes but it seems like the only real way to get a non-spying car is to get an older car without any sort of telemetrics. I saw a video about different car companies' security policies, well specifically the new Mental Outlaw video, and it just blew me away how even our cars aren't safe. Anyone got tips for how to anonymize their car?

I was looking to buy a TV for my living room, but many people say that smart TVs are a privacy nightmare. I thought maybe I could buy a smart TV, disconnect it from the internet and plug in a raspberry pi or something. But I really don't want to control it with a mouse and keyboard. 😵

So do any of you know of any good privacy friendly TV setups? Or know which brands are the least privacy invasive? Thanks ☺️

repeated media reports of Google’s disregard for the privacy of the general public led to a push for open source, community driven alternatives to Google Maps. The biggest contender, now used by Google’s direct competitors and open source projects alike is OpenStreetMap.

1. OsmAnd

OsmAnd is a fantastic choice when searching for an alternative to Google Maps. It is available on both Android and iOS devices with both free and paid subscription options. Free accounts have full access to maps and navigation features, but choosing a paid subscription will allow you unlimited map downloads and increases the frequency of updates.

All subscriptions can take advantage of turn-by-turn navigation, route planning, map markers, and all the favorite features you expect from a map and navigation app in 2024. By making the jump to a paid subscription you get some extra features like topo maps, nautical depths, and even point-of-interest data imported from Wikipedia.

2. Organic Maps

Organic Maps is a great choice primarily because they offer support for all features of their iOS and Android apps completely offline. This means if you have an old phone laying around, you can install the app, download the maps you need and presto! You now have an indepth digital map in the palm of your hand without needing to worry about losing or damaging your primary mobile device when exploring the outdoors.

Organic Maps tugs our heartstrings by their commitment to privacy. The app can run entirely without a network connection and comes with no ads, tracking, data collection, and best of all no registration.

3. Locus Maps

Our third, and last recommendation today is Locus Maps. Locus Maps is built by outdoor enthusiasts for the same community. Hiking, biking, and geocaching are all mainstays of the Locus App, alongside standard street map navigation as well.

Locus is available in its complete version for Android, and an early version is available for iOS which is continuing to be worked on. Locus Maps offers navigation, tracking and routes, and also information on points-of-interest you might visit or stumble upon during your adventures.