According to the complaint, the company contradicted its privacy promises. From 2020-2022, the company allegedly disclosed users’ personal information, including their health information, to numerous third-party advertising platforms via tracking technologies, known as pixels and application programming interfaces (APIs), which Monument integrated into its website. Monument used the information to target ads for its services to both current users who subscribe to the lowest cost memberships and to target new consumers, according to the complaint.

Monument used these pixels and APIs to track “standard” and “custom events,” meaning instances in which consumers interacted with Monument’s website. The FTC says that Monument gave the custom events descriptive titles that revealed details about its users such as “Paid: Weekly Therapy” or “Paid: Med Management,” when a user signed up for a service. Monument disclosed this custom events information to advertising platforms along with users’ email addresses, IP addresses, and other identifiers, which enabled third parties to identify the users and associate the custom events with specific individuals, according to the complaint.

Here's a non-paywalled link to an article published in the Washington Post a few days ago. It's great to see this kind of thing getting some mainstream attention. Young children have not made an informed decision about whether they want their photos posted online.

I have some concerns about this app and I'm asking if it's useful or not, not the app itself but more the 3 protocols included in it. I2P, DNSCrypt and TOR. What is you opinion?

I saw this on infinity for Reddit earlier, I don't know if there's a workaround for this or not.

https://hackers.town/@lori/112255132348604770

Restaurant reservation platform OpenTable says that all reviews on the platform will no longer be fully anonymous starting May 22nd and will now show members' profile pictures and first names.

OpenTable notified members of this new policy change today in emails to members who had previously left a review on the platform, stating the change was made to provide more transparency.

"At OpenTable, we strive to build a community in which diners can help other diners discover new restaurants, and reviews are a big part of that," reads the OpenTable email seen by BleepingComputer.

"We've heard from you, our diners, that trust and transparency are important when looking at reviews."

"To build on the credibility of our review program, starting May 22, 2024, OpenTable will begin displaying diner first names and profile photos on all diner reviews. This update will also apply to past reviews.

When leaving reviews on OpenTable, members specify a "Review display name" that will be shown in the review, allowing feedback to be left anonymously.

Under this new policy change, a member's first name and profile picture will now be displayed in new and past reviews.

• Academics at the University of Pennsylvania analyzed a nationally representative sample of 100 non-federal acute care hospitals – essentially traditional hospitals with emergency departments – and their findings were that 96 percent of their websites transmitted user data to third parties.
• Not all sites had privacy policies and of those that did, only 56% disclosed specific third parties receiving data.
• Google and Meta (through Facebook Pixel) were on nearly every site and received the most data. Adobe, Verizon, Oracle, Microsoft, Amazon also received data.
• Common data shared included IP addresses, browser info, pages visited, referring site.
• Sharing data poses privacy risks for visitors and legal/regulatory risks for hospitals if policies don't comply with laws.
• A class action lawsuit against Mass General Brigham and Dana-Farber resulted in an $18.4M settlement over sharing patient data.
• Researcher calls for hospitals to collaborate with computer science departments to design more private websites. Also recommends privacy tools to block third party tracking.

But in the meantime, and in lieu of any federal data privacy law in the US, protecting personal information falls to the individual. And for that, Friedman recommends browser-based tools Ghostery and Privacy Badger, which identify and block transfers to third-party domains. "It impacts your browsing experience almost none," he explained. "It's free. And you will be shocked at how much tracking is actually happening, and how much data is actually flowing to third parties."

Note: Although Friedman recommends Ghostery and Privacy Badger, uBlock Origin is generally considered a better privacy-enhancing browser extension. Additionally, there exist multiple approaches for adblocking and tracker blocking beyond the browser extension model.

Unfortunately for now there are not usable for me.

• The 100MB storage limit feels ridiculous. ProtonMail offers 500MB basic with 1GB free upgrade, and ProtonDrive starts at 2GB up to 5GB free. It’s unclear why Standard Notes storage isn’t shared like these other Proton products.
• Basic formatting tools like bold and italics are absent on free plan. What makes it different from notes in Proton Pass?
• Jurisdictional troubles. It is not Swiss as Proton or SimpleLogin P.S: Their app looks like PWA (progressive web application) not as standalone app.

Worth noting: the warning originally had a direct mention that the attack was from a surveilling government, but they removed that part after being asked.

Curious about everyone's thoughts on this.

Archive link : https://archive.is/Ql81V

I know the prevailing sentiment for a long time in the privacy community has been "DAE Youtube bad?" though I have always thought that it is kinda overblown. Besides, I am using Firefox which is supposed to isolate tabs so they can't speak to each other, so I felt a small amount safer using Youtube.

You can take my post with a grain of salt since all I have are anecdotes, but can anyone else confirm encountering creepiness similar to my experiences:

-Typing anything in another window that is not my browser, sometimes these words seem like they get picked up by the Youtube suggestion algo and then boom, I get suggested videos based off of those keywords. Recent example, I was copypasting the words "trans" and "talking" over and over for some nerd spreadsheet I am making (read: not transgender purposes) and what do you know, transgender videos about "How to change your voice" start popping up in my feed. Please know I have zero interest in transgender politics/culture/anything, it is not something I have ever searched for or engaged in online. Possible that Youtube is reading my clipboard? Reading my keystrokes?

-Listening to an album via VLC, while Youtube is open in my browser. Suddenly, more tracks from that album start showing up in my suggested feed. Possible Youtube is reading the titles of other apps current open on my machine? (VLC changes its active title to the name of whatever file is currently open)

-Have a Discord channel open in another tab, people there start posting things I am uninterested in and don't click on, but lo and behold, videos related to those things start appearing my feed. Tbh, I am the most jaded about Discord's privacy security because there is probably a direct communications pipeline between the Discord and Youtube where they link accounts to each other, even creating shadow accounts similar to how Facebook does. So while not surprising... still at least a little bit creepy, yes?

edit: let me add a small bit of context. I use Youtube all the time as my personal version of Spotify. Adblock+Youtube still works for me and is very nice. So all of my Youtube video suggestions are always music related. If anything weird shows up in that feed (you know, not music-related stuff) it sticks out to me immediately.

edit2: thanks for the replies, even if you are disagreeing with me. I promise you I am not the person downvoting everyone lol.

**The purpose of this post is not to endorse the use of Reddit (), but rather to inform users of a privacy-friendly approach in case they need to utilize the platform.**

Redlib is a private front-end like Invidious but for Reddit.

• 🚀 Fast: written in Rust for blazing-fast speeds and memory safety
• ☁️ Light: no JavaScript, no ads, no tracking, no bloat
• 🕵 Private: all requests are proxied through the server, including media
• 🔒 Secure: strong Content Security Policy prevents browser requests to Reddit
• Self-hostable

Redlib currently implements most of Reddit's (signed-out) functionalities but still lacks a few features.

Redlib Instances

(If a particular instance doesn't work, try others to see if they work)

Comparison

This section outlines how Redlib compares to Reddit in terms of speed and privacy.

Speed

Last tested on January 12, 2024.

Results from Google PageSpeed Insights (Redlib Report, Reddit Report).

Privacy

Reddit

Logging: According to Reddit's privacy policy, they "may [automatically] log information" including:

• IP address
• User-agent string
• Browser type
• Operating system
• Referral URLs
• Device information (e.g., device IDs)
• Device settings
• Pages visited
• Links clicked
• The requested URL
• Search terms

Location: The same privacy policy goes on to describe that location data may be collected through the use of:

• GPS (consensual)
• Bluetooth (consensual)
• Content associated with a location (consensual)
• Your IP Address

Cookies: Reddit's cookie notice documents the array of cookies used by Reddit including/regarding:

• Authentication
• Functionality
• Analytics and Performance
• Advertising
• Third-Party Cookies
• Third-Party Site

Redlib

Server

• Logging: In production (when running the binary, hosting with docker, or using the official instances), Redlib logs nothing. When debugging (running from source without --release), Redlib logs post IDs fetched to aid with troubleshooting.

• Cookies: Redlib uses optional cookies to store any configured settings in the settings menu. These are not cross-site cookies and the cookies hold no personal data.

Settings and subscriptions are saved in browser cookies. Clearing your cookies will reset them. You can restore your current settings and subscriptions after clearing your cookies using the link given in the settings menu.

[TIP] 🔗 Want to automatically redirect Reddit links to Redlib? Use LibRedirect or Privacy Redirect!

Note: The above text presents an abridged and modified version of information found in the developer's documentation. Some context has been removed or altered for brevity. For the full and unmodified documentation, please see the original source.

Additional Information on Frontends from Privacy Guides

Sometimes services will try to force you to sign up for an account by blocking access to content with annoying popups. They might also break without JavaScript enabled. Frontends can allow you to get around these restrictions.

If you choose to self-host these frontends, it is important that you have other people using your instance as well in order for you to blend in. You should be careful with where and how you are hosting, as other peoples' usage will be linked to your hosting.

When you are using an instance run by someone else, make sure to read the privacy policy of that specific instance. They can be modified by their owners and therefore may not reflect the default policy. Some instances have Tor .onion addresses which may grant some privacy as long as your search queries don't contain PII.

If the owner of the standard notes will now be a proton, doesn't that contradict this principle? I have a proton email account but I don't want it linked to my standard notes account. I don't strongly trust companies that offer packaged services like google or Microsoft. I prefer to have one service from one company. I am afraid that now I will have to change where I save my notes. What do you guys think about this?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14131393

Recently discovered the following two addresses in my DNS-filter, 26.26.26.1 and 26.26.26.2. How can I confirm that these belong to? These are both public-ip addresses but seems to be owned by the US Military?

If I look at https://www.abuseipdb.com/check/26.26.26.2, it says it belongs to:

• ISP: DoD Network Information Center
• Type: Military
• Country: US.

What does this mean? As far as I've researched, its got something to do with Socks protocol? This Github repo I found seems to be using it too, but why is it used? If anyone knows, id very much appreciate your help.

https://github.com/PeterCxy/SocksDroid/blob/master/app/src/main/groovy/net/typeblog/socks/SocksVpnService.groovy

edit1: formatting

edit2: Found an additional GH Repo that use the same IP addresses for something called V2RayVPNService: https://github.com/2dust/v2rayNG/blob/master/V2rayNG/app/src/main/kotlin/com/v2ray/ang/service/V2RayVpnService.kt

edit3: This blogpost explains it quite well. https://blog.erratasec.com/2013/12/dod-address-space-its-not-conspiracy.html

The reason all these address spaces are DoD is because that's really the only source of unused IPv4 addresses left. All IPv4 address ranges have been assigned. But, the DoD has been assigned 20% of the IPv4 address space, but most of it is used within the DoD, on their own private networks, and is not routable to the outside world. Thus, if you are looking for a large chunk of "private" addresses that won't suddenly one day be assigned to Akamai or Amazon (and thus, explode in your face), then DoD addresses are the way to go.

That's not good.

This week the House is set to vote on legislation to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (“FISA 702”), along with a set of amendments. One of these amendments — put forward by House Intelligence Committee leads Mike Turner and Jim Himes — would expand warrantless FISA surveillance dramatically: While falsely billing itself as a minor definitional tweak, in reality the amendment would be the largest expansion of FISA since Section 702 was created in 2008. It could be used to enlist an array of sensitive facilities — such as offices for nonprofits, political campaigns, and news organizations — to serve as hubs for warrantless surveillance.

If you’re in the US, now’s a great time to contact Congress. You can either call the Congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121 or use the House directory to look up your legislators’ contact info.

“Stop the FBI from expanding warrantless surveillance of innocent Americans. OPPOSE the FISA amendment from Reps. Turner and Himes, which would be the largest expansion of FISA since Section 702 was created in 2008. And please oppose any attempt to reauthorize FISA Section 702 that doesn’t include warrant requirements, both for Section 702 data and for our sensitive, personal information sold to the government by data brokers.”

I feel like this may be a bit of a counterintuitive question considering Graphene's privacy features but, is there a way to remote erase or find my phone with GrapheneOS in the event the phone is lost?

Curious how none of the coverage of this launch mention that the app isn't actually open-source (though they pretend to be an open-source project), which makes all of their claims of "end-to-end encryption" worthless

WordPress.com owner Automattic acquires multiservice messaging app Beeper for $125M

By Sarah Perez (@sarahpereztc) 2024-04-09

WordPress.com owner Automattic is acquiring Beeper, the company behind the iMessage-on-Android solution that was referenced by the Department of Justice in its antitrust lawsuit against Apple. The deal, which was for $125 million according to sources close to the matter, is Automattic's second acquisition of a cross-platform messaging solution after buying Texts.com last October.

Image Credits: Beepercaption

That acquisition made Texts.com founder Kishan Bagaria Automattic's new head of Messaging, a role that will now be held by Beeper founder Eric Migicovsky, previously the founder of the Pebble smartwatch and a Y Combinator partner.

Reached for comment, Automattic said it has started the process of onboarding the Beeper team and is "excited about the progress made" so far but couldn't yet share more about its organizational updates, or what Bagaria's new title would be. However, we're told he is staying to work on Beeper as well.

Image Credits: Beepercaption

Beeper and Texts.com's teams of 25 and 15, respectively, will join together to take the best of each company's product and merge it into one platform, according to Migicovsky.

"[Texts.com] built an amazing app that's more desktop-centric and iOS-centric," he said. "So we'll be folding the best parts of those into our app. But going forward, the Beeper brand will apply to all of the messaging efforts at Automattic," he said, adding, "Kishan ... I've known him for years now

there's not too many other people in the world that are doing what we do

and it was great to be able to combine forces with them."

The deal, which closed on April 1, represents a big bet from Automattic: that the future of messaging will be open source and will work across services, instead of being tied up in proprietary platforms, like Meta's WhatsApp or Apple's iMessage. In fact, Migicovsky says, the eventual plan after shifting people to the Beeper cross-platform app for managing their messages is to move them to Beeper's own chat protocol

an open source protocol called Matrix

under the hood.

Image Credits: Beepercaption

Automattic had previously made a strategic investment of $4.6 million), another company building on Matrix, and it contributes annually to Matrix.org.

Matrix, a sort of "spiritual successor" to XMPP, as Migicovsky describes it, offers an open source, end-to-end encrypted client and server communications system, where servers can federate with one another, similar to open source Twitter/X alternative Mastodon. However, instead of focusing on social networking, like Mastodon, it focuses on messaging.

Migicovsky said the acquisition came about because running Beeper costs quite a bit of money and it was either time to raise more funding or find a buyer. To date, Beeper had raised $16 million in outside funding, including an $8 million Series A from Initialized. Other investors include YC, Samsung Next and Liquid2 Ventures, and angels Garry Tan, Kevin Mahaffey and Niv Dror, and the group SV Angel.

"I've known Matt [Mullenweg, Automattic founder and CEO] for years now," Migicovsky said, adding that the WordPress.com founder had shown commitment to open source technology, like Beeper, where about half its product is already open source. "We were looking to find a partner that could financially support this. One of the reasons why there are no other people building this type of app is it costs a surprisingly large amount of money to build a damn good chat app," Migicovsky noted.

As for Beeper's products, the company has now briefed the DOJ on what happened when Apple blocked its newer app, Beeper Mini, which aimed to bring iMessage to Android. That solution is no longer being updated as a result of Apple's moves.

Image Credits: Beepercaption

Beeper on Android launches to all

The company is instead releasing an updated version of its core app, Beeper, on Android. Unlike Beeper Mini, which focuses only on iMessage, the main app connects with 14 services, including Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Instagram DM, LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Discord, Google Messages and others. Android is its biggest platform by users, as 70% are on Google's smartphone OS.

In this rewritten version of Beeper, the company is starting to roll out fully end-to-end encrypted messages across Signal. That will be soon followed by WhatsApp, Messenger and Google Messages.

Because of Apple's restrictions, iMessage only works if you have an iPhone in the mix, Migicovsky says, and will not be a focus for Beeper, given the complications it saw with Apple's shutdown of Beeper Mini. However, Beeper is hopeful regulations could change things, pointing to the DOJ lawsuit and FCC investigation. In the meantime, Beeper supports RCS, which solves iMessage to Android problems like low-res images and videos, lack of typing indicators and encryption.

With the launch out of beta, the new app includes a new icon, updated design, instant chat opens and sends, the ability to add and modify chat networks directly on Android (no desktop app needed), local caching of all chats on the device and full message search.

The 10,000 Android beta testers already on Beeper will need to download the new app manually from Google Play

it won't automatically update.

Image Credits: Beepercaption

In addition, the 466,000 or so people on Beeper's waitlist will now be able to try the product. They'll join over 115,000 users who have already downloaded the app, which is now used by tens of thousands daily. The app runs on Android, iPhone, iPad, ChromeOS, macOS, Windows and Linux.

The team expects to have feature parity across platforms in a matter of months as they overhaul the iOS and desktop apps.

In time, they plan to add other services to Beeper as well, including Google Voice, Snapchat and Microsoft Teams. Beeper also offers a widget API so developers can build on top of Beeper. Plus, since Matrix is an open standard, developers will be able to build alternative clients for Beeper, as well.

The app will generate revenue via a premium subscription, where the final price may be a couple of dollars per month, but pricing decisions haven't yet been fully nailed down. Beeper is currently free to use.

Like Automattic, Beeper's team is remotely distributed, with employees in Brazil, the U.K., Germany and the U.S. At present, Texts.com will continue to operate as the teams begin to integrate the two messaging apps.

My main laptop is dead, so I'm on a potato laptop with a 6th gen Intel i3 processor and 4GB of RAM. I have IceCat installed, but I really don't like the defaults it provides.

Maybe I am in the wrong here, but from the Arkenfox page, I've read that having way too many extension is bad - there's an unbelievable amount of these plugins. IceCat being on the older ESR version is a big no when it comes to security. Last but not the least, I want to create a separate, non-secure profile to use normal pages, but IceCat has hard-coded blocks on several websites.

And that is exactly why I'm looking to move to LibreWolf. But the issue is that there is no pre-built binaries available for my distro. I've waited the entire day for this browser, and I'm tired of having to come back to a frozen desktop, or build fails while waking from sleep.

I'm trying the build once again, and I just wanted to know how long it takes to build, so that I can leave it uninterrupted.

I wish to mention learnings from the coupious time i spend on learning online privacy ,security and anonymity for my b school (MBA) admissions interview. Can I market is as a cybersecurity internship. But Cyber security has a different meaning altogether. I’m pretty much at the advance stage of the privacy journey( read all prominent books, understand techlore and others in the privacy community. Help me structure a pitch around it.

edit: please see comments for more informed insights.

I am currently investigating and reverse engineering free VPNs for a master thesis, and just came across something I thought I'd share. VPN in this case is 1clickvpn.net, not .com!

I'm sharing this as a warning as to never use free vpns! They are most often the opposite of what they promise to be. (by free I do not mean the free versions of premium services). But either way; be careful about your VPN choice, as they have access to a lot of sensitive data. I'm sure most peeps here know of this already, but next time you hear someone using a free vpn, let them know...

This first image/code was sitting inside a file called NetworkModule, with some hella weird external links.

1. addrDOTcx, seems to have been linked to malware? Comes up flagged as malicious a few times on VirusTotal.
2. freevpnDOTzone, seems to be another free possible malicious VPN service, might investigate this one later.
3. bigbrolookDOTcom, seems to longer be a registered domain. But wtf? Was this VPN service linked to p*rn??
   IMAGE HERE; Don't visit these links unless you know what you're doing.

   

Furthermore, there is this interesting find; Now I am no expert coder, frankly quite the amateur. But does the below code really mean what I think it does? ~~Seems like it could be creating a fake connection?~~. This is more-less normal behaviour it seems, considering it is a local address it is probably used for testing purposes or making the app not crash if a connection cant be established. Is used once here;

Stay safe 🌻