I don't think people on this sub use it, but it's great news for us. The worse it gets the likelier people move on.

I'm concerned about the privacy implications of DNA testing services like 23andMe or AncestryDNA. What are the potential risks of sharing our genetic data with those companies, and are there any privacy-focused alternatives available?

I am trying to re-adjust how much effort I want to put into privacy concerns. Too much stuff I'm using isn't working properly or using a lot of my mental resources that I need elsewhere.

For (a bad) example: I recently performed a half-switch from my self-hosted Nextcloud instance to ProtonDrive, in the hope that it would spare me the stress to maintain my private Nextcloud. Unfortunately, it doesn't, as basic functionality like cross-device-sync is not possible (there isn't even a client app for Linux, as of yet).

This brings me to the question: have you found any services/apps/stuff that significantly eases your life while still being privacy friendly? I know, this is a broad question, but I think this is for the best as this thread then maybe even has use for other users.

Edit: got told by the kind folks in the community that this is expected and the sentence "can access position while in background" actually just means: will ask you for the permission to access the position from the background but only does so, if you allow it" - that's what I figured, but now im sure. Thanks for the clarification everyone!

Hey guys n gurls,

I recently learned about exodus, and installed it to check my apps. While exodus shows some apps (like bike computer for reference) are allowed to track my position (quite logically).

The strange thing: in system settings it says seeing position is not allowed.

Does this mean that the app wants those permissions but I don't granted them? Or are my system settings bricked? Is this because of lineage? Is this expected?

Would greatly appreciate someone who understands this a little bit more to explain :)

P.S: Is (the tracker part of) exodus even useful when i already use neo store which shows known tracker? Is this maybe even the same database?

I believe that the only two privacy extensions you really need to meet 90% of your privacy goals are uBlock origin + NoScript

uBlock origin is effective because it stops the injection of ads which might contain and inject code. NoScript forces you to look at which scripts you really need for the website to function. Say you visit a trusted site, like your lemmy instance, then you can enable running of javascript by default the next time you visit the site. You'll be surprised how functional some sites are even without javascript. I did not like the idea of browsers having Javascript: it's remote code execution and if there's anything malicious in there and your browser is not patched against it you're fucked. This way yeah it'll be annoying when you first visit a site but it remembers your settings for the next time you visit.

When I was configuring my searxng I noticed a search engine that piqued my interest. Link: yep.com

From their about page:

Here's how it works.

We offer an unbiased, private search experience that rewards and compensates the makers behind the content. To do this, we use a 90/10 revenue share business model where we pay 90% of advertising revenue directly to these makers.

Simply put, when you use Yep, you’re directly putting money in the pockets of your favorite content creators.

Say I purchase a laptop from Amazon/Walmart/any big box store. I assume they note down the unique identifier for the device and link it to the purchase, which has my credit card information.

How would Ebay do this? I'm curious about the extent of information that the marketplace giants have of consumers purchasing electronics from them. Cheap Chinese gizmos might not have unique identifiers but a Dell Laptop certainly has a few.

I'm sure some here can imagine the technical reason for the question. Have a good day ahead!

For the last month I've been working on a modern, material you interface for Invidious.

Github (Leave a star if you want)

Hosted instance

Features

• Sponsorblock built-in.
• Return YouTube dislikes built-in.
• Video progress tracking & resuming.
• No ads.
• No tracking.
• Light/Dark themes.
• Custom colour themes.
• Integrates with Invidious subscriptions, watch history & more.
• Live stream support.
• Dash support.
• Chapters.
• Audio only mode.
• Playlists.
• PWA support.

Cloud storage has become ubiquitous in modern society. The most widely-used example, I think, is the one that comes prebundled with our p...

By clicking on a chat link inside Telegram app it redirects me to my default browser (everything fine here). The thing is when the browser opens it logins to my telegram account automatically, why is this happening?

I have TFA and it doesn't ask me for that, there are no devices connected but when opening the browser it logins automatically, even in incognito with no cookies. Does someone know what is happening?

Hi there, So just watched latest video of Jim Browning and in the video he had a sponsor I had not heard about before, Guard.io. So I went to check it out, and it seems like a fairly decent service (by that I mean, a service I would put on family members devices) for helping against possible phishing attempt and general safeguarding online activity etc.. I currently have installed Ublock Origin in their browsers and pointed their DNS to base.dns.mullvad.net, but that's about it.

So:

• Anyone had any experience with this service?
• What's the general consensus around this service?
• Is it necessary, compared to the measures I mentioned above?
• Are there any other general measure I could implement on their devices? (they are on both apple and Android ecosystems)

Thanks for any suggestions 🌻

What's everyone's opinion on a VPN provider? I've used Nord for a long time, but my subscription is up next month and I'm exploring my options. I use a vpn 24/7 on my laptop and most of the time on my phone as does much of the family.

Requirements:

1. Support for family plan/multiple devices
2. Apple Ecosystem - macOS/iOS clients (Linux nice to have)
3. Fast enough to always be running on the device
4. Easy to switch between servers and countries
5. Not on a lot of deny lists

I did a couple searches here and was surprised I didn’t come across this question before. I hope it’s not asked too often!

E: Currently leaning towards Proton

Hello! I am currently attempting to install LineageOS on my OnePlus 9 to start degoogling it.

The installation guide specified that I specifically need to be on Android 13 to install it, however I am currently running OxygenOS 14 with Android 14. Previous versions have had Open Beta threads for new OxygenOS versions which provided local rollback packages but I can't seem to find this for 14 to 13 for the life of me.

Has anyone else had this issue? How did you solve it? Any help is appreciated!

I'm considering implementing SELinux in my Debian setup, but I've read that it was initially developed by the NSA.

Can anyone shed any light on this? Has SELinux been audited? When and by whom? Does the NSA still have anything to do with SELinux, or is this a "US Navy creating Tor" sort of scenario?

At this point, I'm not even going to bother trying to go on there anymore.

TL;DR there was a backdoor found in the XZ program. All major distros have been updated but it is recommended that you do a fresh install on systems that are exposed to the internet and that had the bad version of the program. Only upstream distros were affected.

Within minutes of walking through an Israeli military checkpoint along Gaza’s central highway on Nov. 19, the Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha was asked to step out of the crowd. He put down his 3-year-old son, whom he was carrying, and sat in front of a military jeep.

Half an hour later, Mr. Abu Toha heard his name called. Then he was blindfolded and led away for interrogation.

Hi everyone :)

For those interested, I share my just finished personal Firefox user.js. It's based on the latest arkenfox and has the same privacy features, with some personal tweaks to fit my workflow. And also easier to read 😅.

https://github.com/KalyaSc/fictional-sniffle/blob/main/user.js

KEEP IN MIND

Except for the privacy focused entries, some are personal choices for an easy drop-in Firefox preferences backup. This is what I consider a good privacy model and some entries could break YOUR workflow, especially if you don't have self-hosted alternatives (Vaultwarden, Linkding, Wallabag).

I'm not an expert, but most of those entries are the same as Arkenfox's user.js. I really encourage you to read their file for better understanding on what each entrie does. While my file is easier to read, one downside is the lack of documentation for each entries.

Also, this is not just a COPY/PAST. It took a lot of effort, time, reading, testing and understanding. I kept a similar naming scheme for cross referencing.

I learned a few things and hope that you also will enjoy, edit, read and learn new interesting things.

Happy hardening !

Features

• Automatic dark mode theme (Keep in mind you still need Dark Reader or similar plugin for web pages in dark mode.)
• Deep clean history on every Firefox quit. Only cookies as exception are kept. I need them for my self hosted services.
• Disable password/auto-fill/breache. Vaultwarden takes care of everything.
• All telemetry disabled by default except for the crash reports. To also disable the crash reports, comment the begining of the following lines with //:

user_pref("breakpad.reportURL", "");
user_pref("browser.tabs.crashReporting.sendReport", false);
user_pref("browser.crashReports.unsubmittedCheck.enabled", false);
user_pref("browser.crashReports.unsubmittedCheck.autoSubmit2", false);

• DoH disabled (got my personal VPN with DoH enabled)

user_pref("network.trr.mode", 5);

• Disable WebRTC. If you need it for video calling, meetings, video chats:

Comment the following line:

user_pref("media.peerconnection.enabled", false);

Uncomment the following (arkenfox default, it will force WebRTC inside your configured proxy)

//user_pref("media.peerconnection.ice.default_address_only", true);
//user_pref("media.peerconnection.ice.proxy_only_if_behind_proxy", true);

• FIxed Width and Height (1600x900) (Finger print resistant) arkenfox's default
• Resist Fingerprinting (RFP) which overrides finger print protection (FPP)
• Alot of other tweaks you can discover while reading through the file.

How to use/test this file ?

Open firefox, type about:profiles and create a test profile. Open the corresponding root folder, put in the user.js and launch profile in a new browser.

After testing and happy with the result, BACKUP your main Firefox profile somewhere safe and put the user.js in your main profile to see if it fits your workflow.

Room for improvement / TODO.

Alot of the settings in the 5000 range form arkenfox's user.js need further testing and investigation, because they could breake and cause performance/stability issues.

• JS exploits:

- javascript.options.baselinejit
- javascript.options.ion
- javascript.options.wasm
- javascript.options.asmjs

• Disable webAssembly
• ...

TODO

• Disable non-modern cipher suites
• Control TLS versions
• Disable SSL session IDs [FF36+]

Also those settings are another beast that needs further testing/investigation on how they work.

The user.js file

https://github.com/KalyaSc/fictional-sniffle/blob/main/user.js

WARNING

Arkenfox advise agianst addons who scramble and randomize your fingerprint characteristics (like chameleon).

WHY? Because resist fingerprint takes care of most things. See 4500: RFP (resistFingerprinting) in arkenfox user.js.

[WARNING] DO NOT USE extensions to alter RFP protected metrics

    418986 - limit window.screen & CSS media queries (FF41)
   1281949 - spoof screen orientation (FF50)
   1330890 - spoof timezone as UTC0 (FF55)
   1360039 - spoof navigator.hardwareConcurrency as 2 (FF55)
 FF56
   1333651 - spoof User Agent & Navigator API
      version: android version spoofed as ESR (FF119 or lower)
      OS: JS spoofed as Windows 10, OS 10.15, Android 10, or Linux | HTTP Headers spoofed as Windows or Android
   1369319 - disable device sensor API
   1369357 - disable site specific zoom
   1337161 - hide gamepads from content
....

Very long list !

Final words

I'm open for any constructive criticism or any constructive comment that could help me out to improve or understand something new or something I misunderstood. Sure that's not 100% my work, but as I said it took a lot of time, testing, searching, reading... Please don't be a crazy Panda...

Credits

https://github.com/arkenfox/user.js

https://github.com/pyllyukko/user.js/

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Firefox/Privacy

I'm running the latest GrapheneOS with no VPN and yesterday it was failing and saying "if you're using one, try disconnecting from proxy/VPN" and today it's saying server not found. This happens regardless whether I click on Anonymous, or Anonymous (insecure).

Is anyone else having this issue? I have another phone without Graphene on the same network and it's working fine.

Edit: via @rottenwheel@monero.town

Rahul Patel:

Quick update:

• We had to get new VPS for Aurora.
• Server was up all night but due to change in location accounts were not able to generate auth sessions.
• Working on it! We'll be back soon.

Happy Friday ❤️

Source: https://t.me/AuroraSupport/390621

Today most Invidious instances are experiencing very harsh ip address rate limiting, it is becoming very very hard to watch yt videos through

cross-posted from: https://covert.nexus/post/27235

The FTC released a staff report in 2021 analyzing the privacy practices of six major U.S. Internet Service Providers. The report found that these ISPs collect as much, if not more, data on their customers' browsing habits than popular advertisers like Google and Facebook. Additionally, some of these ISPs either operate their own advertising businesses or sell the data to third parties, such as the NSA.