Privacy

31650 readers
351 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Related communities

Chat rooms

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
901
 
 

in 2018, Facebook told Vox that it doesn't use private messages for ad targeting. But a few months later, The New York Times, citing "hundreds of pages of Facebook documents," reported that Facebook "gave Netflix and Spotify the ability to read Facebook users’ private messages."

Surprising? No. Appalling? Yes.

902
903
 
 

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/4108287

ACTUALLY! Android is more private than the iPhone! (Disclaimer: The YouTuber is anti-China, but his analysis on Apple is very good)

904
905
 
 

This is the problem with using VPN services in general, you have to have complete trust in the service provider.

906
 
 

Due to work I need to use Microsoft outlook mail on a daily basis. What I would like to know is the privacy and security concerns of various options:

  1. Login and use outlook on a browser for general purposes
  2. Use a tailered third party client from flatpak such as https://flathub.org/en-GB/apps/io.github.mahmoudbahaa.outlook_for_linux
  3. Use thunderbird
  4. Any other possibilities
907
 
 

(In the case that someone in Lemmy still use Google)

908
 
 

My son was just born, and while a few photos will go on the likes of Facebook and Instagram, overall my partner and I are wanting to keep our shared photos private from the EULA abuses that we all know and hate.

Does anyone here have any good suggestions? I would create my own front end, but I can't swing hosting or a static IP to do it from my local box. Are there any companies out there who aren't total shit bags who claim immediate irrevocable license to all of my photos to do with whatever the fuck they please?

909
 
 

A client of mine is getting harassed, we think by her former attorney who she's suing for embezzlement.

Someone is posting fake resumes for her and applying for jobs and she gets daily emails and call backs. Is there anything to do short of either ignoring it or playing whack-a-mole?

She's a very sweet old lady who is freaked out by this and doesn't deserve it.

910
911
 
 

cross-posted from: https://covert.nexus/post/20450

Summary:

Federal investigators have requested Google to provide information on all users who watched specific YouTube videos within a certain timeframe, sparking privacy concerns from civil rights groups. The videos had collectively been watched over 30,000 times.

The case involves undercover agents sending tutorial links for mapping via drones and augmented reality software to an individual, “elonmuskwhm,” who is suspected of violating money laundering laws and unlicensed money transmitting.

Court orders obtained by Forbes show that the government instructed Google to disclose user data, including names, addresses, telephone numbers, account activity for Google account holders, and IP addresses for non-account holders who watched the videos. The government argues that this data collection was relevant to their criminal investigation.

912
 
 

Telegram is giving away FREE Premium subscriptions! All they need from you is to use your cell phone as a relay to text out their OTP codes! And the recipient of the OTP sees your phone number! What could POSSIBLY go wrong with this deal?

PLEASE don't use Telegram! I personally recommend Matrix as it's totally FOSS, you can self host, there are tons of front end clients to choose from. Or even use Signal. I have my own issues with Signal, the fact they don't allow third party clients, you can't self-host, they have a proprietary shim in their stack that only they know what it does, they were pushing crypto, etc, but at least Signal is better than this garbage.

913
 
 

Link is in French: a dataleak on 200 million accounts on X.

914
 
 

This link is in French but as a summary: technical report shows that M365 Word and PPT contents leak to US servers (augloop.office.com) as soon as you open a document on a local installation of Powerpoint or Word, unbeknownst to users.

This is potentially huge!

915
 
 

Finally deleted my LinkedIn account!

After putting my account into "hibernation" for the past few weeks, I finally closed it. But I'm still looking for work. Thankfully I can still find positions (SRE and software dev) by just going directly to the company's site and finding a Jobs page.

Good luck to everyone else out there looking for work!

#privacy @privacy

916
38
submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by Pantherina@feddit.de to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
 
 

If the link preview above displays an ad, ignore it.

Article

917
108
submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by Norgur@fedia.io to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
 
 

Hey there,

I've been using Firefox for ages now, and I was completely satisfied with it... until very recently, that is. For space-saving reasons, I started to convert my media library to H265, since all devices in my network support it now. Or so I thought. One very noticeable omission is my desktop PC with Firefox. Now, if I watch something from my local media server, the server has to waste resources to convert to H264, which is a noticeable performance hit to all other things running on the server. The GPU in my Desktop PC (or the CPU for that matter) could have displayed H265 without even changing clock speed from idle. So I tried to use the native Plex App for Windows for that, but that one does not support RTX Super Resolution which was really nice when watching old DVD stuff.

From what I can see, to get both, I need a Chromium browser. Since I would rather not have two browsers open all the time: Is there any browser based on the latest Chromium Builds that is not a massive insult to one's privacy?

solution:

Firefo does support H265. It didn't for a very long time so most posts online talk about how it has no support and that it ain't planned. Yet, it has gotten support in the meantime.

change

media.wmf.hevc.enabled

To 1 in about:config, restart browser, done.

Thanks, mate

918
 
 

I'm looking into getting an extra backup solution for my laptop, and a backup solution for my NAS/media server. Currently, my laptop backs up to my local NAS, and Proton Drive, while my server has no additional backup.

Is using something like Backblaze B2 actually private and secure, especially if I use the personal encryption key I can set? Or is there another online service that may be better and more private?

919
 
 

I've been warming up to switching to GrapheneOS for months. Last month I bought a Pixel 8 (which is the buggiest effing phone I've ever owned, good job Google). I've just been waiting to have the bandwidth.

But with Google sunsetting Google Podcasts, I've decided to make time next week. Podcasts are a MAJOR part of my daily functioning.

920
45
Archive(.)is problems (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by Cheradenine@sh.itjust.works to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
 
 

I use Orbot, and every browser I have tried, Firefox and forks, Chromium, Webviews, these links give me a captcha that cannot be completed.

Does anyone else have this issue?

Please link to source in posts and UnTrackMe/UrlCheck/Leon will re-direct. I appreciate that posters give archive links but I cannot read them.

(Edit, word)

921
 
 

VideoLAN @videolan App Stores were a mistake. Currently, we cannot update VLC on Windows Store, and we cannot update VLC on Android Play Store, without reducing security or dropping a lot of users... For now, iOS App Store still allows us to ship for iOS9, but until when?

922
107
submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by EpicGamer@lemmy.world to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
 
 

I tested out revolt and element. Out of the two element seems to be the most well rounded. What do you people use to replace discord to protect your privacy?

923
924
 
 

This has happened a few times, but it was always related to the use of VPNs because the app is not available in the country of the server, but now, even if I disable the VPN, change the spoofing model of the smartphone, open from a direct link from the Play store (in which the app page opens, however, with almost no information, such as version, permissions, size and so on, and the download doesn't start. Is in the attached image), uninstall and reinstall, it doesn't appear.

Suddenly, the aurora store of my work profile appeared the apps and the user profile specifically for banking apps, no.

I checked the settings of each one and they are exactly the same.

I really don't know what the problem is.

Nothing seems to work.

Can anyone help me?

925
 
 

My questions are:

  • Does the DuckDuckGo Firefox extension "Privacy Essentials" add a local css file to every visited site?
  • Can others reproduce this?
  • Is this harmfull or not?

Background:

I have a simple static one page site with just one html and css file. It's completely tracker free. Debugging it a bit with developer mode (F12) on I discovered a second css file. This file isnt on my webserver but added local. To pinpoint what caused this I removed every add-on / extension in my browser one by one, reloading and checking my website every time. Took me a while because didnt expect this one causing it.

To reproduce:

  • Install the extension from the link.
  • Open a random site
  • Check in developer mode the tab Style editor.
  • Scroll and look for a file named %3Ais(%5Bid*%3D'google_ads_iframe'%5D%.css or something like that.
  • Remove the extension and refresh.
  • Check if the file disappears.

Content of the css file: :is([id*='google_ads_iframe'], [id*='taboola-'], .taboolaHeight, .taboola-placeholder, #credential_picker_container, #credentials-picker-container, #credential_picker_iframe, [id*='google-one-tap-iframe'], #google-one-tap-popup-container, .google-one-tap-modal-div, #amp_floatingAdDiv, #ez-content-blocker-container) { display:none!important; min-height:0!important; height:0!important; }

Edit 25-03-2024: Changed title to not give the wrong impression. See comments below.

view more: ‹ prev next ›