I'd love to keep using this while I still use a browser other than Qutebrowser, but has the development moved somewhere or is the project just dead?

Many businesses, non-profits, and local government offices where I live use Facebook as their primary, or exclusive, online presence. I don't want to make a Facebook account, but I would like to be able to see some of the content that is posted there; are there any alternative front-ends that won't abuse me with trackers? So far I've only been able to find dead-links that are years old.

e.g. For Reddit there is teddit and libreddit, For youtube there is invidious, twitter has nitter, etc.

Nice try feds.

NYPost I know, but looks like this is real

I have a Pixel 4 XL and today I noticed that every so often when I unlock my phone it will open to some scammy chrome tab. I use Firefox most of the time so I don't know where this malware came from. I've tried deleting history/cookies and it hasn't worked. I can't delete chrome because you can't do that on Pixel devices. Anybody have any advice other than doing a factory reset?

Hello Lemmy!

I recently discovered the "Request my data" function of Discord. Now that I have the data Discord knows about me.

I would like to make an experiment that could be used to explain how metadata can say a lot about people.

The problem is, I never done that :grinning face with sweat: so I would like to know how I could get everything I can, only from the metadata contained in the package.

I know it's possible, according to the length of calls, the umber of messages, etc, to guess what kind of relation a user have with another, but I don't know how to do that.

This is a description of the data package: https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/360004957991

Can you help me to know what are the information I can determine about myself using this package (only the metadata, or it's not fair :p)

Thanks in advance!

~Snow

Aside from the main privacy issue, it's also stupid that this can be patented.

Mirror: https://web.archive.org/web/20210128052335/https://www.apple.com/privacy/docs/A_Day_in_the_Life_of_Your_Data.pdf

I don't really like Apple nor do I use their products, but this is good work in raising awareness of corporate privacy violations

Intent being to find bugs in hotels, bed and breakfasts etc.

Serious question, why do we give so much power to these tech firms such as Google, when really the solution is decentralization. We have some solutions for money with bitcoin, but there still doesn't seem to be a viable alternative with a search engine that is decentralized?

Yesterday, the "Polish response to Facebook" was launched by government media owner Tomasz Sakiewicz - Albicla or "All Be Clear".

Making the portal was not the pinnacle of professionalism, few key points:

• The terms of the portal are copy-pasted facebook regulations within its fb hyperlinks

• You can download the entire user base, because it is not protected in any way (a request was sent to the Personal Data Protection Office, but most probably nothing will be done due the fact the office is led by government representative)

• If you want to post on the wall to a "stranger", you can click rmb -> inspect element on the "publish" button (on your profile). Then you look for "input" in html which will open for you and change "Value" to the id of the person whose profile you want to write something on.

• User password has no character limit, someone pasted the entire content of Pan Tadeusz (Master Thaddeus) polish poem as a password

• Half the users are popes (its national treasure to post John Paul II memes everywhere)

• The other half are fake accounts of government party activists, Trump and other famous figures,

• Someone created an account called "login", after clicking on his profile, you just log out

• Someone else called himself "delete_account", after clicking on his profile, you can delete your account (and currently it's probably the only working method of deleting an account),

• A lot of pedophile content passed through the night

• barely some managed to receive an activation e-mail, the portal itself crashed after a few hours of operation

• Others do not have a problem with it, apparently someone has already set up 500k multi accounts (even after a ban, you can register from the same email)

• It seems possible to create an account without a name, without an email and without a password. In the source of the page, remove the required attribute from the input fields.

• Sakiewicz is proud of his portal popularity

Poles literally trolled Albicla. No surprise tho, the majority of young people hate government and its tricks.

I'm trying to get rid of my Google dependency and one of those steps was moving over to Protonmail. Now in the past few days i have been picking up signals that even Protonmail is not as clean as it might be.

Does this really impact the privacy of how i use email and so is moving to Protonmail a step forward from Google, or is Protonmail just as bad?

If so, what could be alternatives?

edit:

Some of the alternatives being mentioned in the comments are:

Email:

• Tutanota
• CTemplar
• Disroot
• Riseup Email

VPN:

• Mullvad
• Riseup VPN

edit 2 (2023):

There seems to be some new activity around this post. At the time of writing the post (2 years ago) there were some stories going as user @UnfortunateShort described in their comment. This made me question the best options available at that moment. Currently i am still a Proton user, using their Mail and Calendar service, and Mullvad for VPN.

Molly is a hardened version of the official Signal for Android app. It claims the following features,

• Protects database with passphrase encryption
• Locks down the app automatically after you go a certain time without unlocking your device
• Securely shreds sensitive data from RAM
• Allows you to delete contacts and stop sharing your profile
• Clears call notifications together with expiring messages
• Disables debug logs
• No SMS integration

There are two flavors of it,

• Molly - Similar to the official Signal app, plus the additional features
• Molly-FOSS - Doesn't rely on any Google components for location, push notifications & face blurring, plus all the additional features

Download it from here.

I've been using it for a couple of days & it is pretty decent so far.

Anyone here already tried or are using it? How's the experience so far?

Unfortunately, almost all the group projects at my university require Google Docs, so I have to use it to complete assignments. Is it possible to use Google Docs without using Google's own client?

They may be sponsored by the US Government, or by cryptographers with ties to the government.

https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-crypto-keepers-levine

It's a long read, but it's quite good. Here's a snippet to whet your palate where he describes some of the prominent people behind these projects:

At least that’s how they saw themselves. My reporting revealed a different reality. As I found out by digging through financial records and FOIA requests, many of these self-styled online radicals were actually military contractors, drawing salaries with benefits from the very same U.S. national security state they claimed to be fighting. Their spunky crypto-tech also turned out, on closer inspection, to be a jury-rigged and porous Potemkin Village version of secure digital communications. What’s more, the relevant software here was itself financed by the U.S. government: millions of dollars a year flowing to crypto radicals from the Pentagon, the State Department, and organizations spun off from the CIA.

For context: I have become very interested in the debate amongst app users such as Telegram, Signal, Threema, etc... and I know that many people claim that Signal is the very best amongst all of them but there's something really sketchy about its location (US based) and the fact that the government can for anyone to comply with their orders and forbid them from telling anyone about it via gag orders (see Durov's comments on this: https://t.me/durov/59).

Both are fascinating reads, and certainly help me appreciate platforms like Telegram and Threema even more. Regarding Threema, today they posted a comparison between their app and the competition, and found this interesting tidbit regarding Signal:

https://threema.ch/en/blog/posts/messenger-comparison-2021

Signal enjoys an outstanding reputation among experts, and it’s certainly a good alternative to WhatsApp. However, just like WhatsApp, it requires users to disclose personally identifiable information: Providing a phone number is mandatory. As a US company, Signal is also subject to the CLOUD Act, which entitles US authorities to access data from IT service providers that are based in the US.

Also: I just learned that FB spends millions of dollars every year on marketing and trying to influence people to not use platforms such as telegram.

Accelerate to the future. Privacy is fundamental.

Keyboards are probably one of the most sensitive apps on our phones, having access and handling practically everything we type. I've stopped using keyboards that require network access and started using only opensource apps a few years ago. What are your favorite, privacy-respecting android keyboards?

So far, I've found these alternatives:

• AnySoftKeyboard. I've used ASK for years and I've always been very happy with it. Probably the autocorrect could use some improvement. It's definitely the most mature opensource keyboard out there, with the most features and configurations
• OpenBoard. The one I'm using right now. Easy and fast to configure, quite good auto-correct
• FlorisBoard. Haven't had the time to try it out extensively so I don't have any opinion about it
• SimpleKeyboard. It offers the bare minimum one could ask from a keyboard but sometimes you don't actually need more than that
• AOSP keyboard and LineageOS' fork, that is, the keyboards that come with some ROMs out of the box. They're probably what a lo of people use

These are the alternatives I've been considering. If you know about other opensource keyboards to extend this list, pleas let me know

Pros/cons of each one of the keyboards I've used, based on my usage and preferences:

AFK

• + the copy/cut/paste tool that I could invoke by swiping up from the space bar
• + configurable input shortcuts
• + smaller extra top bar being (and configurable, not just with numbers)
• + the ability to backup your settings, shortcuts and dictionaries
• + plenty of themes
• - maybe the settings are a bit too overwhelming

OpenBoard

• + it's better at predicting words in my experience (maybe just placebo?)
• + "drag to delete" gesture on the delete key
• + configurable input shortcuts
• + "swipe to move the cursor" gesture on the spacebar
• - no select/copy/cut/paste tools

FlorisBoard

• + theme editor
• + select/copy/cut/paste tools (maybe hidden behind too many taps)
• + ability to show the numpad using the "dialer layout" instead of having all the numbers on the same row
• + "drag to delete" gesture on the delete key
• + "swipe to move the cursor" gesture on the spacebar
• + actively developed
• - no autocorrections (yet)

I know there are more privacy oriented companies in general, like Purism or System76, but I'm currently torn between Dell and Lenovo because they are the only two manufacturers that make good laptop/tablet hybrids (which I need for university) and whose devices are reasonably Linux friendly.

Of these, Lenovo is a Chinese company while Dell is an American company, both countries are pretty big on surveillance, but I legit don't know how much these factor into it if I install Linux, though manufacturer-provided Linux drivers and hardware backdoors are still concerns. There is also their histories, Levovo had that Superfish scandal while I wouldn't be surprised if Dell did something similar. Looking at the full pictures of these two companies, which do you think is better for privacy of I installed Linux on a laptop/tablet hybrid I bought from them?

My old phone's battery has given up the ghost. Can someone recommend a current generation smartphone, preferably Android, that strikes a good balance between usability and privacy? I'm also fine with an Android phone that's not that great with privacy out of the box, but has good support for third party ROMs like Lineage or Copperhead. Even better if the phone's chassis and battery can just unscrew so I can replace it myself.

I've looked into the Pinephone and other Linux-only phones, but I'd like to wait until the app ecosystem is more mature. At least with Android I can use the F-droid apps for privacy consciousness.

Lenovo is shipping laptops with Linux, which is a major win for the Linux community because it's a major tier-1 OEM, and I'm personally thinking of getting a Lenovo for my next laptop. But what are the privacy implications of this since Lenovo hasn't had that great of a privacy track record (superfish being a major stain), and being a Chinese company (not that American companies are any better, IMO). Assuming one wipes the default Linux installation and installs their own (though proprietary Lenovo drivers will probably still be required to take full advantage of the hardware), how well does that bode for user privacy and security compared to other OEMs offering full Linux compatibility, like Dell?

I do appreciate Lenovo laptops having a built-in webcam cover though. That really stood out to me when I was playing around with a Lenovo laptop in an electronics store.