c/privacy@lemmy.ml
Privacy
Does anyone know of a Tile alternatives?
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I have adhd and lose my keys and phone all the time. My old tile died, it’s been a life saver in terms of helping me find my things but I also know it’s an absolute trash company that sells my data. Looking for a better alternative, help!
DOT Hasn’t Brought An Airline Privacy Case In 40 Years - Lawmakers Demand Probe After Your Reservations Were Sold
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ARC’s Travel Intelligence Program allowed government agencies to search ticket transactions by passenger name, itinerary and payment identifiers. It covered 39 months of travel and could notify an agency when someone matching specified criteria bought a new ticket. They advertised more than one billion (and in some cases ‘billions’ of) searchable records of agency-purchased tickets which were made available to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service, Securities and Exchange Commission and components of Homeland Security without agencies first going to a court or serving an airline with legal process for a particular passenger.
Zuckmail — Zuckerberg's Internal Emails rendered as Facebook Messenger
Fingerprinting: The Hidden Trap on the Modern Web | MindDump
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I wrote a blog post about fingerprinting.
Retention.com Founder on 'Email Laundering'
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This service allows Shopify stores to get the visitor email without consent and start spamming them by adding them to the spam list without opt-in
The article is an interview to the CEO of such a privacy-raping service and it looks so proud of this monster
Apparently there are A LOT of stores stealing user data using this service, as he boasts wasting $800k on a vanity domain like if it was peanuts.
From another article it looks like the price of a stolen email is about $0.25 and the store must commit on paying at least $500/month.
Apparently contacting people using stolen credentials is leading to sales, I don’t understand. If I received a spam to my personal email from a store that I just visited BUT I didn’t filled with my info, I would get ultramad and would never ever do a purchase on that store
ALPR (Flock etc) & TPMS thoughts
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Flock, and other ALPR companies like Axon, Motorola, and Verkada have been adding capabilities to gather signals from airpods, smart watches, fitness trackers, even toll lane passes.
There were allegations too about TPMS. That is harder, b/c TPMS do not xmit actively. The power comes only from reflecting a received RF, so it is weak. But it may not be impossible. The car itself gets the signals like that, tho shorter range. There may be a larger antenna on the roadside than your car uses, to capture weaker signals. Unclear if it’s possible. But unclear it isn’t!
TPMS started in 1980s. It didn’t get real widespread until 2000s. But even “older” cars, safe from online telematics, still may have TPMS. If there is any way for Flock and the rest to use it as a fingerprint, they will. TPMS has a unique ID.
So I started looking. Can TPMS be removed at home? Answer is, kinda. It’s a little hard without special tire equipment, and it may fuck up the tire balance. A shop can do it, but IDK if they are legally allowed to.
But would that do anything for you? TBH I doubt it helps much. The ALPRs use so many techniques. Plates, ofc. Also scratches. Dents. Bumper stickers. Trailer hitches. Ski racks. Window stickers and passes. Any distinguishing aspect of the vehicle. There are even rumors they can use FR on the driver, but IDK if that has been substantiated. So TPMS delete maybe not worth the squeeze.
Even avoiding ALL emissions, portable devices and TPMS, the ALPR can still ID you in enough other ways. Optical side harder to defeat than radio side.
Once, we could drive without private companies recording everywhere we go. We could even travel from state to state. No papers.
Streaming from restaurants (shitpost minirant)
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Couple days ago. Hanging out with a few friends, burgers and beers at a sit down place. Not high end, but not McDs either. Normal place.
I notice a girl one table over is clearly doing a whole ass livestream or sth. Not just a quick selfie. Clearly streaming. Wagging her phone all around, for like 10+ minutes.
My friends didn’t even notice. I’m mad tho, b/c I don’t wanna be on whatever shit some influencer is gonna u/l the stream to. Prob youtube or her IG or w/e.
But nothing I can do. Getting up to ask her to cut it TF out would only have made it worse. That just makes me content fodder!
That is all. Thank you for coming to my rant, and I hope you are all having a good day.
DNS: The Phonebook of the Internet
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I wrote an article by simply explaining DNS.
New car suggestions
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I am planing to buy a new car. Which of these are better relatively speaking in terms of privacy, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, or Audi? I can’t buy old used cars. I have to buy a new car. I like new safety features but I don’t want privacy invasive features, or subscription services.
Meta made settlement for 18BL
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Divided for 52 states this amount. What do you think if Meta’s conditions to pay remaining 2BL if remember right only if Ticktok and youtu.be does same ?
what am i doing wrong? i feel like i have no privacy or connivence
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(this is my first post im new) ive noticed something no one seems to have a problem with. do you have this problem to? am i just doing something wrong?
i use a privacy friendly browser plus a privacy friendly os and use fingerprint spoofer/blocker. i watch videos on invidious. i noticed that the “popular” tab shows videos related to videos i watched before. even if i clear my cookies, or change my idenity in (offiscial) tor browser i still get recommended related videos meaning no matter what i do google knows what i watch. whats worse, if i go on invidious on a totally different device with a normal broswer normal os, i get the same videos. meaning websites know what videos i watch across multiple sessions but also multiple devices. im sick of this. it feels like i’ve tried everything, sacrificed so much connivence but no results.
(this isn’t a question spefecifically about youtube google or invindious just how to get webisites to stop knowing everything i do across multiple identities and every device i use)
Things I tried
*Proton vpn+librewolf(max security according to settings)+nosircpt+Ublock(with the filters it comes with)+ officisal recommended invidious instances+Quad9 via settings
*Tails+Tor browser(max security settings apprentaly)+default bridge+no javascirpt+fingerprint spoofing estendsion+bluetooth disabled by tails+all the previous mentioned (exculding vpn i heard its risky)+invidious again (Tails doesn’t work well for me the police are not after me and it takes so long to start and presisent stoarage is annoying)
*Qubes+Whonix vm+Tor browser(max again)+no javascript (I love and hate qubes from my first impression it meets my security needs and you can run any os in a vm on it but i wish it just worked. theres a steep learning curve and my hardware isn’t the best for it)
No results on any of these just slower internet and some websites are broken. Its just like using a normal browser that tracks you but slow as a privacy one. im getting tired of this. i use all this super deep level paranoid overkill stufff and nothing happens. like im burning my house to get rid of a spider but the spider is still there
possible causes
-google wireless access point (does qubes/whonix/tor NOT protect against this at all??) (also my family HATES any changes or mild inconveniences)
-i logged in to google without a vpn **ONCE **does this automatically doom you forever **even ** if you change os and browser and device?
-hardware is framework laptop
for clairtiy
I am not -a criminal -a journalist -a gooner -willing to go off grid in the woods I am -creeped out -tired -about to give up
My privacy goals
-be able to actually cut ties with my shadow profile and have websites not know everything ive done in my life -control what data brokers and compaines knsw -not have any website at all know every device i use -be able to use any network safely
I feel like giving up on privacy because nothing seems to work. the only results I get is slower more broken internet
I dream of becoming an actor, but I don't know how...
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Hi everyone! Honestly, I’m on For the first time here for the first time today, and honestly, I’m a little nervous and worried. I really want to ask someone for advice, since none of my close friends support me, and I’m probably in a strange position. Anyway, I won’t beat around the bush; I just want some advice. I’m afraid someone I know will see this post, so I’ll just go by N. I’m a boy, 16 years old, and I’ve dreamed of becoming an actor since childhood. I’ve always wanted to give people emotions and experience them myself, but unfortunately, I don’t even know what to do yet. When I talked about it as a kid, people didn’t take me seriously, and even when I got older, they didn’t want to take me seriously either. Now, though I’m not exactly an adult, I’ve got a head on my shoulders, and I still haven’t let go of my desire to become an actor. I tried talking to my parents, but in most conversations, all I heard was, “It’s a very risky profession, I’ll be against you being an actor,” “Drama classes are too expensive, we can’t afford them,” “It’s just youth, it’ll pass,” “Don’t worry about it, you’re the breadwinner, you’ll have to raise your family, and if it doesn’t work out, what will you do?” But this is my dream; I’ve always wanted to achieve something in life and be remembered by people, to bring joy and smiles to them, to experience the events of films and the audiences who watch them. I’m afraid it’s too late for me; I’m afraid I won’t be able to cope. I wanted to consult with my friends, but they just laughed and said, “Who wouldn’t want that?” I live in a small town in Russia and understand that my chances of making it here are even slimmer. I want to spread joy not only in our country but around the world, and given that I don’t come from a wealthy family, those chances are dwindling. I really want to work hard and take it very seriously, but I don’t even know where to start, what I need, or how to make it happen. Maybe I should listen to others? Could you please tell me what I can do in my situation? If you have any questions, please ask; I’ll try to answer them all. Thank you so much to everyone who read this post and to those who offered any advice. I’m really worried, but I’d be glad if you could offer any advice.
uBlock Origin: Any useful list of "ubiquitous sites" for dynamic rules?
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cross-posted from: lemmy.ca/post/69994726
The “enhanced Easy mode” of uBlock Origin consists of the “Easy mode” together with blocking all 3rd-party iframes, and blocking a list of 3rd-party resources from “ubiquitous sites”.
The docs above give the example of Facebook, with these dynamic rules:
* facebook.net * block * facebook.com * block * fbcdn.net * block facebook.com facebook.com * noop facebook.com facebook.net * noop facebook.com fbcdn.net * noopand also mention “Twitter, Google, Disqus, etc.”.
I have two questions about this; can anyone here kindly help me?:
Is there a list of URLs for other “ubiquitous sites”? Any that you suggest?
Are any of these already blocked by the static rules? For example, I’d think of blocking google-analytics with
* google-analytics.com * blockbut I wonder if this is redundant; I suspect such block already takes place in one of the default blocklists. Or?
best google like ecosystem?
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i posted this on reddit before but i wanted to get your opinion on this
i use my familys google drive/photo thing (i cant really change) and i obviously want us to switch, but my mom (who take care of this whole thing) says that she likes the ecosystem that google has. Like she uses her calendar and stuff. The closest ive found is proton, which is fine, but it doesnt really have the best rep. Any alternatives?
BTW: im not gonna self-host since im not comfortable hosting such a big thing like this
I didn't set a cookie.
kuber.studioThe Dark Web is a PSYOP.
Android phone full backup
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I think I asked before but never got a solid answer. I have a s23, I disable all google and Samsung services I can etc, but I am still stuck with stock android. I plan to move to a better phone in the next year.
However I need a solution for a full phone backup. Not even a sync right now, just plug in and backup all my apps notes and photos (photos are backed up already but I don’t care about doubling up for now.
The reason being I dont want to lose or have my phone stolen and have no backup. I do have FMD installed but still.
This is one big downside of not being fully self hosted yet but refusing to use google products… No instant sync to a new phone if mine is lost.
Effective Web Tracking Methods in 2026: Explained
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I wrote a blog about Effective Web Tracking Methods that are still widely used in 2026.
Trouble with Bluetooth "Fast Pair"
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“Fast Pair” equals fast insecurity
Audio headsets that connect to computers wirelessly via Bluetooth demonstrate how quickly this loss of control turns into a security problem. Millions of Bluetooth-capable products utilize Google’s “Fast Pair” service, which is nonfree software that promises to make pairing of wearable devices easier. It uses Bluetooth Low Energy and Android’s location services to detect nearby Bluetooth devices automatically and prompts you to pair. Security researchers discovered this feature was really a bug, as it introduced a serious weakness across a wide range of devices. More…
'Darth Vader' Wants Flock in San Diego
Just be honest
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The OpenSauce privacy statement is a work of art.
Uruky is a pretty great search engine
Launching an EU Citizens' Initiative (ECI) for Device Neutrality & Open Attestation ("My Device, My OS")
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Hi everyone,
Between Google Play Integrity API lockdowns, Apple App Attest, and upcoming eID/age-verification mandates, alternative and privacy-focused operating systems (like GrapheneOS, LineageOS, and Linux on mobile) are being systematically locked out of banking, public portals, and everyday apps.
Rather than watching vendor lock-in get worse, I am organizing a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) working title: “My Device, My OS” to push binding EU legislation for Device Neutrality and Open Attestation.
What we aim to achieve:
- Mandate Open Attestation Standards: Require services operating in the EU to support open, vendor-neutral hardware attestation rather than relying exclusively on proprietary gatekeeper APIs (Google/Apple).
- Ban Device/OS Discrimination: Prevent public services, digital ID wallets, and essential commercial apps from arbitrarily blocking users solely for running independent or de-Googled operating systems.
- Protect Hardware Sovereignty: Enshrine the legal right of consumers to install and run the operating system of their choice without losing access to the digital single market.
Join the Matrix room to discuss, collaborate on the draft, and coordinate next steps:
👉 #my-device-my-os:pollorebozado.com
Feedback, technical insights, and EU organizers are all welcome!
We De-FLOCK HALLOWEEN NIGHT!
flock and AI making flock even worse
m.slashdot.orgQuestion: searching and browser randomly injecting Cloudflare etc. "checks"
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Has this occurred to y’all? My browser as of lately suddenly checks. Even if I just search on “remove trackers” and a lot of normal links, I get the note “we nEed to VEriFY yOURE not a ROBOT”… it feels like Cloudflare et al are trying to force man in the middle attacks on you. And this also occurs on other browsers with other kinds of ““verifiers””.
The web’s becoming cancerous. I hate this.
Companies are now using your credit history, past-due accounts, browsing data, and social media accounts to figure out the absolute lowest salary you'll accept. Algorithmic wage suppression is being…
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cross-posted from: lemmy.today/post/58413259
Full title: Companies are now using your credit history, past-due accounts, browsing data, and social media accounts to figure out the absolute lowest salary you’ll accept. Algorithmic wage suppression is being weaponized against workers to destroy wages.
Cars are surveillance devices. Here's the proof.
www.youtube.comJob offer at digital forensics company - am I overreacting?
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Hi everyone,
I recently got offered a job (or not quite yet, but in the process) for a European digital forensics and e-discovery company. The position sounds really fun and exciting and really what I am looking for, but I don’t know if I can reconcile it with my privacy concerns and my moral concerns that we are turning further and further into a surveillance state.
Here are some of the products and companies they are using / working with:
www.milestonesys.com/products/software/briefcam/
And many more similar tools. Do you think I am overreacting? Would you ever consider working for a company like that? It almost feels like a European version of Palantir. When remarking my concerns in the interview, the interviewer was very surprised about that question (which in turn really surprised me…). The “justification” he gave me, to reassure me, did not do a good job either:
- 95% of their customers are state actors, i.e. national police departmenty. As I said, it’s not the US, so my image of our police is not quite as bad, but still it’s not like I view government agencies , justice system, or the police as the “ultimate good guys” that I trust with everything.
- “Things like unlocking and searching through some evidence like a phone is not surveillance, since it is not live” - maybe I misunderstood something there because to me that argument makes zero sense
I’m a little torn, because I believe that digital forensics is obviously a very important tool for solving crimes and is clearly already part of reality. But building such powerful tools with access to so many sources of data requires an amount of trust that I currently cannot say I have into any entity really. And that’s ignoring all the AI that all these tools use internally too.
Sorry for the rant, I am just curious what this community thinks about this industry? Even though I can already guess 😉 I’m just having a hard time rejecting a potentially really good job offer.
Google account & Social account needed to join
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Jaws dropped when I saw this.
This website requires both:
- a Google or Apple account
- a social media account
Just to take a free test. (On the site, scroll way down, click Apply)
The vast majority of people in my country may have a Google account (because of Android), but many don’t have a social media account. I’m one of them - I do not even have Google at all because I’ve been deGoogling for years.
I have an email address and GitHub for code writing, but no social media. SNS just isn’t for me - I’m definitely not wasting my time on doomscrolling.
Seeing a site that requires Google is heartbreaking, and I’m sure other minorities who care about their privacy will simply give up on participating.
Private Intelligence Firms Are Selling Dossiers on AI and Data Center Critics
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prospect.org Private Intelligence Firms Are Selling Dossiers on AI and Data Center Critics - The American Prospect Daniel Boguslaw 7 - 9 minutes
Private intelligence firms are selling dossiers about critics of artificial intelligence and the data centers powering them, including trying to peddle them to federal regulators, according to documents obtained by the Prospect. The offerings show that even as voter hostility toward data centers has emerged as an election-altering, bipartisan issue, corporate spy shops are hawking reports that frame widespread dissent in the language of counterterrorism to both private- and public-sector clients.
The drivers of negative sentiment toward data centers and AI include environmental concerns, fears of job loss, and increased utility prices near the sprawling compounds housing server farms and processing facilities. More broadly, people across the ideological spectrum don’t appreciate Big Tech interests dictating their local economic development. Hundreds of grassroots organizations have emerged across the country, seeking to curb data center construction and limit the negative effects of AI.
More from Daniel Boguslaw
But the threat products and reports obtained by the Prospect are less concerned with altering the root cause of this dissent, and more focused on the threat posed by an enraged American populace to corporations’ bottom line.
In a product offering from the corporate intelligence company RANE Network sent to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the corporate firm offered the federal agency—which regulates the interstate transmission and sale of electricity, gas, and oil—a tailored report on the threat posed by anti-tech sentiment.
“RANE can provide an assessment covering rising anti-technology sector sentiment among both the public and governments around the world, identifying specific implications for your organization,” the offering reads. Topics that RANE promises to cover include:
What has brought about an increase in anti-technology sector sentiment? What role do misinformation and conspiracy theories play in shaping hostility toward the tech sector? What risks does anti-technology sector sentiment pose to critical supply chains? What are the potential implications of geopolitical tensions on the operations of technology companies? How might increasing regulatory scrutiny impact the operations of major tech firms? What actions can technology companies take to mitigate risks from anti-technology sentiment?
That email was sent in March 2025. This May, RANE offered a webinar on the coming anti-tech backlash. In the hour-long presentation reviewed by the Prospect, RANE cyber and intelligence analysts described the threat posed to technology companies by rising animosity toward Silicon Valley. RANE Network did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
“There’s backlash on a lot of fronts and there are a lot of actors converging on this. So we’ve seen protests from creatives who are worried about AI taking over their copyrighted works,” one analyst told the audience. “There’s also environmental protests. Labor unions are protesting. We’ve seen protests from employees who may have been laid off or are worried about potential layoffs.”
The analysts also warned about protesters concerned about civil liberties and human rights violations arising from AI, and “protests about the impacts on mental health and just general anti-tech or neo-Luddite sentiment that is really driving this activity.”
In 2020, RANE acquired the geopolitical intelligence firm Stratfor. Nine years prior, in 2011, Stratfor was breached by Anonymous, a hacker collective that published millions of internal emails on WikiLeaks. The internal communications detailed the company’s work monitoring the critics of major conglomerates, including Dow Chemical and Coca-Cola.
The specter of hacktivism continues to haunt RANE analysts. “Anti-establishment” and “anti-capitalist groups” alongside Anonymous were referenced during the presentation before a warning that “anti-tech and environmental protest … groups also have a history of some of them going beyond just protest movements to also include, you know, violent extremism,” an analyst said.
In addition to describing the general patterns of concerning groups, presenters also discussed surveilling “online chatter.” The analysts discussed how movements emerge from online spaces, and warned that things can spiral out of control quickly, which is all the more reason to surveil those spaces.
The push to surveil and monitor techno-skeptics comes at the same time that federal agencies have begun circulating their own surveillance memorandums of a new domestic extremist category: “anti-tech extremism.” As Wired reported in May, this new threat category is being used by the FBI and DHS to target constitutionally protected speech and assembly, regardless of whether or not participants have committed, or intend to commit, a crime. In leaked State Department documents obtained by journalist Ken Klippenstein, Secretary of State Marco Rubio informed employees that the agency was monitoring a new alliance of “militant anti-tech and eco-terrorist movements.”
Kroll, the world’s largest investigation and corporate intelligence firm, has also begun selling “risk intelligence” on “public controversy, labor tensions, executive visibility, activism, geopolitical pressure” and “reputational events” to data center operators, according to a June article posted on the firm’s website. Those interested in Kroll’s investigative and monitoring services are encouraged to reach out to its enterprise security risk management team.
Meanwhile, the online surveillance company Liferaft—a subsidiary of the world’s second-largest security firm, Securitas—published a report on July 31 summarizing months of online surveillance of alleged “Threats to AI Infrastructure and Executives.” In the report, Liferaft scanned and analyzed thousands of social media and online forum posts referencing “anger at AI executives,” “opposition to new data centers,” and “grievance over the resources these facilities consume.”
Liferaft’s monitoring tracks the ebb and flow of hostility toward AI companies and executives over the course of several months, but also explicitly warns of a shift in so-called organizational intent, “from personal frustration to coordinated rhetoric … [that] is something threat intelligence professionals pay close attention to, because it tracks with how movements organize.”
The same month Liferaft published its report, hundreds gathered in San Francisco’s downtown to protest AI companies and the existential risks they pose. Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and OpenAI offices were all visited by protesters, including the AI theorist and spiritual leader of the AI-skeptic movement Eliezer Yudkowsky, whose book title “If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies” has become a rallying cry for critics of sentient AI. The constitutionally protected protest fits neatly in all three firms’ criteria as a surveillance target.
I tried Vivaldi on Linux just to find out that it’s not for me.
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cross-posted from: lemmy.ca/post/69330953
Hi guys, actually I was a hardcore Firefox and Brave browser user. Which means I have already used some powerful browsers available today.
Some days ago I posted a negative review about the Vivaldi browser, and another person commented that Vivaldi is not just a Chrome fork but more than that. So I thought, am I misunderstood about Vivaldi? Is Vivaldi really awesome and equivalent to Firefox and Brave? So I installed it and tried.
I am in Debian. In the native Debian repo there is no Vivaldi, but it’s downloadable from the official website as a .deb package. When we install the .deb package, it automatically adds the repo to the Debian repo list, so automatic updates are possible.
When I opened Vivaldi, it welcomed me with a welcome screen, and I needed to click around 6-7 times on the next button to land on the start page. I expected a minimal browser, and that’s ok; maybe it’s a part of customization. Then on the homepage there are some built-in bookmarks/speed dials. Maybe those are Vivaldi sponsors and partners. Vivaldi has to make some money to maintain the browser, right?.
The default search engine is startpage, which is very good. Btw, Firefox still has Google as default, which I really hate. There are lots and lots of options to customize the browser and make it ours, including sync to make the settings synced across platforms where we use the Vivaldi browser.
But the sync doesn’t seem to sync all settings, only some of them, also in extensions. Some extension settings, like SponsorBlock and dislike returns, are synced, but some other extensions, like AI Block for YouTube and Reddit Enhancer, have not synced across browsers.
I really want to talk about the adblocker on Vivaldi. Yeah, Vivaldi has an adblock and tracker blocker shield by default (turned off), but this is much less efficient at eliminating ads and cosmetic filtering on web pages. Somewhat in some popular news sites other than YouTube and Reddit, I still see ads and promotions. Also, the tracker blocking test online never gave me a 100% just with Vivaldi’s built-in blocker.
In such cases many extensions and filter lists come to help us make our web browsing more secure and faster. But recently installing and managing extensions on Vivaldi has become too hard. It’s also impossible to sideload extensions into Vivaldi by dragging and dropping CRX files. Also, when we are in the web store, there is always an annoying popup that says “Switch to Chrome.” Inside the setting, I turned on the brand browser as Chrome inside Vivaldi, so why is the pop-up still there? So finally, we have to download the zip file of an extension and extract it. Then, by enabling developer mode in vivaldi://extensions, we have to load it unpacked. But still, this won’t work effectively at all. I know it’s not intentionally done by Vivaldi, but Google’s stupid changes cause this.
Recently Google completely wiped MV3 from all Chromium-based browsers except ungoogled Chromium, Brave, Helium, etc., but Vivaldi is an independent company, right? Why does Vivaldi have to follow Google’s strict tricks to make advertising online more effective? Why shouldn’t Vivaldi make its own ad blocker more powerful, or instead of building it themselves, why don’t they consider making uBlock or AdGuard compatible with their browser? Finally, I figured out a way to sideload uBlock, but still it’s not working as amazingly as before.
So many will tell me to just use uBlock Lite, but even though uBlock Lite now has custom filter list options, adding 3 filter lists externally makes that extension crash only in Vivaldi. Then we reopen the extensions setting to see there is no filter list shown, not even the default one. Until we reset the extension settings completely, which removes the custom list we added.
Also in KDE (Wayland), the browser is working almost perfectly, but in GNOME I am unable to drag and reorder installed extensions on the toolbar by pressing and holding Ctrl. I figured out that GNOME has worse drag-and-drop support. But still, this works on every other browser like Brave, ungoogled-chromium, Helium, and Firefox, but why not on Vivaldi? Opening a support post on their forum didn’t even give a clear answer.
Finally, Vivaldi is a very good browser for productivity, customization, and more unnecessary control most people don’t need. But what about privacy? Do even they have anything in that browser to say the word “privacy” except an insufficient ad/tracker blocker? I wish Vivaldi and its developers would deeply look into its possible privacy protections on the modern web and ad/tracker-blocking capabilities.
Thank you.
Thanks For Joining the Movement: French Constitutional Council Strikes Down Kids’ Social Media Ban - Michael Geist
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French President Emmanuel Macron has been the global leader in promoting a ban on social media for kids, consistently welcoming countries that propose such measures with a “thanks for joining the movement” tweet. That includes Canada, which received its congratulatory tweet after a ban was included in Bill C-34. As I argued last month, however, I believe the Canadian ban is vulnerable to constitutional challenge on at least two fronts: freedom of expression, since blocking an entire cohort of Canadians from accessing information and expressing themselves on social media infringes Section 2(b) of the Charter, and privacy, since enforcing the ban will require millions of Canadians to verify their age to use social media services with the promised safeguards nowhere in place when the ban takes effect. Last week, France became the first major jurisdiction to have such a ban reviewed by its highest constitutional court, and it proceeded to strike down the law on substantially the same two constitutional concerns.
The French Parliament adopted a social media ban for kids under 15 on July 21st, with the law scheduled to take effect in September. But France’s system of constitutional review led the ban to be reviewed by the constitutional court, resulting in it being assessed and rejected before ever taking effect. Macron responded to the ruling by instructing Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu to rework the legislation to address the court’s concerns, with the government now targeting spring 2027 for a revised law.
Is Apple beginning a privacy reset?
www.computerworld.comUS government extensively spied on anti-ICE protesters and leftwing groups, records reveal
www.theguardian.comWhy is no one using Quad9 instead of Cloudfare?
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Seems a little odd that the fediverse uses Cloudfare.
Camover Portland: Summer Games 2026!
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Camover is a simple game with a simple objective: destroy, disable, and dismantle as many cameras as possible! You play against the surveillance state, an-ever growing enemy that watches all and never sleeps. You play for freedom, for a life without restriction, a city without spy-tech, and a future of possibility!!!
Camover began in 2013 when some anarchists in Berlin decided to take out CCTV cameras ahead of the European Police Congress. They posted their exploits online and encouraged others to play too. Since then, Camover has spread across oceans and continents, with spirited games popping up in Philly, New Jersey, Montreal, and the Bay. Now Camover comes to Portland for Summer 2026!
The Gemini Protocol in 2026: growing, but still not setting the Internet aflame
kevinboone.mepreview
With surveillance capitalism reaching it’s peak in 2026/2027, is getting out the Web the only way for the privacy inclined user?
Will Gemini (or cousins) go the way of Linux? Or is it foverer condemned to go the way of Hurd
3 former Georgia sheriff’s deputies have been arrested on charges that they used Flock cameras to stalk people
www.nytimes.comAlternatives to WordPress that work through TOR/TAILS?
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I want to start writing articles about political issues in my country. I would prefer not getting fired from my day job or going to prison because of it, so I will be writing under a pseudonym.
Are there any alternatives to WordPress that play nice with TOR/TAILS? WordPress is difficult to use with its complicated block editor.
I need something that is easy for a non-technical person like me. And also free, since any payment can be tied back to my identity.
is smart launcher 6 privacy friendly?
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smart launcher 6 looks really cool but im not sure if it collects and sells my data or not
Is this the death of FreeTube?
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Videos looping infinitely in SABR requests and becoming unwatchable.
Comments unavailable to read because of “TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading ‘endpoint’)”.
These have been a problem for like at least 2 weeks now. Before there were like 3 refreshes due to SABR and you could open up comments by spamming the button despite the error.
Now however, it’s completely unusable.
Is this the death of FreeTube? I’ve really loved this software and would hate to have to permanently return to the website with all that tracking bullshit and no offline subscriptions :(
edit: An update was released, it is now possible to watch videos but the comment section is still broken.
Flock Cameras Can Track Every Car in America. Police Love Them. Citizens Don’t.
www.nytimes.comSurveillance vs guillotines
doctorow.medium.compreview
Over the past decade, the steady march of digital technology, dominated by a cartel of giant global firms who collude with the US government’s system of political repression in exchange for tax breaks, antitrust forbearance and fat federal contracts has yielded more mass surveillance productivity gains than the previous 25 years.
Competendo - Digital Toolbox - Apps and Tools
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I have found this website today, that is supported by the Erasmus+ programme of the EU. The linked sub section is about apps and tools that fall under these criteria:
- Open Source
- Non-Profit
- High privacy level, no monetisation of user data
It might not be a complete list but maybe someone finds it useful complementary to Privacy Guides and the like.
Maybe the rest of the website is also of use to some. It’s called “The Digital Citizenship Education Toolbox. Free & open educational materials on democracy, digitalisation & non-formal education.”
Encryption help
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So like a doofus, ive never really done encryption on any of my PCs/drives. With the way stuff is going, now I want all of it encrypted. The issue is I have so much data from over the years and everything ive read says it deletes everything when you encrypt.
For me it would mostly be my desktop and my nas.
Is it really a matter of, I’m gonna have to buy a whole bunch more HDDs to copy everything over to, encrypt, copy it all back? What’s the best (Linux) software for a mass copy task like that to be sure it works correctly?
Is Craigslist purposefully being attacked?
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Consider that Meta’s Marketplace is the largest competitor. Immediately after they launched, they quickly capitalized on their Identity Verification natural monopoly on online social networking. This was ‘pivoted’ into “Identity Verification Assurance” for your average Playstore and iPhone users.
Marketplace wasn’t even easier to use than Craigslist, 99% of the arguments for using it were “it’s safer because it’s less scams”.
I wouldn’t put it beneath Zuck and his bootlickers to pay a few bitcoins to maintain an artifically inflated number of scams on Craigslist.
It reinforces the mistaken belief that scams are driven by anonymity (instead of the truth that you can have all their data and the justice department will look the other way… that’s why they keep doing it until they scam Grant Hudson of McLean, VA).
Anyway, the faster CL dies the sooner Meta consolidates a monopoly on electronic flea marketing or whatever it’s called.
Paperweight v0.5: Map your digital footprint, with pii analysis, and GDPR tracking
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A few months ago I shared Paperweight here. An open-source desktop app that scans your inbox to map out your digital footprint.
Every account you create, every service you sign up for, every online purchase is connected to your email address. Most people have 100+ accounts they’ve forgotten about, creating security risks and privacy exposure.
Local-first. Your inbox is scanned on your own device, your data never leaves it, and there is no account or cloud component.
Since last time, a lot has changed:
- New pii analysis engine to check addresses, phones, IBANs, national IDs, cards, and more
- Improved multi-language lexicons for better classification
- Track GDPR data requests you send fromPaperweight
- Improved sync, receiver, hide-my-email aliases, and message tagging
- Fully verified builds for Apple, Windows and Gmail OAuth connections
- Several minor improvements and bug fixes
Links
- Github github.com/wslyvh/paperweight
- Website www.paperweight.email
August 16-22 is the National Week of Action Against Automated License Plate Readers
noalprs.compreview
The National Week of Action Against Automated License Plate Readers is an opportunity for all of us who oppose surveillance to stand up together and say no! DeFlock has received an overwhelming response to the call for a Week of Action as thousands of people, from coast to coast and across the political spectrum, have already registered.
